Straight answers

The five most-asked questions

1. 01

   I have a bonded title (or no title at all) — can I still sell?

   Usually yes, but understand what Kentucky actually offers. Kentucky does not run a general bonded-title program the way Texas or Ohio does. If the home was titled here and the paper is lost, the fix is a duplicate title on Form TC 96-182 through the county clerk — roughly a $6 fee, signed and notarized by the owner of record. If you are not the owner of record — you bought it with a bill of sale, inherited it, or the seller vanished — the path is a court order from the District Court in the county where the home sits, or in park and storage situations the abandoned-property sale process (60 days, written notice to the owner and any lienholder, and three consecutive newspaper publications). If a surety-bond title was issued by another state and the home was brought into Kentucky, bring that title and the bond paperwork to the clerk; the brand carries. None of this stops a sale. It sets the calendar. We have bought homes where the title work took ten weeks, and we do that work rather than asking you to.

2. 02

   What age of mobile homes do you buy?

   There is one hard line and it is June 15, 1976. Homes built before that date predate the federal HUD code, so most parks will not accept them, almost no lender will finance them, and insurance is difficult. We still look at pre-1976 homes, but be realistic: those deals are usually priced as the land plus a removal cost, not as a house. From 1976 to about 1994 you have HUD-code homes built to the original wind and insulation standards — very buyable if the roof and floors are sound. Homes from 1994 forward meet the revised standards and are the easiest for us to move on quickly. And 2000-and-newer double-wides on owned land are the strongest thing in this market. We do not have a cutoff year. We have a condition and title reality, and age is a proxy for it.

3. 03

   Will you buy just the home if I want to keep my land?

   Yes, and this is one of the most common calls we get. Buying the home only is a personal-property transaction: you keep the deed to the ground, we take title to the home on Form TC 96-182, and we agree in writing on a removal date and who pays for what. Two things determine whether it works. First, has the home already been converted to real estate under KRS 186A.297? If an Affidavit of Conversion to Real Estate was filed with the county clerk, the title was surrendered permanently and cannot be re-issued — the home is legally part of your land, and detaching it requires severing that first. Second, can a transport truck physically reach it? A hollow driveway with a switchback, a low utility line, or a septic field across the only approach can turn a simple home-only purchase into an expensive one. Tell us up front that the land is not for sale; it changes the structure, not our interest.

4. 04

   The tongue and axles are gone and it needs to be moved. Now what?

   This is normal and it is rarely a dealbreaker. Most Kentucky homes that have sat for fifteen years have had the tongue cut off and the axles sold or repurposed — that hitch and those axles legally belong with the home, but nobody treats them that way. A licensed transport company brings its own axles, tires and a bolt-on towing hitch and rigs the home for the trip; that is standard equipment for them, not a special order. What actually matters for a move in Kentucky: a State Fire Marshal inspection is required when a manufactured home is relocated to a different site (a home staying put instead needs a Manufactured Housing Affidavit), the mover needs an oversize-load permit and a routing plan, and the frame has to be sound enough to take the load. If the data plate and HUD tags are missing too, that is a separate and solvable problem — the serial number is usually stamped on the frame rail near the front cross-member, and a replacement VIN plate can be applied for under 601 KAR 9:080. Add the cost of axles and rigging to the move; do not add it to your worry list.

5. 05

   Do you buy homes sitting on a leased lot in a mobile home park?

   Yes. Park homes are a large share of what we buy, and they are the deals most other buyers refuse because they take a phone call to the park manager. Here is how it actually works. Your lot lease is between you and the community, and it does not automatically transfer — nearly every Kentucky park reserves the right to approve the incoming resident or owner, and some have first-refusal or their own resale rules in the lease. So the sale has three parties, not two. We will ask for a copy of your lease, whether lot rent is current, and the manager's name, and we will make the approval call ourselves. If the park will not approve a new owner, the fallback is to move the home out, which changes the price. If back lot rent is owed, that gets paid from proceeds at closing and you see the arithmetic in writing beforehand. Do not stop paying lot rent because you are selling: arrears grow, and in the worst case the community starts an eviction that ends with your home sold to satisfy the debt.