Good news: Investors and condo sellers in Florida could be major beneficiaries of a new policy by Fannie Mae that's designed to provide more mortgage money to stimulate sales.

Last week Fannie announced an easing of its tough previous rules on spot loans in dozens of condo projects throughout Florida, including 51 buildings in the hard-hit Miami area with more than 17,000 units.

Fannie Mae said it would now provide "special approvals" for loans on units in condo projects that otherwise wouldn't qualify for financing because of a variety of issues -- from excessive unpaid condo association fees to high concentrations of investor units.

The company also said it is dispatching a team of analysts who will look at condo projects throughout the state to determine whether to grant exceptions to its rules - and pump up sales volume.

The idea, said a Fannie official, is to provide liquidity to depressed condo markets where combinations of problems - speculative overbuilding, walkaways by earlier buyers abandoning sales contracts, tanking prices and financially-troubled condo associations - have created crisis conditions for real estate activity.

Realtors generally reacted positively to Fannie's switch. Moe Viessi, owner of Viessi & Associates in Miami, told Realty Times last week that "easing up on spot loans will help greatly."

Combined with the $6,500 tax credit for repeat buyers and the $8,000 credit for first time purchasers, he said, "I think this will generate a real opportunity" to move condo units that otherwise would sit unsold.

Investors who bought multiple-unit blocks of condos within the past year at deep-discount, wholesale prices should also get a major new resource. Rather than having to hold their units as rentals for extended periods of time before selling, they will now have the possibility of selling at a profit - essentially short term flips -- because financing is more readily available to retail purchasers.

"No question this will be great news to investors who managed to get in low," said Jack McCabe of McCabe Research Associates of Deerfield Beach, a condo market feasibility expert.

But not all Miami area condo experts agree that Fannie's new special approval program will make a big splash. Peter Zalewski, founder and principal of Condo Vultures, a brokerage and investment advisory firm based in Bal Harbour, says 80 to 90 percent of his clients are all-cash buyers, mainly from foreign countries.

Bottom line for investors: Check out Fannie's list of eligible buildings and its "special approval" rules on www.efanniemae.com. Talk to local lenders who may find that units in buildings that previously were unacceptable to Fannie Mae, now make the grade.