FHA Finally Flips Out

How many of you have been out house hunting and seen some bank owned properties that look like this:

They are usually the ones that the "creative" REO agent describes with terms like " Needs a little TLC" or "Handyman's Delight". In reality, the description should be "Bring your own hand sanitizer. This ones a dump".

The problem is that if an investor buys that lil gem,fixes it up and sell it, he's labeled as a "flipper". In today's market that's equivalent to sporting a scarlet letter A from years past. The punishment for such a heinous act is that, as a flipper, you aren't allowed to re-sell that renewed, improved property for 90 days. If your reaction is ...HUUUHHHHHHH???... you're not alone.Luckily, FHA has come to its senses..well at least on this point. Starting 2/1/2010, and with a couple of minor exceptions, a flipper can buy, fix up, and re-sell that property to you immediately. If you qualify, you can get an FHA loan to buy it. So instead of needing some "elbow grease" on the above property, you can now put an offer in on something like this:

Several months ago when it originally came to light,I addressed this problem in a previous blog post:

Why We Need More Investors In This Market