Deactivating a Mobile Home Title in New Mexico

Properly disposing of a mobile home title in New Mexico is the most misunderstood issue in all of real estate. The vast majority of attorneys, title companies, real estate sales professionals and individuals INCORRECTLY believe that if you have the local county assessor tax your mobile home as real property, then the mobile home title is no longer needed. Not true! If you have sold a mobile home with land on a New Mexico Real Estate Contract, you will seriously impair the salability of your contract if you don’t properly handle the title to the mobile home. At the very least, you will see a reduction in the price you will receive for the contract from 20% to 50%. Read “Mobile Home Horror Stories” for what can happen if a title is not properly disposed of. You can also seriously impair your ability to sell the property without proper handling of the title.

If you want to “do away” with the mobile home title, it must be deactivated. This is a process that must be done with the cooperation of your local property tax authority (usually the county assessor) and the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Department (MVD). Each county has slightly different procedures, so you will need to call your county assessor and find out what their specific procedures are. In general, the steps are:

You must provide the assessor with a written request to assess the mobile home as “Real Property”. The default status of all mobile/manufactured homes is “Personal Property”

The tongue and the axles must be removed from the mobile, and it must be on a permanent foundation. Your local tax assessor will determine what constitutes a permanent foundation.

The owner of the mobile home must also be the owner of the property.

Usually, the assessor or the assessor’s agent will visually inspect the property and certify it as real property. When you have completed the inspection and filed the proper paperwork, there will no longer be two tax bills sent to the owner. Rather, a single tax bill reflecting the total value of the land and the former “mobile home” will be sent to the owner.

It is at this stage that most people think the process is done, but you must go one step further if you want to be rid of the title. You must take the original mobile home title along with a completed “Request to Change Valuation Status for a Manufactured Home” form to an MVD office. The MVD will stamp “Deactivated” on the face of the original title, and then (and only then) is the title no longer needed.

Note that procedures and documents change over time. To get the most up to date information, try using Google or another search engine and look for "deactivate mobile home title in new mexico" or similar key words.