Definition
A manufactured home is built almost entirely inside a factory and then transported to its final site, as opposed to a home built piece by piece on location. Whether it's legally treated as real estate or as personal property hinges on two things: whether it's permanently affixed to land the owner also owns, and whether its original vehicle-style title has been retired with the state. That distinction matters enormously, because it determines how the home can be financed, how it's taxed, and how a sale gets documented. A manufactured home on owned land with a retired title generally sells like any other house, through a deed and a standard closing. One sitting on rented land in a mobile home park, by contrast, usually transfers as personal property, similar to a vehicle title transfer, and requires the park's approval of the new occupant. Financing is often harder to obtain for manufactured homes, especially older units or ones on leased land, which pushes many of these sales toward cash buyers who don't need lender approval.
Example
Tom owns a double-wide manufactured home on five acres of land he also owns, and years ago he had the home's title formally retired with the state so it would be treated as real property. When he decides to sell, the sale proceeds through a normal deed and closing, just like a site-built house, and his buyer has no trouble securing financing. A neighbor down the road, whose manufactured home sits on rented lot space in a park, has a much harder time. Her sale requires the park's approval of the incoming buyer and transfers as personal property instead of real estate, which scares off several interested buyers who assumed it would work like a normal home sale. Tom's sale closes in three weeks, while his neighbor's drags on for months trying to find a buyer willing to navigate the park's approval process and accept a personal-property title transfer. She eventually sells to a cash buyer who was already familiar with how park-owned-land sales work.