One date decides how easy it is to insure.
June 15, 1976. Homes built on or after it are manufactured homes, built to the federal HUD Code. Built before it, they're mobile homes — same housing, no federal standard behind it, and a much shorter list of carriers. That one fact drives eligibility, price and financing. Here's how to find your home's answer in two minutes, why these policies default to depreciated value, and what anchoring does to both your terms and your odds. We shop it across 40+ carriers.
The short answer
A factory-built home needs a policy written for factory-built homes — most standard homeowners carriers won't take one at all, and that's about the form rather than the home. Three things decide your options: whether it was built on or after June 15, 1976 and carries a HUD label; whether it's insured at actual cash value or replacement cost, because ACV is usually the default and the gap on an older home is large; and how it's anchored, since wind is the dominant peril and underwriters look hard at tie-downs. Owning the land versus leasing the lot changes the form too.
Find the label. It answers the question in two minutes.
On or after: a manufactured home, built to the federal HUD Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards. Before: a mobile home, built with no federal standard behind it.
Two pieces of metal and paper tell you where you stand.
Every HUD-compliant home carries a certification label — a small metal plate, usually red, fixed to the outside of each section near a rear corner. Inside, there's a data plate: a paper label typically found in a kitchen cabinet, a bedroom closet or near the electrical panel, listing the manufacturer, the date of manufacture, the serial number and the wind zone the home was built for.
If you can photograph both, you've answered several underwriting questions at once and made your own quote considerably faster. The HUD Code also assigns every manufactured home to one of three wind zones, each built to a different wind standard, and that rating is printed on the data plate. It's worth knowing what yours says — not because it changes anything about the home today, but because it's one of the things a carrier will ask about and you'll be the only person who can answer it.
None of this is a judgment about the house. A well-maintained pre-1976 home can be in better shape than a neglected newer one. It's simply that insurers and lenders both use the date as a line, so knowing which side you're on tells you which market you're shopping in before you start.
Actual cash value or replacement cost.
Manufactured home policies commonly default to the first one. Both are legitimate, and the gap between them on an older home is the largest number on this page.
Pays what the home was worth at the moment of the loss, after depreciation. Costs less. On a home that's depreciated significantly, a total loss can settle for far less than what replacing it would cost — which is fine if you knew, and painful if you didn't.
Pays to replace the home without the depreciation deduction. Costs more, and eligibility usually depends on the age and condition of the home. Frequently available on newer homes in good repair, and frequently not offered unless someone asks.
Factory-built housing depreciates in a way site-built housing often doesn't.
That's the whole reason this choice matters more here than on a site-built house. On a standard homeowners policy the replacement-cost question is usually settled in your favor by default; on a manufactured home policy it frequently isn't, and nobody points it out. Ask which basis your policy uses, get the answer in writing on the declarations page, and price both before you decide. Actual cash value can be a perfectly sound trade on an older home where the premium difference outweighs the settlement difference — the failure isn't choosing it, it's discovering after a tornado that you'd chosen it without knowing.
The parts look familiar. The underwriting doesn't.
Which of these are included, optional or limited varies by carrier and by program — the declarations page is the answer, not this list.
Dwelling
The structure, its built-in systems and permanently attached parts. Insured on the settlement basis you chose, which is the conversation above and the one worth having before anything else.
Attached structures
Decks, steps, carports, awnings, skirting and additions. These are easy to leave off a quote and expensive to rebuild, and skirting in particular is frequently damaged in the same wind event that damages the home.
Personal property
Your belongings, with the same replacement-cost-versus-depreciated question attached. Category caps apply to jewelry, firearms and collectibles here exactly as they do on a site-built policy.
Personal liability
Injuries and property damage you're responsible for, at the home or away from it. If you're on a leased lot, the community may require you to carry a stated minimum — worth checking your lot agreement.
Loss of use
Additional living expenses while the home is unlivable. After a regional storm this runs longer than expected, because replacement homes have to be ordered, delivered and set rather than simply repaired.
Transit & relocation
Moving a manufactured home is its own exposure, and standard coverage generally doesn't contemplate it. If a move is coming — a new lot, a new property, a park closing — tell us before it happens rather than after.
Anchoring is the difference between damage and a total loss.
Arkansas sits in an active severe-weather region and factory-built housing is more exposed to high wind than site-built. Underwriters know it, which is why the tie-down system gets more attention than almost anything else on the application.
It affects whether you can get covered, not just what you pay.
Some carriers ask for proof that the anchoring system meets the applicable standard. Some will decline a home that isn't properly secured, regardless of its condition otherwise. And a system installed decades ago is not necessarily still doing its job — straps loosen, ground anchors corrode, and additions and decks added later can change how the whole assembly behaves.
Having the anchoring inspected is inexpensive relative to what it protects, and it frequently improves the terms available to you at the same time. It's one of the few things on this page you can actually change. The other things underwriters weigh — the age of the roof, wiring, plumbing and heating, and whether the home is your full-time residence — are worth knowing before you quote, because they determine which carriers will look at it.
Owning the land and leasing a lot are two different policies.
If you own the land and the home sits on a permanent foundation, it may be treated as real property — which affects financing, taxes and sometimes which form is available to you. If the home sits on a leased lot in a community, it's generally personal property, your policy covers the home rather than the ground, and the community's rules may require specific liability limits or that they be named. Both are perfectly insurable. What matters is telling us which one you have, because it changes the form, the liability picture and who's responsible for what after a storm.
Three things the policy won't do.
Flood
Excluded here exactly as on a site-built policy, and worth taking seriously — a home set relatively low to the ground has less margin than a house with a raised foundation. See our flood page.
Wear, rot and settling
Insurance answers sudden accidental loss. A roof at the end of its life, floors that have softened over years, corrosion and gradual settling of the piers are maintenance rather than claims — and deferred maintenance can complicate an otherwise covered loss.
Renting it out
A policy written for an owner-occupied home doesn't fit one you rent to a tenant, and the same rescission risk applies as on any other rental. That's a dwelling policy instead. Tell us before the tenant moves in.
Real housing, and increasingly the affordable answer.
Manufactured housing is a serious part of how Northwest Arkansas is actually housed, particularly out from the corridor — around Gravette, Siloam Springs, Pea Ridge and the rural stretches of Benton and Washington counties. As site-built prices have run up along the I-49 spine, it has also become the practical route to owning rather than renting for a lot of households. We write a lot of it and we don't treat it as a lesser category, because it isn't one.
What is true is that the market for it is thinner. Fewer carriers write manufactured homes than write site-built houses, and the ones that do have sharply different appetites by home age, anchoring, occupancy and whether you own the land. That's precisely the situation where the number of markets an agency has matters more than usual — a home one carrier declines outright is routine business for another, and the difference isn't the house, it's the appetite.
Where we earn it.
The quiet mistakes on manufactured homes are a settlement basis nobody explained, decks, carports and skirting left off the quote and then not covered, anchoring that hasn't been looked at since the home was set, a leased-lot agreement whose liability requirement nobody read, and an owner-occupied policy still in force after a tenant moved in. We find the HUD label and data plate with you, put actual cash value and replacement cost side by side in dollars rather than as terms, list the attached structures properly, and shop it across the markets that actually want this class of home instead of the one that happens to be closest. We don't adjust your claim and can't overrule an adjuster — but we build the policy to respond, and we compare it across our 40+ carrier markets rather than one company's appetite.
Priced to the home, the anchoring and the age.
Manufactured home premiums vary too widely for a single meaningful figure, and they're frequently lower than what the same household would pay for a site-built house of similar value. Price turns on the year built and whether it's HUD-compliant, the size and section count, the settlement basis you choose, the anchoring system, the age of the roof, wiring, plumbing and heating, whether you own the land or lease the lot, whether it's your full-time residence, your deductibles and liability limits, distance to a responding fire station, and claims history. That's why we price it to the home rather than post a number. This isn't a quote or a guarantee. Send the details and we'll build the real figure with you across our markets.
What usually sits next to it.
Mobile and manufactured home insurance questions.
What is the difference between a mobile home and a manufactured home?
One date. Factory-built homes constructed on or after June 15, 1976 are manufactured homes, built to the federal HUD Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards. Anything built before that date is technically a mobile home and was built with no federal standard behind it. People use both terms for both things in conversation, which is fine, but insurers and lenders use the date as a dividing line and it matters.
A HUD-compliant home carries a certification label on each section and a data plate inside, usually in a kitchen cabinet, a bedroom closet or the electrical panel area. If you can find that label, you can answer the single most important eligibility question about your home in about two minutes.
Can I insure a manufactured home on a regular homeowners policy?
Generally no, and the reason is construction rather than quality. Standard homeowners forms are written around site-built houses, and most carriers that write them will not accept a factory-built home on that form at all. What you need instead is a policy written for manufactured housing, sometimes issued as a modified homeowners form and sometimes as a dedicated manufactured home program.
The coverage parts look familiar, with the structure, other structures, contents, loss of use and liability all present, but the underwriting, the settlement basis and the available limits are built for this kind of home. Being told your home cannot go on a standard policy is not a judgment about the home; it is a statement about which form fits.
Should I insure it at actual cash value or replacement cost?
This is the decision that matters most and the one most owners never knowingly make. Manufactured home policies commonly default to actual cash value, which pays what the home was worth at the moment of the loss after depreciation. Replacement cost pays to replace the home without that deduction and is frequently available for an additional premium, though eligibility usually depends on the age and condition of the home.
The gap between the two can be very large on an older home, because factory-built housing depreciates in a way site-built housing often does not. Neither basis is wrong. What is wrong is finding out which one you have after a tornado. Ask, get the answer in writing on the declarations page, and price both before you decide.
Does it matter whether I own the land the home sits on?
Yes, in several ways. If you own the land and the home is set on a permanent foundation, it may be treated as real property, which affects financing, taxes and sometimes the insurance form available to you. If the home sits on a leased lot in a community, it is generally personal property, your policy covers the home rather than the ground, and the community's own rules may require you to carry specific limits or to name them.
Either arrangement is insurable. What matters is telling us which one you have, because it changes the form, the liability picture and what the policy needs to include. It also changes who is responsible for what after a storm, which is worth knowing before rather than after.
Do tie-downs and anchoring affect my insurance?
They affect both whether a carrier will write the home and what it costs. Wind is the dominant peril for factory-built housing, and anchoring is the main thing standing between a high wind and a total loss, so underwriters pay close attention to it. Some carriers ask for proof that the anchoring system meets the applicable standard, and some will decline a home that is not properly secured.
Anchoring is also worth verifying for its own sake rather than for the insurance, because systems installed decades ago can loosen or corrode. If yours has never been inspected, having it looked at is inexpensive relative to what it protects and it frequently improves the terms available to you.
How do I get manufactured home insurance in Northwest Arkansas?
Start a personal quote online or call (479) 286-1066. The details that move a manufactured home quote are specific, so it helps to gather them first. The year the home was built, the manufacturer and model, the size and whether it is single or multi-section, the serial or HUD label number, whether you own the land or lease the lot, the type of foundation and whether the home is anchored, the age of the roof, wiring, plumbing and heating, and anything attached such as decks, carports, skirting or an addition.
Tell us whether it is your full-time residence, a rental or seasonal, because that changes the form entirely. If you can find the HUD certification label, a photograph of it answers several underwriting questions at once.
If our coverage explainers are useful, mark Cribb Insurance as a preferred source so more Northwest Arkansas homeowners can find our local, plain-English guides.
Send us a photo of the HUD label.
That one picture answers several underwriting questions at once and makes everything after it faster. Add the year, the size, whether you own the land or lease the lot, how it's anchored, and what's attached to it — decks, carport, skirting, additions. We'll put actual cash value and replacement cost side by side in dollars, make sure the attached structures are actually on the policy, and shop it across the markets that want this class of home.
Cribb Insurance Group Inc. is an independent insurance agency licensed in Arkansas. This page describes mobile home, manufactured home and factory-built home insurance in general, industry-standard terms for informational purposes only. It is not a policy, not an offer of insurance, and not a guarantee of coverage, availability, eligibility, or price.
Dwelling, attached structures, personal property, personal liability, medical payments, loss of use and transit or relocation coverages, along with limits, sub-limits, deductibles, the settlement basis applied to the home and to contents, covered causes of loss, and exclusions, are set by the carrier, vary by state and by policy and over time, are subject to the carrier's underwriting approval and eligibility, and apply only as written in the policy actually issued to you. Replacement cost coverage is not available on every home or from every carrier and commonly depends on the age and condition of the home. Eligibility for any manufactured home program commonly depends on the year of manufacture, HUD compliance, size and construction, foundation and anchoring, roof and system age, occupancy, protection class and loss history, and coverage is not available for every home or every applicant. Flood, earth movement, wear and tear, deterioration, settling, and business or rental use of the home are commonly excluded or require different coverage.
Statements about the HUD Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards, including the June 15, 1976 effective date, the certification label and data plate, and the wind zone system, describe federal construction standards published by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and are provided as general background rather than as legal or regulatory advice. They describe how a home was built and do not determine whether any carrier will insure it. Whether a home is treated as real or personal property, and the effect of that on financing, taxes and titling, depends on state law, local requirements and how the home is sited; consult your own attorney, lender or county officials. Statements about anchoring describe general underwriting practice and are not engineering advice; consult a qualified installer or inspector about your own home. Any cost or coverage descriptions are general and illustrative, not a quote, and not a guarantee; your premium and coverage are determined at quote and by the policy issued.
Last reviewed July 2026.