Mobile home and manufactured home inspections across Southeast and Mid-Michigan
Michigan Property Inspections inspects manufactured homes the way they are actually built: on a steel chassis, set on piers and tie-downs, with a belly wrap underneath and a furnace and water heater that have to be made for a manufactured home. Single-wide or double-wide, in a community on a leased lot or on your own land, built last year or before 1976, we inspect it. Starting at $425, the same price as a site-built home inspection, with the digital report delivered the same day.
There are about 96,700 manufactured homes across the 18 counties we serve, including roughly 10,400 in Genesee County, 15,500 in Oakland, 14,100 in Wayne and 13,600 in Macomb (U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020 to 2024). Our certified inspectors cover all of them from our Grand Blanc and Southfield offices, and MPI holds InterNACHI (International Association of Certified Home Inspectors) Mobile Home Inspector and Crawlspace Inspector certifications. Book online, get an instant quote, or call or text (810) 243-4773. We test; we never repair or remediate, so nothing in the report is a sales pitch.
What a manufactured home inspection covers
A manufactured home has parts a site-built house does not, and they are where most of the findings come from. Every inspection covers the full InterNACHI Standards of Practice plus the manufactured-home items below, with thermal imaging of the heating, cooling, plumbing and electrical systems included at no extra charge.
HUD certification label and data plate. Present, legible and recorded in the report with their locations and the label numbers (details below).
Foundation and supports. Piers, footings, shims and pier spacing, settlement, and the marriage line where the two halves of a double-wide meet.
Tie-downs and anchoring. Straps, ground anchors, tension and corrosion, and whether the anchoring matches the wind zone on the data plate.
Underbelly. Belly wrap (vapor barrier) tears, sagging insulation, rodent damage, moisture and leaks, checked with the crawlbot wherever a person cannot fit.
Skirting and ventilation. Condition, access panels and vents, which keep moisture and animals out while letting the underside breathe.
Plumbing. Supply lines, the drain crossovers under the home, heat tape on exposed lines, the main shutoff, fixtures and the water heater.
Electrical. The panel, bonding and grounding of the steel chassis, GFCI (ground-fault circuit interrupter) protection, outlets and the service feed.
Heating and cooling. Furnace, ducts and the crossover duct on a double-wide, and the air conditioning (not tested when it is 65 degrees or below outside).
Roof, exterior and structure. Metal or shingle roof and roof coating, siding, windows, doors, decks, steps and handrails, and the floor system; soft spots where water got in are common.
Interior. Walls, ceilings, floors, bathrooms, kitchen, built-in appliances, smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, and moisture readings.
Add-ons that fit the same visit: radon testing from $200, water testing from $175, well and septic from $500 as a package, sewer scope from $150, mold testing from $275 and termite inspection from $200, each when added to a home inspection.
The crawlbot: the only way to really see under a manufactured home
The space under a manufactured home is where the expensive problems hide, and it is usually too tight, too wet or too full of debris for a person to crawl. Most inspectors look in from the skirting access panel with a flashlight and call it inspected. We send in a crawlspace inspection robot (an Uplink Robotics crawler with lights and a camera) that drives the full length of the home: under the belly wrap, past every pier and strap, along the plumbing crossovers and the drain lines.
The manufacturer told us only 22 of these crawlers have been sold in the state of Michigan, and MPI owns three of them, which makes us one of a small handful of inspection companies in Michigan that can show you the underside of your home instead of describing it. The footage goes into your report with photos of every pier, loose or rusted strap, torn belly wrap, wet or fallen insulation, leaking drain line and rodent nest it finds. On a double-wide it is also the only practical way to look at the marriage line and the crossover duct from below. There is no extra charge; the crawlbot is part of every manufactured home inspection we do.
The HUD certification label and the data plate: we find them, photograph them and record where they are
Every manufactured home built since June 15, 1976 was built to the HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards, and it carries two forms of proof. The HUD certification label is a 2-by-4-inch red metal tag riveted to the outside of each section, by rule at the taillight end, about a foot up from the floor and a foot in from the road side. Its number (three letters and six digits) certifies that the section was built to the federal standard in effect on its build date. A double-wide has two labels, one per section.
The data plate is a paper sheet inside the home, by rule near the main electrical panel, and in practice in a kitchen cabinet, on the panel door or in a bedroom closet. It lists the manufacturer and plant, serial number, date of manufacture, the label numbers, the wind and roof load zones the home was designed for, and every factory-installed appliance by maker and model.
Why it matters. FHA (Federal Housing Administration) loans require the certification label, and HUD's rules make a home built before June 15, 1976 ineligible for FHA-insured financing; VA (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs) and USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) lenders, insurers and title companies use the label and plate to confirm the home's age, size and design zones. HUD does not reissue lost labels: if one is missing, the owner has to request a Letter of Label Verification from IBTS (Institute for Building Technology and Safety), which takes time and money, and a missing data plate can only be replaced through the manufacturer. Our report records whether each label and the data plate are present and legible, where we found them and the numbers on them, with photos, so your lender, insurer and title company have what they need before closing instead of after.
Michigan zones. Every county we serve sits in HUD Wind Zone I and the South roof load zone (20 pounds per square foot); only the Upper Peninsula and the northern Lower Peninsula are in the Middle zone (30 pounds per square foot). A home built for the South zone can be placed anywhere in our 18 counties, but a home moved north into the Middle zone, or one that arrived from another state, has to have been built for the stronger zone, and the data plate is where that shows up.
Furnace and water heater: made for a manufactured home, or the warranty is void
A manufactured home needs a furnace and a water heater that are listed for manufactured home use. They are built differently: sealed combustion that draws its air from outside the home, downflow and closet designs with the venting and clearances the HUD standard requires, and a listing that a standard residential unit does not carry. The standard units say so on the first page of their own manuals. A. O. Smith and State residential gas water heaters are printed "Not for use in manufactured (mobile) homes," and Goodman and American Standard furnace manuals say the furnace "is not designed or certified for use in mobile homes" and warn not to install it in one.
That matters twice. First, the manufacturers warrant their equipment only when it is installed according to the printed instructions, so a standard water heater or furnace installed in a manufactured home has no warranty from the day it goes in, and the HUD standard requires heat-producing appliances to be installed within their listing. Second, the wrong unit is a safety problem: a furnace that pulls its combustion air from inside a tight manufactured home can backdraft carbon monoxide, and a water heater that is not rated for the closet it sits in is a venting and fire risk.
We open the furnace and water heater compartments, read the rating plates, compare them with the appliances listed on the data plate, and check that each unit is listed for manufactured home use and installed the way its listing requires: venting, combustion air, clearances, gas connections, drip pan and the TPR (temperature and pressure relief) discharge. The report says plainly whether the equipment is approved for the home or not, so you can price a replacement into the deal before you close, and so a seller who has already replaced a unit can prove it was done right.
Buying a manufactured home with an FHA, VA or USDA loan
Government-backed loans on manufactured homes come with rules a site-built house never sees. FHA requires the home to have been built after June 15, 1976 with its certification label attached, to have at least 400 square feet of floor area, to sit on a permanent foundation built to HUD's Permanent Foundations Guide for Manufactured Housing, to be classified and taxed as real estate, and never to have been installed or occupied at another site (the move from the dealer's lot to your lot is the only move allowed). VA and USDA follow the same themes: a permanent foundation, real property, the HUD label, and for USDA the 400-square-foot minimum and no relocated units.
The foundation certification is a separate document from our inspection. It has to come from a professional engineer or registered architect licensed in Michigan who certifies that the foundation meets HUD's guide, and we do not issue it. What we do is hand the engineer, the lender and you a report that documents the piers, footings, anchoring, skirting, underbelly, label and data plate with photos and measurements, so nobody is surprised at the appraisal. If the home is still titled as personal property (Michigan's Certificate of Manufactured Home Ownership, formerly the Certificate of Title), ask your lender early about converting it to real property; FHA requires proof that the title was purged before closing.
Pair the inspection with the tests lenders ask for most on manufactured homes on rural lots: a well water test from $175, a septic inspection from $300 or the well and septic package from $500, and a termite (wood‒destroying insect) inspection from $200, each when added to a home inspection. The program rules are on our FHA, VA and USDA loan inspection page.
Manufactured home inspection questions we hear in Michigan
How much does a manufactured home inspection cost in Michigan?
Ours starts at $425, the same as a site-built home inspection; the final price depends on the size of the home and the distance from our Grand Blanc or Southfield office. Add-ons such as radon (from $200), water testing (from $175) and a sewer scope (from $150) are priced when added to the inspection. Get an instant quote in about a minute.
Do you inspect mobile homes built before 1976?
Yes. A pre-1976 mobile home has no HUD certification label, which rules out FHA financing and most other government-backed loans, but we inspect it the same way and tell you what it needs. Expect aluminum branch wiring, older electrical panels, original water heaters and undersized tie-downs to come up.
What is the difference between a mobile home, a manufactured home and a modular home?
Mobile home is the term for a factory-built home on a chassis made before the HUD standard took effect on June 15, 1976; manufactured home is the term for the same kind of home built to the HUD standard since then. A modular home is built in sections to the same state building code as a site-built house and set on a conventional foundation; we inspect modular homes as regular home inspections.
Do you inspect homes in a manufactured home community on a leased lot?
Yes. We inspect the home, its piers and tie-downs, and the utility connections at the home; the community owns the lot infrastructure. A lender treats a park home on a leased lot as personal property, which changes the loan type, not the inspection.
Can you do the HUD foundation certification for my FHA or VA loan?
No. That certification has to come from a professional engineer or registered architect licensed in Michigan. Our report documents everything they need to look at, and we can usually be out the same week as the appraisal.
How long does the inspection take, and when do I get the report?
About two to three hours for a typical single-wide or double-wide, longer with add-ons. The digital report with photos and the crawlbot findings is delivered the same day; lab results for radon, water or mold follow on their own schedule.
Where do you inspect manufactured homes?
All 18 counties, from our Grand Blanc and Southfield offices: Genesee, Oakland, Wayne, Macomb, Livingston, Washtenaw, Lapeer, Shiawassee, Ingham, Clinton, Jackson, St. Clair, Sanilac, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Midland and Gratiot, including Flint, Burton, Mount Morris, Clio, Davison, Fenton, Lapeer, Saginaw, Detroit and the Downriver and Thumb communities. Book online or call or text (810) 243-4773.
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