Mobile Home Financing & Loans
"Up Side Down" - "Under water"

These are two terms you never want applied to yourself! They are dealer slang for people who owe more than their property is worth.  It is especially common with mobile homes and cars.  In both cases, many buyers purchase with very small down payments.  The immediate depreciation, which occurs as soon as the car or home leaves the lot, means the resale value of the property is less than what is owed.

On a mobile home, like the one discussed in Life of a Loan, this may amount to several thousand dollars.  Even if you make your payments on time, it may be years before you finally owe less than what the house is worth.  It will be even longer before you actually have some equity. 

If you are sometimes late making your payments you may find ten years down the road that you still owe substantially more on your house than it's resale value.  If you have to move, your options are very limited and none of your choices attractive. 

Buyers of site built homes generally avoid the worst of this problem because site built houses don't usually depreciate from the day they are bought.  At least that has been the case for the last 50 years.  It doesn't mean that can't change.

I have seen many sad situations where a job is lost, a divorce happens, a medical crisis strikes, or an opportunity beckons that requires the buyer to sell the house and move.  They put the house on the market and nothing happens.  They reduce the price to where it will just pay off the loan, and still they can't get it sold.  The ugly reality is a buyer can get a new home, financed by a dealer, with a smaller down payment. 

If you find yourself in this position, I can only suggest you look at your choices and make your decision sooner rather than later.  For example, if you have to move to take advantage of an opportunity, do it before you have exhausted all your financial resources making two house payments.