For Lenders and Loan Officers
Foundation Certifications Built Around Your Closing Date
The condition shows up late, the borrower has movers booked, and the certification is now the only thing between the file and the table. That is the problem this is designed around.
Opening soon
Sealed Engineering is not yet accepting orders. Firm registration is pending with the Texas Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors, and no engineering services are being offered or performed under this brand until it is granted. Founding customers on the waitlist are contacted first when ordering opens.
What actually goes wrong today
It surfaces at the worst point in the file
Foundation certification conditions are rarely identified at application. They appear in underwriting, sometimes after the appraisal, and by then the closing date is contractual and the borrower has made arrangements around it. Every day of turnaround after that point is a day of real consequence rather than an administrative one.
The wrong addressee means a reissue
A certification made out to the wrong lender, carrying a borrower name that does not match the file, or citing a serial number that does not match the title work has to be corrected. That is a second cycle on a document that was technically correct, and it is entirely avoidable with three fields captured at intake.
Out of state engineers
A certification has to be sealed by an engineer licensed in the state where the property sits. National vendors sometimes deliver a seal from the wrong state, and the discovery happens in underwriting rather than at delivery.
Nobody tells you what is actually going to happen
A loan officer needs to know two things: when the engineer will be on site, and what the possible outcomes are. What they usually get is a promise of speed and then silence, which turns a manageable condition into a daily phone call.
What changes
Written to the HUD standard the underwriter is citing
FHA and VA both point at the HUD Permanent Foundations Guide for Manufactured Housing, HUD-7584. The certification names that standard, describes the foundation as observed against it, and states compliance or itemizes what does not comply. That is what the condition asks for, in the terms it asks for it.
Addressee, borrower, and serial numbers captured before the visit
Lender name, borrower name as it appears in the file, loan type, and the home's serial and HUD label numbers are collected at intake rather than after the report is written. Reissues for clerical mismatch stop happening.
Sealed by a Texas licensed PE, on Texas property
One licensure question with one answer. Nothing gets subcontracted to a seal from another jurisdiction.
Deficiencies come back as a list you can act on
When a foundation does not comply, the itemized list of what does not and what compliance would require is what lets a borrower or a seller get it corrected and the home re-observed. That path is faster than it sounds and it is far faster than starting over with a second engineer.
What this account orders
- Site visit requiredManufactured Home Foundation CertificationsThe engineer's certification an FHA, VA, or USDA file needs before a manufactured home closes: the foundation observed against the HUD Permanent Foundations Guide and sealed by a licensed Texas PE.What it contains
- Site visit requiredRoof Certification LettersThe letter an underwriter asks for when the appraiser flags the roof: condition observed, deficiencies named, and an estimate of remaining useful life, sealed by an engineer.What it contains
- Site visit requiredFoundation Inspection ReportsAn independent engineering opinion on what a foundation is actually doing: a relative elevation survey, documented distress, and a conclusion that is not written by anyone selling piers.What it contains
- Documents or site visitRepair Specification LettersSomething structural is damaged and somebody has to say exactly how it gets fixed. This is that document: the repair specified in buildable detail, sealed, and written so plan review and the contractor read the same thing.What it contains
At intake: Send the underwriter's condition language verbatim along with the address. It is the single fastest way to make sure the delivered document closes the condition rather than restarting it.
For Lenders and Loan Officers: common questions
What do you need from us to start?
Property address and access arrangements, borrower name exactly as it appears in the file, lender name as the certification should be addressed, loan type, and the underwriter's condition language if one has been issued. The home's serial and HUD label numbers help if you have them and are confirmed on site if you do not.
Can you guarantee the foundation will pass?
No, and a certification from anyone who would is worth nothing to your underwriter. The value of the seal is that the conclusion follows the observation. What can be committed to is what will be looked at, what the certification will contain, and that deficiencies come back itemized rather than as a rejection.
The borrower has a certification from the previous purchase. Can we reuse it?
Often, and it is worth asking your underwriter before ordering a second one. What usually blocks reuse is a borrower name from the prior transaction, an addressee that is a different lender, or a gap long enough that current conditions are wanted. If it is declined, the reason is normally one of those rather than anything about the foundation.
Does the certification cover the condition of the home?
No. It addresses the foundation system against the HUD guide. If the file also needs a roof certification or a structural opinion on the home itself, those are separate deliverables and can run alongside rather than after.
Do you work with VA and USDA files as well as FHA?
Yes. All three point at the same HUD standard for the foundation itself. What differs is how the certification is addressed and what else each program's file requires beside it, which is why loan type is captured at intake rather than assumed.
Other repeat buyers
- For Solar InstallersYou are not buying a letter. You are buying the day it takes off your permit calendar, in every jurisdiction you work, without managing a different engineer in each one.
- For Realtors and Title CompaniesAn option period is short and a closing date is a contract. This is engineering work organized around both, delivered as a document your buyer, seller, and underwriter can all read.
Set up an account rather than an order
Send the underwriter's condition language verbatim along with the address. It is the single fastest way to make sure the delivered document closes the condition rather than restarting it.
Opening soon. Founding customers get first turnaround slots.