- FHA will not insure a home being resold 90 days or fewer after the seller acquired it. That is 24 CFR 203.37a(b)(2). It is a flat eligibility bar on the property, not a documentation hurdle, and no underwriter can approve around it.
- The clock stops on the date your contract is signed, not on your closing date. HUD defines the resale date as the date all parties execute the sales contract. Signing on day 88 and closing on day 125 still fails.
- From day 91 to day 180 the deal is legal, but a second appraisal is required when the resale price is 100 percent or more over what the seller paid. HUD's handbook adds that the cost of that appraisal may not be charged to the borrower.
- The median United States flip took 165 days from purchase to resale in the first quarter of 2026, per ATTOM's report published June 18, 2026. That puts the typical flip inside the second-appraisal window rather than inside the 90-day ban.
- Nevada ran an 8.6 percent home flipping rate in the first quarter of 2026, 1,020 flips, eleventh highest of any state. In a market that active, a Las Vegas FHA buyer should expect to meet this rule at some point.
An FHA loan cannot be used to buy a home that is being resold 90 days or fewer after the seller acquired it. The rule is 24 CFR 203.37a, and HUD calls it a restriction on property flipping. Past day 90 the purchase is allowed, but between day 91 and day 180 a second appraisal is required once the price has risen 100% or more over what the seller paid, which on a house the seller bought at $265,000 means a relist at $530,000 or above.
That first half is a hard eligibility bar rather than something a strong file overcomes. If the seller took title on June 1 and you sign a purchase contract on August 20, the property is not eligible for FHA insurance, and a bigger down payment does not fix it. Most buyers eventually hear that much.
What catches people in Las Vegas is the second half, the stretch from day 91 through day 180, where the purchase is perfectly legal but a second appraisal can appear and quietly reset how much cash you need at the closing table.
- Day 0 through day 90 after the seller's acquisition: not eligible for FHA financing, with no lender workaround.
- Day 91 through day 180: eligible, but the lender must order a second appraisal if the resale price is 100 percent or more over the seller's purchase price.
- Day 181 onward: eligible, with no additional appraisal requirement in HUD's handbook.
- The date that decides all of this is the contract execution date, not your closing date.
What is the FHA 90-day flip rule?
The FHA 90-day flip rule makes a property ineligible for FHA mortgage insurance when it is being resold 90 days or fewer after the seller acquired it. It sits at 24 CFR 203.37a(b)(2), and the regulation says it in one sentence:
If the re-sale date is 90 days or less following the date of acquisition by the seller, the property is not eligible for a mortgage to be insured by FHA.
24 CFR 203.37a(b)(2), Re-sales occurring 90 days or less following acquisition · https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-24/part-203/section-203.37a
Read who that sentence is about. It is about the property, not about you. Your credit score, your reserves, the size of your down payment and the strength of your employment are all irrelevant to it, which is what makes it feel so arbitrary when it lands on a house you already love. HUD's stated reason is that recently acquired property resold quickly for a large profit tends to carry an artificially inflated value, and FHA does not want to insure a loan against one.
Lenders are rigid about this for a reason that has nothing to do with caution. The same section, at paragraph (d), says that a lender's failure to comply "may result in HUD requesting indemnification of the mortgage loan." A lender that gets the date wrong can be made to eat the loan, so there is no version of this conversation where a loan officer bends.
One companion rule is worth knowing in the same breath. Paragraph (a)(1) requires that the property be purchased from the owner of record and that the transaction "may not involve any sale or assignment of the sales contract." That is what rules out the assignment deals a wholesaler markets, where the person you are contracting with never actually owned the house.
When does the 90-day clock start and stop?
The FHA flip clock starts on the date the seller acquired legal ownership and stops on the date every party executes your sales contract. It does not stop at your closing date. HUD Handbook 4000.1 defines both ends of it explicitly:
FHA defines the seller's date of acquisition as the date the seller acquired legal ownership of that Property. FHA defines the resale date as the date of execution of the sales contract by all parties intending to finance the Property with an FHA-insured Mortgage.
HUD Handbook 4000.1, II.A.1.b.iv(A)(3), Restrictions on Property Flipping · https://www.hud.gov/sites/dfiles/OCHCO/documents/4000.1hsgh.pdf
This is the most misread sentence in the whole rule, and misreading it costs real deals. Buyers assume the 90 days runs to closing, so they sign on day 80 and reason that they will close well past day 91 anyway. That does not work. The signature date is the resale date, and a file signed on day 80 is dead no matter when it funds.
Run it the other way and the same sentence becomes the cheapest fix available. If the seller took title 80 days ago and everyone is ready to go, you do not need a different house or a different loan. You need eleven days and a signature dated on day 91.
Sellers who understand the rule will usually hold the date, because the alternative is losing an FHA buyer entirely. Getting that agreement in writing before you get emotionally committed is the sort of thing our guide to writing FHA offers in Las Vegas exists to make routine.
On the front end, the regulation describes the seller's acquisition as being "based upon the date of settlement." Recording usually follows settlement by a few days in Clark County, and you will see other pages say the clock starts at recording. It does not. Settlement is when legal ownership passes, and that is the date HUD keys on.
What happens if the home resells between 91 and 180 days?
Between day 91 and day 180 an FHA purchase is allowed, but the lender must obtain a second appraisal from a different appraiser when the resale price is 100 percent or more over what the seller paid. Both conditions have to be true. Past day 90 with a normal markup, nothing extra happens at all.
| Time from seller's acquisition to contract | Eligible for FHA? | What the lender must do | Who pays |
|---|---|---|---|
| 90 days or fewer | No. Not eligible, no exceptions by the lender | Nothing. The file cannot proceed as FHA | Not applicable |
| 91 to 180 days, resale price under 100 percent over the seller's cost | Yes | Standard appraisal and a 12 month chain of title | Borrower pays the standard appraisal |
| 91 to 180 days, resale price 100 percent or more over the seller's cost | Yes, with a condition | A second appraisal by another appraiser is required | Not the borrower. The handbook forbids charging it to you |
| 181 days or more | Yes | Standard appraisal and a 12 month chain of title | Borrower pays the standard appraisal |
That third row is where the money is, and it turns on a phrase people misread. "One hundred percent or more over the price paid by the seller" means the price has at least doubled. It does not mean the price is 100 percent of what the seller paid. Take a Las Vegas house the seller bought at $265,000 and renovated:
- Relisted at $520,000. The increase is $255,000 on a $265,000 basis, which is 96.2 percent over. Under the trigger, so no second appraisal.
- Relisted at $530,000. Exactly double, which is exactly 100 percent over. The trigger reads "100 percent or more," so this one does require the second appraisal.
- Relisted at $535,000. The increase is $270,000, or 101.9 percent over. Second appraisal required.
A $15,000 difference in list price decides whether a second appraiser walks through the house. Those figures are illustrative, not a quote, offer, or commitment to lend.
The good news is that the second appraisal is not your bill:
The cost of the second appraisal may not be charged to the Borrower.
HUD Handbook 4000.1, II.A.1.b.iv(A)(3)(b)(iii), Resales Occurring Between 91 Days and 180 Days After Acquisition · https://www.hud.gov/sites/dfiles/OCHCO/documents/4000.1hsgh.pdf
The bad news is what the second appraisal can do to your cash. HUD's handbook says that if the second appraisal supports a value more than 5 percent lower than the first, the lower value must be used as the property value in determining the adjusted value. FHA lends against the lesser of the price or the value, so a low second opinion does not lower your price, it lowers your loan.
Follow the $535,000 example through. Suppose the first appraisal supports $535,000 and the second comes in at $500,000. Five percent below $535,000 is $508,250, so a $500,000 second appraisal is more than 5 percent lower and becomes the governing value.
- If the value had held at $535,000: a base loan at 96.5 percent of $535,000 is $516,275, leaving $18,725 of the price for you to cover.
- With the value at $500,000: the base loan is 96.5 percent of $500,000, or $482,500, leaving $52,500 of the price for you to cover.
- The gap is $33,775, appearing after your offer is accepted and after your inspection period in many cases.
Those numbers are base loan figures only. They exclude the upfront mortgage insurance premium, closing costs, prepaid taxes and insurance, and reserves, and they are illustrative rather than a quote, offer, or commitment to lend. The point is the shape of the risk, not the exact dollar. Our Nevada FHA appraisal requirements page covers what appraisers are actually looking at, and the Las Vegas FHA closing cost breakdown covers everything sitting on top of these figures.
The seller's acquisition date decides whether an FHA file is even possible, and it is a public record you can check before you get attached to a house. A loan officer can read the chain of title with you and tell you which of the four windows you are in. Soft credit check to start, no impact to your score. All loans are subject to credit, income, property, and underwriting approval.
Check my eligibility
Which sales are exempt from the FHA flipping rule?
FHA exemptions from the resale time restrictions are listed at 24 CFR 203.37a(c), which names eight categories of seller, and HUD Handbook 4000.1 adds a ninth carve-out for builders. The exemptions attach to who is selling, not to how nice the renovation was.
- Sales by HUD of its own real estate owned properties.
- Sales by another United States government agency of REO single family properties under that agency's own programs.
- Sales by nonprofit organizations approved to purchase HUD REO single family properties at a discount with resale restrictions.
- Sales of properties the seller acquired by inheritance.
- Sales of properties purchased by an employer or relocation agency in connection with relocating an employee.
- Sales by state and federally chartered financial institutions and government sponsored enterprises.
- Sales by local and state government agencies.
- Sales in areas the President has designated as federal disaster areas, and only once HUD issues a notice saying so.
New construction sits outside the rule entirely, which surprises buyers who assume a brand new house bought from the builder months after the builder acquired the dirt would be caught by it:
The restrictions listed above and those in 24 CFR 203.37a do not apply to a builder selling a newly built house or building a house for a Borrower planning to use FHA-insured financing.
HUD Handbook 4000.1, II.A.1.b.iv(A)(3)(b)(iv), Exceptions to Time Restrictions on Resale · https://www.hud.gov/sites/dfiles/OCHCO/documents/4000.1hsgh.pdf
Notice what is not on that list. An ordinary individual investor who bought a house, renovated it well, and priced it fairly gets no exemption. Neither does a licensed contractor, and neither does a seller who can document every dollar of the rehabilitation. The quality of the work is not the test. The identity of the seller and the calendar are.
How often does this come up in the Nevada market?
Often enough that a Las Vegas FHA buyer should expect it. ATTOM's home flipping report for the first quarter of 2026, published June 18, 2026, put Nevada at a 8.6 percent flipping rate on 1,020 flips, the eleventh highest share of any state, against a national rate of 8.0 percent on 64,348 flips. Roughly one in twelve Nevada homes that changed hands in that quarter was a flip.
The more useful number in that report is the one nobody quotes. The median flip took 165 days from purchase to resale, up from 160 days in the previous quarter. Line that up against the rule and something clicks:
Valley West takeThe typical flip does not fail the 90-day ban. At a 165-day median it clears day 90 comfortably and then lands squarely inside the 91 to 180 day second-appraisal window. So the problem most Las Vegas FHA buyers will actually meet is not the headline prohibition everyone writes about. It is the second appraisal, and the value rule attached to it, on a house that is perfectly legal to buy.
That reframes what to worry about. If a listing is freshly renovated and the price looks close to double what the seller paid, the question to ask is not whether you can buy it. It is what happens to your cash if a second appraiser disagrees with the first. Clark County's FHA loan ceiling is a separate constraint worth knowing before you shop at these prices, and it lives on our Clark County FHA loan limits page.
It is also worth saying that a renovated house is not a worse house. Many Las Vegas flips genuinely fix roofs, panels and plumbing that would otherwise fail an FHA appraisal outright, which is a real advantage for a buyer at the entry end of the market. The Las Vegas FHA inspection checklist covers the conditions that stop a file regardless of who owned the house last.
Those same three systems decide what a homeowners policy costs and whether a carrier will write one at all, which our sister agency works through in its guide to insuring an older Las Vegas home.
What can you do if the home fails the 90-day test?
FHA buyers inside the 90-day window have four workable moves: delay the contract signature, change the financing, check whether the seller is exempt, or buy a house that has not been flipped. None of them involves persuading an underwriter to waive the date, because no underwriter can.
- Date the contract on day 91 or later. This is the fix that works most of the time and costs nothing but patience. Confirm the seller's acquisition date first, then agree in writing on a signing date past it. Do not sign early with a plan to re-sign later.
- Use different financing. The rule is an FHA rule. Conventional financing does not carry the same 90-day prohibition, though individual investors set their own seasoning overlays, so ask rather than assume.
- Check whether an exception applies. If the seller is a bank, a government sponsored enterprise, a government agency, or an heir who inherited the house, the time restrictions do not apply at all. That is a question for the title work, not for the listing photos.
- Buy the house that has not been flipped yet. If what attracted you was the renovation, an FHA 203(k) lets you finance the purchase and the repairs together on a house nobody has touched. Our Las Vegas 203(k) rehab loan guide walks through how that works and what it costs.
Buyers combining this with down payment assistance have a tighter timeline than most, because an assistance reservation runs on its own clock. If that is you, read the guide to offers written with assistance attached before you commit to any date. Buyers who want the loan program itself explained from the beginning can start at the Valley West Mortgage FHA overview.
Is the FHA flip rule going away in 2026?
No. As of September 3, 2026 the FHA 90-day flip rule is in force exactly as written. This is worth stating precisely, because the question is circulating and several pages answer it with speculation.
Measured rather than assumed: a query of Federal Register documents published by HUD on property flipping returns nothing newer than the notice of November 29, 2012, which extended a temporary waiver of the regulation. That waiver ran from February 1, 2010 through December 31, 2014 and expired on its own terms. The regulation itself carries an amendment history ending at 71 FR 33142, June 7, 2006. Nothing has changed the section in the twenty years since.
There are two real mechanisms for change, and both are narrower than the discussion suggests. Paragraph (b)(3)(iii) lets HUD move the second-appraisal trigger anywhere between 50 and 150 percent over the seller's purchase price. Paragraph (b)(4) is broader and has never been switched on: it lets HUD demand extra value documentation on a resale falling between day 91 and the end of the twelfth month after the seller's acquisition, when the resale price is 5 percent or more above the property's lowest sale price in the preceding twelve months. Neither one is self-executing. Both require HUD to publish a Federal Register notice, and paragraph (b)(4)(iv) says any such notice "will be issued at least thirty days before taking effect."
So a change would be announced in advance, and the likelier change moves the appraisal threshold rather than the 90-day bar itself. HUD's current handbook contains no trace of the (b)(4) authority having been activated. Until a notice appears, plan around the rule as it stands.
How do you check a property's timeline before you write an offer?
Checking an FHA flip timeline takes three facts: the seller's acquisition date, the day you plan to sign, and the price the seller paid. Both prices and the date are public record in Clark County, and your lender will pull them anyway. HUD Handbook 4000.1 requires that the lender "obtain a 12 month chain of title documenting compliance with time restrictions on resales," so this is not optional diligence, it is just diligence you can do earlier than they will.
The checker below does the arithmetic. Enter the seller's acquisition date, the date you expect to sign, and both prices.
FHA flip rule timeline checker
Counts days from the seller's acquisition date to your contract signing date, and tests the resale price against the 100 percent second-appraisal trigger.
Enter the dates and prices to see where this property lands.
Illustrative only, not a quote, offer, or commitment to lend, and not a determination of eligibility. This tool applies the published time restrictions in 24 CFR 203.37a and HUD Handbook 4000.1 to the figures you enter; it does not read title, does not know whether an exemption applies to the seller, and does not account for investor overlays. Your lender verifies the acquisition date from a 12 month chain of title. All loans are subject to credit, income, property, and underwriting approval.
The bottom line
FHA buyers shopping recently renovated homes in Las Vegas should get the seller's acquisition date before getting attached to a house. Inside 90 days, the answer is no and there is nothing to negotiate except the signing date. Past 180 days, the rule is invisible to you.
In between, the deal works, but if the price has roughly doubled since the seller bought it, a second appraiser is coming, and a value more than 5 percent below the first appraisal is the thing that changes your cash to close rather than your interest in the house.
Nevada's flipping rate and the 165-day median flip mean that middle window is where most Las Vegas FHA buyers will actually meet this rule. That is a good thing to know a week before you write an offer and a bad thing to learn a week before you close.
Article history
- September 3, 2026 · Published, with every quotation taken from the source document. The regulation text was read from the Code of Federal Regulations rather than a secondary summary and cross-checked against a second independent rendering of the section. The handbook language was extracted from HUD's own Single Family Housing Policy Handbook 4000.1 PDF, downloaded at 7,022,355 bytes and converted locally, so no quoted sentence here comes from a lender blog restating it.
- September 3, 2026 · Two claims were narrowed to what the sources actually support. An early draft cited a Las Vegas metro flipping rate; ATTOM publishes that release at state level and does not break out the metro, so the page reports Nevada and says Nevada. An early draft also repeated the widely published line that the 90 days runs from the date the seller's deed was recorded. Handbook 4000.1 defines it as the date the seller acquired legal ownership, and 24 CFR 203.37a(b)(1) phrases it as the date of acquisition "based upon the date of settlement," so recording is not the trigger and the page now says that plainly.
- September 3, 2026 · The 2026 status question was answered by measurement rather than by repeating the discussion. Several competing pages speculate about the rule being relaxed. This page instead reports what a Federal Register query returns for HUD documents on property flipping: nothing newer than the November 29, 2012 waiver extension, a waiver that expired December 31, 2014. The section's own amendment history ends at 71 FR 33142, June 7, 2006.
Frequently asked questions
What is the FHA 90-day flip rule?
The FHA 90-day flip rule makes a property ineligible for FHA mortgage insurance when it is being resold 90 days or fewer after the seller acquired it. The rule is 24 CFR 203.37a(b)(2), and HUD calls it a restriction on property flipping. It attaches to the property rather than to the borrower, so a large down payment, a high credit score, or strong reserves do not change the answer.
Does the 90 days run to my closing date or my contract date?
To your contract date. HUD Handbook 4000.1 defines the resale date as the date of execution of the sales contract by all parties intending to finance the property with an FHA-insured mortgage. Signing on day 88 and closing on day 125 still fails the test, which is why the practical fix is often to date the signatures on day 91 or later.
Can a lender make an exception to the FHA flip rule?
No. It is a federal eligibility rule rather than a lender overlay, so no underwriter can approve around it. 24 CFR 203.37a(d) states that failure to comply may result in HUD requesting indemnification of the mortgage loan, which is why lenders treat the date as non-negotiable.
What happens if the home is resold between 91 and 180 days?
The purchase is allowed, but HUD Handbook 4000.1 requires the lender to obtain a second appraisal by another appraiser if the resale date falls between 91 and 180 days after the seller's acquisition and the resale price is 100 percent or more over the price the seller paid. The handbook also states that the cost of the second appraisal may not be charged to the borrower.
Does the FHA flip rule apply to new construction?
No. HUD Handbook 4000.1 states that the resale restrictions and those in 24 CFR 203.37a do not apply to a builder selling a newly built house, or building a house for a borrower who plans to use FHA-insured financing. A new home bought from the builder is outside the rule.
Which sellers are exempt from the FHA 90-day rule?
24 CFR 203.37a(c) lists eight exceptions: HUD sales of its own real estate owned properties, sales of REO by another United States government agency, sales by nonprofits approved to buy HUD REO at a discount, properties the seller acquired by inheritance, properties bought by an employer or relocation agency for an employee relocation, sales by state and federally chartered financial institutions and government sponsored enterprises, sales by local and state government agencies, and sales in presidentially declared disaster areas once HUD issues a notice.
Is the FHA 90-day flip rule going away in 2026?
Not as of September 3, 2026. A search of Federal Register documents from HUD on property flipping returns nothing newer than the November 29, 2012 extension of a temporary waiver, and that waiver ran from February 1, 2010 through December 31, 2014 and has expired. The section itself was last amended on June 7, 2006. Plan around the rule as written until HUD publishes a change.
Sources
- Code of Federal Regulations · 24 CFR 203.37a, Sale of property, for the owner of record requirement at (a)(1), the 90 day prohibition quoted verbatim at (b)(2), the 91 to 180 day additional documentation provision at (b)(3), the 50 to 150 percent revision authority at (b)(3)(iii), the dormant 12 month authority at (b)(4) including the thirty day advance notice requirement at (b)(4)(iv), the eight exceptions at (c), the indemnification language at (d), and the amendment history ending at 71 FR 33142, June 7, 2006: ecfr.gov (read September 3, 2026)
- Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School · 24 CFR 203.37a, used as an independent second rendering of the section to confirm the paragraph structure and the wording quoted above: law.cornell.edu (read September 3, 2026)
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development · FHA Single Family Housing Policy Handbook 4000.1, section II.A.1.b.iv(A)(3), Restrictions on Property Flipping, for the definitions of the seller's date of acquisition and the resale date, the 90 day restriction, the second appraisal requirement between 91 and 180 days, the rule that the cost of the second appraisal may not be charged to the borrower, the 5 percent value rule, the exceptions list, the builder carve-out, and the 12 month chain of title requirement: hud.gov (read September 3, 2026)
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development · FHA Connection, Case Number Assignment help, for HUD's own statement of the 90 day resale restriction, the 91 to 180 day second appraisal, and the February 1, 2010 through December 31, 2014 temporary exemption described in the past tense: entp.hud.gov (read September 3, 2026)
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development · What Is HUD Doing about Property Flipping?, for HUD's summary that property resold within 90 days of acquisition is not eligible for FHA mortgage insurance unless an exemption applies: entp.hud.gov (read September 3, 2026)
- Federal Register · document search for HUD publications on property flipping, used to establish that no rulemaking newer than the November 29, 2012 waiver extension has been published: federalregister.gov (read September 3, 2026)
- ATTOM · U.S. Home Flipping Trends by State, first quarter 2026, published June 18, 2026, for the Nevada figures of 1,020 flips and an 8.6 percent flipping rate ranked eleventh nationally, the national figures of 64,348 flips at 8.0 percent of sales, and the 165 day median time from purchase to resale: attomdata.com (read September 3, 2026)
- ATTOM · Q1 2026 U.S. Home Flipping Report, the companion national release for the same quarter: attomdata.com (read September 3, 2026)
Keep reading before you write an FHA offer. These are the pages that decide whether a Las Vegas file holds together: