I bought a property a month ago from a gentlemen going into foreclosure. Paid off his balance, fixed up the place with paint, carpet, wood floors, and tile. Now seem to have a tough time selling the property with the FHA guidlines on holding a property so that the title is 3 months old. Does this ring a bell with anyone?

Is there any alternatives outside of sub prime loan buyers. Learning as I go and trying not to make costly mistakes.

FHA loans are such a small part of the market,who cares what kind of buye it is as long as you can make a profit and they can close on the property.Yes the FHA has a 3 month seasoning on title to prevent fraudulent flipping although I don't think it works very well.

Yes most lenders and loan programs require title seasoning, FHA or not, in fact most programs require at least 6 months seasoning.

This can be easily overcome however if you documented the repairs you've made to the home, or that the sale to you was distressed. Pictures receipts ect will help with documenting repairs. To prove a property was a distressed sale find the LisPendens or NOD document that was filed against the previous owner, or if that isn't available worst case is to get a sworn statement from the previous owner stating they sold under market value due to pending foreclosure.

Think of it from the lenders point of view. They want to make sure the property they are lending on can be sold to cover their lossed in a foreclosure situation. If just 2 months ago the property sold for 100K and now someone is buying it for 200K that will raise a flag "Hey how the heck did this property appreciate 100K in 2 months?" Show them why. A coat of paint and some carpet won't warrant that kind of appreciation, but a combination of many factors may.

Find yourself a good mortgage broker that has experience with investors and have buyers pre-qual through them so little things like this don't kill your sales.

Depending on the lender the seasoning period can be between 3 months on the low end up to a year at the high end.

I do similar purchases and rehabs as you and my market target is for Conventional loan buyers only to almost avoid the problem. I tell VA and FHA buyers they are probably wasting thier time and my time... that is life. Sad but the anti fraud attempts are keeping some people out of nice updated properties that investors can provide at attractive prices but are stopped by ineffective and mis used policies.

I mark all of my listings as not available for FHA. If I do have it for 90 days, or chose to rent it, no problem. But FHA is such a small part of the biz, I don't really need those buyers.

With the meltdown in subprime lending you may be starting to need those buyers. FHA is going to be coming back, big time. It will be the primary source for buyers wanting high LTV financing who don't have first class credit.

In my area, the subprime meltdown has only hurt outlying or more rural areas. The median house here is $425K. Other than that, I buy in military towns. Most of those go VA, and they are easy to deal with. I've only done one FHA in 6 years, and we had to wait until we owned it for 90 days. So we ended up doing a pre-move in deal, and close two weeks later. I don't like doing move ins before closing, so I will avoid FHA if at all possible.

Has anyone heard of doing a land trust with a flip. I have had this mentioned to me, but don't know a great deal about it.

You need to check the laws of your state as to how a land trust applies.