My Manufactured Home Guide

National Road and Access Check

Legal and physical access before buying land

A parcel can appear reachable without a documented right to use the route, and a recorded access right can exist without a route that works for the intended project.

Short answer: Before buying land, verify both legal access and physical access. Legal access asks which deed, plat, easement, road agreement, title record, or public right supports the route and who can interpret it. Physical access asks whether the road, entrance, bridge, grade, width, surface, curves, overhead clearance, drainage, gates, emergency access, utilities, construction traffic, and delivery equipment can support the intended use. One does not prove the other.

Reviewed by a manufactured home setup contractor and dealer.

Manufactured Home Land Check

Buying land for a mobile home? The Land Check reads the county's own permit rules for the one parcel you give us, and says where each answer came from and when.

$125. Asking takes no payment and places no order.

Check this land before you buy it

Getting the home to the site

Schematic — not a survey

Looking down at the turn

A manufactured home part-way through the turn into a drivewayA top-down view. A road runs across the top and a driveway leads down from it. The home is drawn part-way through the turn, lying at an angle across both, because it is long and rigid and cannot follow the corner. A shaded corner beside the driveway marks the ground the home passes over, with a tree standing in it.RoadDrivewayHome on the trailerThis corner has to be clearand it is often not your landThe turn, not the driveway, is the constraint.

Looking from the side at the entrance

Overhead lines, a culvert, and the slope at a driveway entranceA side view. The home sits on a trailer on level road. An overhead line crosses above it, with a bracket marking the clearance between the two. Ahead of the home the ground rises into the driveway entrance, and a culvert is drawn in the ground beneath that rise.GroundPower, phone, cable, tree limbsHome on the trailerClearanceCulvertThe entrance risesA route a car drives easily can stop a transporter.
The turn
A long home cannot bend into a corner. The space it needs to swing through sits outside the driveway, on land that is often someone else's.
Overhead
Power, phone and cable lines, and tree limbs. Utility lines are lifted or dropped by the utility, on their schedule, not the transporter's.
Underfoot
The ditch and culvert at the road edge carry a load they were not necessarily built for.
Uphill
The slope where the driveway meets the road. A rig that clears the road can ground out at the entrance.

Each of these is checked by a different person: the utility owns the line, the road authority owns the entrance, and only the transporter who will actually haul the home can say whether the route works. Reaching the parcel in a car answers none of them.

Illustration of the things that stop a delivery. Widths, angles, heights and distances are drawn for clarity and are not measured from any property or any home. Your transporter and road authority decide what a route actually requires.

What to check first

Start with the exact property, quote, record, or job detail behind your question. Mark what is confirmed, what still needs a current source, and who must answer it. Use the checklist to keep the next call, document, or decision clear.

Trace the route from a documented public or private road to the proposed site; do not stop at apparent road frontage or a driveway on a map.

Collect complete deeds, plats, easements, maintenance agreements, entrance permits, bridge information, road restrictions, and current site observations.

Ask the title or legal professional, road authority, association or road parties, utilities, emergency officials, transporter, and contractors only for the parts they control.

Step 1

Map the apparent route and gather the current deed, referenced instruments, plat, title material, road agreement, gate information, and any public-road or entrance records.

Step 2

Have qualified sources address legal rights and maintenance separately from physical route, entrance, bridge, grade, drainage, clearance, emergency, utility, construction, and delivery conditions.

Step 3

Record missing documents, required permission or permit, improvement scope, design or transport review, cost unknowns, and the next decision before relying on access.

Details to Sort

The checks that usually matter before you commit money.

Who normally handles the answer

Attorneys and title professionals address legal rights and recorded documents; surveyors locate relevant features within their scope; public road or transportation authorities address their roads and entrances; private-road parties address their agreements; utilities, emergency officials, transporters, engineers, and contractors address their specific routes and requirements.

What to have ready and what to ask

Have the parcel ID, deed and plat references, title material, road names and ownership clues, route photos, dimensions, gate and bridge information, proposed entrance and site, intended traffic, utility route, project schedule, and delivery or equipment facts. Ask who owns, controls, maintains, permits, reviews, improves, restores, and documents each segment.

What happens next

A useful access review produces a segment-by-segment record of the right claimed, document source, physical condition, responsible reviewer, missing evidence, permission or permit, improvement scope, cost status, and route decision. It does not produce a generic access guarantee.

Common mistakes and limitations

Do not confuse tax-map adjacency with frontage, an easement mention with complete rights, a maintained road with a public road, or a car trip with delivery feasibility. This guide does not provide title advice, survey, bridge rating, entrance approval, transport route approval, engineering, or permission to enter private land.

Manufactured Home Land Check

Ask My Manufactured Home Guide to organize available parcel records, warning signs, unknowns, and responsible-source questions. The review does not determine legal use, buildability, design, cost, or approval.

Explore Manufactured Home Land Check

Secondary Support

Need more help understanding your situation?

Tell us the work and your ZIP and we send you to the right contractor category page, where you send the request. No account needed.

Need work done on your home or land?

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If this is your situation

A driveway reaches the parcel

The visible path does not establish who owns it, who may use it, whether the intended traffic is allowed, who maintains it, or whether an entrance permit exists.

Next step: Tie the route to complete recorded and public-road records and obtain qualified interpretation before relying on it.

The deed mentions an access easement

The full instrument, exhibit, location, width, purpose, beneficiaries, maintenance terms, restrictions, and relationship to the proposed use may matter.

Next step: Retrieve the complete referenced record and ask a qualified attorney or title professional what additional review is needed.

Cars can use the route

Passenger-car access does not prove construction, emergency, utility, manufactured-home delivery, heavy-equipment, or year-round access.

Next step: Ask the relevant transporter, contractor, utility, road authority, and emergency source to review the actual route and intended traffic.

A bridge or culvert is on the route

Observed condition and a posted sign may not supply the owner, rating, design, inspection, permit, repair, liability, or route-approval information needed for the project.

Next step: Identify the owner and responsible authority or qualified professional and obtain the documentation or route decision they require.

A private-road or maintenance agreement exists—or no agreement can be found

An agreement may address ordinary maintenance without resolving construction traffic, manufactured-home delivery, bridge or culvert limits, utility work, damage, restoration, cost allocation, enforcement, lender, insurer, or emergency-access questions. No located agreement is not a legal conclusion that no rights or obligations exist.

Next step: Retrieve every referenced instrument and ask a qualified title or legal professional about rights and obligations. Separately ask the road owner, transporter, utilities, contractors, authorities, and relevant professionals about physical use, permits, protection, restoration, and route evidence within their scopes.

Common questions

Is road frontage the same as legal access?

No. A parcel may touch a road on a map without having the required entrance, rights, or usable route. Recorded documents and responsible authorities must address the actual property.

Can a transporter confirm legal access?

A transporter can review physical delivery conditions and route requirements within its scope. Legal rights, title, easements, and permissions require the appropriate records and qualified advice.

Does the Manufactured Home Land Check guarantee access?

No. It can organize available records and questions. Legal, road, transport, engineering, utility, and other responsible sources retain their decisions.

Official sources

Each link was checked on the date shown. The office that issued it decides your parcel, not this page.

  • FHWA freight size and weight overview

    Federal source · checked 2026-08-31

    Official federal overview of commercial vehicle size and weight policy. States and road authorities control permits and route-specific restrictions; transporters must review the actual move.

  • HUD manufactured-housing homeowner resources

    Federal source · checked 2026-08-31

    Official homeowner guidance on site selection, access, installation, utilities, retailer and installer roles, and separately listed installation services. State, local, manufacturer, and project requirements still control.