Five years ago the Feds imposed a rule that said you had to wait 90-days before turning around and selling foreclosed properties. This was meant to keep people from "flipping" homes. Flipping is a well known scheme in which buyers are overcharged for distressed properties. However, now that we are in the midst of a mortgage crisis we find that desperate times call for desperate measures.
The Bush administration just put the rule on hold in the hopes that the sales of foreclosed properties will increase again. Brian Montgomery, the FHA commissioner said, "A glut of foreclosed and abandoned homes harms neighborhoods, frustrates homebuyers and delays a community's recovery."
On a national scale, 261,255 homes were foreclosed in May, a large increase from the same time last year. Sometimes a scheme can be a good thing.