Banks wise up. Oppenheim Law has been touting 2011 as the “Year of the Short Sale,” and it appears banks are finally catching on.

Two of the nation’s largest lenders, Wachovia and JP Morgan Chase, are choosing to forego the lengthy foreclosure process by giving select homeowners $10,000 to $20,000 to complete a short sale, according to The Sun-Sentinel.

Much has been written about the problems banks are now facing when they chose to foreclose on underwater homeowners including extensive delays, mortgage documentation issues, evidentiary problems and especially high costs. The fact is that foreclosure defense attorneys have ensured that the foreclosure process is highly inconvenient and expensive for lenders.

Because of these inconveniences, there is growing sentiment that the banks need to explore alternatives for dealing with delinquent homeowners. As Oppenheim Law has continuously predicted, short sales have emerged as a viable option for the banks. We won’t begin to ask what took them so long…

It’s interesting, though, that the foreclosure process has been so mismanaged that banks are now paying underwater homeowners to sell their property for less than the remaining balance on the loan. The bottom line is that executing a short sale ultimately benefits everyone involved.

Oppenheim Law has represented hundreds of homeowners’ short sales over the past few years and as a result has seen millions of dollars of homeowner deficiencies waived by the banks. Recently, Oppenheim Law has negotiated a $20,000 cash incentive for one of its clients to complete a short sale. Today’s Sun-Sentinel article is evidence that banks are becoming more eager to avoid foreclosure and complete short sales.
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The Florida real estate report cards are out and homeowner summer school is in session, another series From The Trenches with Roy Oppenheim.

“The foreclosure crisis is not over!” says Florida Real Estate Attorney Roy Oppenheim. “Over-crowded court systems, high chronic unemployment and excessive government debt are three major problems that will prevent a real estate recovery anytime soon.”

What should the Florida homeowner do?

In a collection of short two-to-three minute segments designed with the Florida homeowner in mind, Oppenheim covers critical headline topics concerning Florida foreclosure defense, housing and homeownership, making it easy for viewers to understand these complex real estate issues.

Oppenheim’s Summer School real estate series:

- The State of Florida’s Real Estate Market

- How to do a Short Sale by Roy Oppenheim

- How to Plan a Florida Strategic Default

- Florida Foreclosure Defense: What does it mean?

- How to Avoid a Florida Deficiency Judgment

- Paying Down Second Mortgages at a Substantial Discount

Roy Oppenheim in USA Today
Roy Oppenheim talked to USA Today in an article published this week on free falling home prices. It seems the real estate situation in Las Vegas is even worse than South Florida: two out of every three Las Vegas homeowners are upside down on their mortgage.

“I looked at our expenses like a corporation looks at their expenses, and the house was a toxic asset,” says one Vegas homeowner, who fashioned his own bailout with a strategic default.

As of yet, mortgage lenders nationwide have not been aggressive in pursuing deficiency judgments. But Florida foreclosure defense attorney Roy Oppenheim cautions that they still have time, and many will likely sell such cases to debt collection agencies. “I don’t think we’ve seen the end of this yet,” he warns in the USA Today Money section.

Florida foreclosure perks from Fannie Mae
Good news for Florida foreclosure buyers and real estate agents! Fannie Mae offers more incentives (up to 3.5 percent of the final sales price to use toward closing costs) for buyers who purchase a home listed on the company’s HomePath website. In addition, real estate agents who represent the buyer can receive a $1,200 bonus.

Palm Beach County leads state in home foreclosures, but buyers zero in
Paul Owers of the Sun-Sentinel noted Thursday that lenders repossessed 1,133 Palm Beach County homes in May, the highest total in Florida. This is a 56 percent jump from April and 38 percent increase from a year ago, according to RealtyTrac. However, as The Palm Beach Post’s Kimberly Miller reports, South Florida’s real estate inventory is shrinking as the number of homes for sale drops to its lowest number since the economy imploded in 2008.
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