Mobile Home Title Transfer: Step by Step

Texas uses its housing agency's Manufactured Housing Division. California uses Housing and Community Development's Registration and Titling Program. Michigan uses Department of State, Secretary of State branch offices. Start with that office rather than a generic vehicle form.

Arizona uses the Department of Transportation's Motor Vehicle Division. Colorado handles titles through county clerks and recorders under its Department of Revenue's DMV. North Carolina uses its Department of Transportation's DMV, and South Carolina uses SCDMV. Your state page names the ownership paper and lists the transfer steps.

Georgia's Department of Revenue handles titles through county tag offices. Alabama's Department of Revenue works through agents it designates to prepare title applications. Tennessee's Department of Revenue, Vehicle Services, works through county clerks. These offices do not all ask for the same supporting documents, even when the home is sold without land.

Arizona issues separate section titles unless the home is legally made part of real property. Georgia can require separate applications for sections with separate ownership papers or serial numbers. It also allows a single title when the manufacturer's origin paper identifies the sections together. Check the record instead of assuming a double-wide has one title.

An old loan can still leave a lien on the record. Georgia's age-based rule for clearing certain title liens does not cover mobile-home liens. Get the required release and keep it with the transfer papers. Even an old mobile-home lien needs the required release.

In California, a recorded legal owner has priority over the registered owner when asking for a replacement title. Georgia requires the prior owner to get a replacement if the title is lost before transfer, then repeat the reassignment with the buyer. Michigan lets the named owner request a duplicate online or at a branch.

A bonded-title process uses a surety bond to protect ownership claims when records are incomplete or hidden liens exist. Arizona includes mobile homes in that process. Tennessee has a bond route, but excludes homes legally attached to land with a recorded affidavit. Check with the titling agency, your park office or a tax professional about the right process.

Texas requires personal-property tax evidence for an ordinary used-home ownership change. Colorado requires Authentication of Paid Ad Valorem Taxes for a used titled-home transfer. These documents belong with the ownership filing, rather than only with a move.

California requires a county Tax Clearance Certificate for a sale if the home's decal starts with L. An A decal needs different sale papers. Arizona requires Property Tax Clearance for covered sales, transfers and transport, with exceptions. Read your state page to see which documents go with your transaction.

North Carolina's tax permit applies to covered moves, with exceptions. South Carolina requires county moving-permit tax evidence before relocation. Alabama requires payment evidence for its county move permit. Georgia requires proof of paid outstanding taxes before a purchaser gets a location permit. Put the documents that fit your sale or move on your checklist.

Affixture records document making the home part of real property. Permanent-location papers can also show a completed conversion. A later home-only sale can require extra steps, so check those records before using the separate-title process.

Colorado uses deed transfers after its permanent-location process. In Arizona, an affixed home transfers by recorded deed when sold with the land. Selling the home separately or moving it requires undoing affixture and getting a new title. Michigan requires a new title before detachment and a recorded document showing the home was detached.

A home and land sold together take the real estate route, usually through a title company, closing attorney or real estate agent. We do not forward home-and-land sale requests. South Carolina separates real-property tax classification from title retirement. Tennessee can tax a home as a real-property improvement even on a rented lot. Check title status separately from tax treatment.

Read the bill-of-sale guide for the sale record and your state page for the ownership filing. Park approval does not complete the title transfer. A transferred title does not give the buyer the right to take over the lot. Get the ownership papers and park arrangements settled before handover.

Use the value calculator for a rough home-only resale range while gathering your papers. The request form sends a sale without land to a buyer in our network who buys in your area and contacts you. You get the buyer's name first. You can turn down any offer or agree on terms directly with the buyer.