Affidavit of Affixture in Arizona, Explained

An affidavit of affixture is the legal document that converts a mobile or manufactured home from personal property — a home with a title, like a vehicle — into real property that's part of the land it sits on. Once it's recorded with the county, your home is no longer tracked by the Arizona MVD; it's sold with the dirt beneath it by deed, just like a site-built house.

If you own the land under your Arizona mobile home, this one piece of paperwork changes how you sell, how you're taxed, and who can buy your home. Here's what it does and how it works, in plain English.

What is an affidavit of affixture?

Every manufactured home in Arizona starts life as personal property with a certificate of title issued by the Motor Vehicle Division (MVD) — one title for a single-wide, two for a double-wide. That's how the state tracks who owns it.

An affidavit of affixture (governed by Arizona Revised Statutes §§ 42-15201 to 42-15205) says three things to the county: the home is permanently attached to a specific parcel of land, the owner of the home also owns that land, and the MVD title is being surrendered. Once the county records it, the home stops being a titled "vehicle" and becomes part of the real estate.

In everyday terms: before affixture, you own a home and a piece of land as two separate things. After affixture, you own one thing — a property.

When do you need an affidavit of affixture in Arizona?

You'd file one when you want your manufactured home treated as real estate rather than as titled personal property. That usually comes up when you:

• Own the land the home sits on (not a rented lot in a park), and
• Have the home on a permanent foundation, and
• Want to finance, refinance, or sell the home together with the land as a single real-estate transaction.

Most traditional mortgage lenders will only lend on a manufactured home once it's been affixed and converted to real property. That's the single most common reason homeowners record one.

You do not need an affidavit of affixture if your home sits on a rented lot in a mobile home park — you don't own that land, so there's nothing to affix it to. (If that's your situation, our guide on land-owned vs. in-park homes explains why it matters when you sell.)

What an affidavit of affixture changes when you sell

This is where it gets practical. Whether your home has been affixed decides how the sale actually happens:

An affixed, land-owned home closes like any other house sale: a title company handles the deed, runs title, and disburses the money. A home that still has its MVD title transfers through the state instead — a process we walk through in how to transfer a mobile home title in Arizona.

How to file an affidavit of affixture in Arizona

The form itself is Form 82528, the Affidavit of Affixture, published by the Arizona Department of Revenue — you complete it and file it with the county recorder. The steps run through the MVD, the county recorder, and the county assessor:

1. Confirm you own the land. The parcel and the home must be owned by the same person or estate.
2. Make sure the home is permanently affixed. It needs to be set on a permanent foundation and connected to utilities — not sitting on temporary blocks.
3. Gather the home's details. You'll need the make, model, year, size, the VIN/serial number, and the HUD certification label numbers for each section.
4. Clear any lien. If there's a loan against the home, the lienholder generally has to consent in writing before it can be affixed.
5. Pay any personal-property taxes owed on the home so the county can close out the mobile home account.
6. Surrender the MVD title(s) and record the affidavit with the county recorder in the county where the home sits. The recorder forwards it to the assessor, who then values the home as real property going forward.

Because a recorded affidavit is hard to undo and affects your title, most owners have a title company or real-estate attorney prepare and record it. If you're selling to us, we can handle this step as part of the purchase.

We've evaluated more than 40,000 Arizona mobile homes and bought 200+ since 2014. A large share of the land-owned homes we buy have never had an affidavit recorded — and that's completely fine. We sort out the paperwork so you don't have to.

What if the affidavit was never recorded?

Very common — and not a problem. Plenty of land-owned Arizona homes were never formally affixed. That just means the home still has its MVD title and is legally personal property, even though it's sitting on land you own.

You have two paths when you sell:

• Transfer the MVD title to the buyer as personal property (see our title transfer guide), or
• Record an affidavit of affixture first, then sell home and land together by deed.

If the title itself is missing or was never handed over, that's a separate fix — we cover it on our page about selling a mobile home without a clear title.

We once had a home in Mesa under agreement to buy and only found out partway through that it had never been affixed to the land. Closing was delayed about 30 days and it cost roughly $2,500 to complete the affixture so the property could legally transfer to us — exactly the kind of surprise we now check for before you ever sign.

Selling an affixed mobile home in Arizona

If your home has been affixed and converted to real property, selling it to us is straightforward: we buy the home and land together and close through a licensed Arizona title company, the same way a house sale works. No repairs, no listing, no agent commissions.

And if it hasn't been affixed, nothing changes for you — we still buy land-owned homes of any age or condition and handle the title or affixture paperwork ourselves.

What to do next

Not sure whether your home is titled or affixed? Tell us the address and we'll check the parcel — we do it every day.

• Learn what we buy and what we can't.
• Ready for a number? Get your free cash offer or call (480) 303-7100.

We buy land-owned mobile homes in Phoenix, Mesa, Apache Junction, and across Arizona — affixed or not.