The Pros and Cons of the FHA Home-Flipping Guidelines

In 2003 HUD enacted a rule in which prevented “house-flippers” from profiting at the expense of their FHA loan programs. The rule stated that homes previously purchased within the last 90 days couldn’t be sold to a buyer using an FHA loan. It kept flippers from using the program to quickly re-sell homes that they had purchased only weeks before.

However, in 2010, the FHA waived the rule in order to move more vacant, unsold homes off of the market. When the Obama administration opted to extend this waiver through the end of 2011, it sparked new debates about what the impact would be on the FHA, the flippers, and the country.  Here are some of the arguments for and against the extension of the anti-flipping rule waiver:

Arguments for the Home-Flipping Extension

1) It helps legitimate investors: The original FHA rule came with the unintended consequence of hurting… Read the rest

Is Commercial Real Estate Recovering?

Commercial real estate was hit hard by the property crash that first began from 2005 – 2006 in residential real estate. The Moody’s/REAL Commercial Property Price Index (CPPI) shows commercial property values crashed by over 70 percent from the peak of the market in 2007. Obviously, the crash that began in residential properties took time before it started affecting commercial real estate prices. Today, the CPPI is still down by around 3% from August 2010. (1)

Another potential commercial real estate crash may be waiting to occur. In February of 2010, the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP) released a report raising questions about $1.4 trillion in real estate loans coming due between 2010 and 2014. The COP said that the majority of the loans were made at the top of the market in 2007. Since then, the properties attached to these loans have lost 40% of their value, putting them… Read the rest

Costa Rica Real Estate Law