The FHA lifts the 90 day seasoning requirement for financing through FHA. So, what's all the excitement about? If you don't know, you haven't been investing in short sales, or REO's and then selling them to an end buyer.

Before February 1, 2010, the FHA did not allow an end buyer with an FHA loan to purchase a property that had not been owned by the person on title for less than 90 days. With FHA providing most of the funding for first time home buyers, this gave FHA buyers a disadvantage, and kept the housing market from recovering as fast as it should.

Often houses had to sit for 90 days, allowing more of a chance for vandalism. This 90 day period also made it very difficult to make any profit on a property, even when it had been repaired and updated.

So this is what all the excitement is about! Wells Fargo made a similar statement for homes they sell by short sale, or REO, a couple weeks ago. Now that FHA has "seen the light", other lenders will revise their standards whether it is an FHA loan or not.

This lift is for a one year period, and their are some restrictions. But with my first look at the FHA statement, there isn't anything that an ethical "flipper" would not abide by anyway.

The entire original ban on "flipping" was nothing to do with the ethical investor. It involved some schemes with some appraisers, and some unethical people calling themselves real estate investors.

I say prosecute the criminals, but don't punish free market.

I'm giving a big hand of APPLAUSE to David H Stevens - Assistant Federal Housing Commissioner, who signed the waiver on January 15, 2010.  To view the actual statement from FHA please go to:  http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/waivpropflip2010.pdf