Mobile home park loans, compared

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: the cheapest debt, with the most gates

Both agencies buy loans on stabilized, professionally managed parks, non-recourse, with up to 30-year amortization. The difference is where their gates sit. Fannie Mae's minimum is 50 sites and a Level 3 quality rating or better; Freddie Mac's is 5 pads, but it adds a sponsor test: the key principal needs at least two years running parks and has to own another one. Freddie caps homes owned by you, your affiliates and outside investors at 25% of the homes in the park. Fannie lets tenant-occupied homes reach 35% if you show a plan to sell them down.

Both require occupancy of about 85%. Freddie Mac's Guide says at least 85% of home sites for the three months before closing. Fannie Mae's MHC chapter doesn't set its own number, so its Guide-wide floor applies: 85% physical and 70% economic occupancy on the commitment date and for the three months before.

Both also make you adopt tenant site lease protections, including 60 days' notice before a sale or closure. That's a real cost of agency money and it's covered in the tenant protections guide. The side-by-side on everything else: Fannie Mae vs Freddie Mac MHC loans.

HUD 223(f): only for resident, nonprofit and public owners

HUD's MAP Guide used to exclude manufactured home parks from Section 223(f). Mortgagee Letter 2024-11 (June 4, 2024) opened it, but only to states, local governments, resident-owned communities, cooperatives, nonprofits, CDFIs, Indian Tribes and other entities HUD approves. For those borrowers it's generous: 90% loan-to-value, 1.11x coverage, a fully amortizing loan. Cash out isn't allowed, the park has to prohibit RVs and seasonal use, and it can't give residents an option to buy their pads. FHA multifamily mortgage insurance runs 0.25% upfront and 0.25% a year for applications from October 1, 2025. More in the HUD 223(f) MHC guide.

Banks and credit unions: where small and unstabilized parks go

A 30-pad park, a park at 70% occupancy, or one where you own half the homes won't pass the agency gates. Local and regional banks and credit unions lend on these from their own balance sheets, on terms they set themselves, and nobody publishes them. The one public number is a ceiling on the bank's own policy: the federal interagency real estate lending guidelines set a supervisory limit of 85% loan-to-value on improved property, and banks can make exceptions. Ask about the term, whether you sign a personal guaranty, and when the rate resets. Get the terms in writing and put them into the sizer.

CMBS conduit loans

A conduit lender makes the loan, pools it with others and sells it as commercial mortgage-backed securities. Federal risk-retention rules make the sponsor hold at least 5% of the credit risk, and after closing a master servicer and, if the loan gets into trouble, a special servicer deal with you. That matters later: a request to pay off early, add a second lien or sell the park goes through a servicer bound by the pooling documents. No primary source publishes conduit terms for parks.

Seller financing

A seller note is a loan from the owner who is selling you the park. It can be the whole loan or a second behind a bank. Before you sign one, read the seller financing guide: whether your first-mortgage lender allows the second lien decides most of the structure.

SBA: not available, whatever you've read

SBA's rules exclude mobile home parks from 7(a) and 504 by name. Pages that say otherwise are usually confusing parks with RV parks and campgrounds, which can qualify when most of their revenue comes from guests staying 30 days or less. The SBA guide quotes the rule.

Sources

• Fannie Mae Multifamily Term Sheet: Manufactured Housing Communities, (c) 2026; read from the Internet Archive copy of 2026-04-21
• Fannie Mae Multifamily Selling and Servicing Guide, Part III, Ch. 6 (Sections 603.01B, 603.01C, 603.05), Guide effective 2026-09-28
• Fannie Mae Multifamily Guide, Part II, Ch. 1, Section 107.01 (occupancy), Guide effective 2026-09-28
• Freddie Mac Optigo Manufactured Housing Community Loan term sheet, footer 4/26 (April 2026)
• Freddie Mac Multifamily Seller/Servicer Guide, Chapter 22, Guide Bulletin Update 04/22/25
• HUD Mortgagee Letter 2024-11, Utilizing Section 223(f) for Manufactured Home Community Program, 2024-06-04
• HUD MAP Guide 4430.G (Revision March 19, 2021), Section 3.7.3 and Ch. 3 amortization rules, 2021-03-19
• Changes in Mortgage Insurance Premiums Applicable to FHA Multifamily Insurance Programs, 90 FR 45789, 2025-09-23 (applications on or after 2025-10-01)
• SBA SOP 50 10 8.1, Section A, Ch. 1, Types of Ineligible Businesses, Passive Businesses, effective 2026-10-01
• 13 CFR 120.110(c), eCFR current to 2026-10-22
• 12 CFR part 34, subpart D, appendix A: Interagency Guidelines for Real Estate Lending Policies, eCFR current to 2026-10-22
• 17 CFR 246.7, risk retention for commercial mortgage-backed securities, eCFR current to 2026-10-22