Archive for the ‘Foreclosure Defense’ Category
Friday, April 15th, 2011
Who would ever have thought that the most respected names on Wall Street would cheat the house by playing with a marked deck?
Dear Wall Street: We’re not in Vegas anymore! The Sin City “players” of Wall Street might be trading in the fancy hotel rooms for prison cells.
The SEC is now following the Federal Reserve and the Senate is chastising Wall Street for effectively causing the economic crisis. The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that they too will be joining the bandwagon and fining the major banks on Wall Street for fraudulently causing the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression. They follow on the heels of the Federal Reserve and the United States Senate in lambasting the “banksters”.
Nearly 2
Tags: AC360, Anderson Cooper, bank fraud, Bernie Madoff, CNN, Main Street, Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone Magazine, Roy Oppenheim, SEC, Securites and Exchange Commision, wall street
Posted in AC 360, Anderson Cooper, Bank Fraud, CNN, Florida foreclosures, Florida real estate, Foreclosure Defense, Foreclosure Fraud, From the Heart, International News | No Comments »
Thursday, April 14th, 2011
Like the never ending horror franchise, deficiency judgments are back. A Florida deficiency judgment occurs when a bank pursues the remaining balance on a mortgage either after a foreclosure or, in theory, after a Florida short sale. Most banks are currently too busy to process deficiency judgments because they are dealing with foreclosures and short sales. Due to the large costs associated with pursuing deficiency judgments, few homeowners who were foreclosed upon will be pursued. Those people whose mortgages were owned by trusts will probably not face a deficiency judgment because of the large costs. Unfortunately, if a community bank owns the mortgage the story might be a little different. Most community banks still have the loans on their books so they will pursue the deficiencies. Also, some community banks have started to buy deficiency judgments for pennies on the dollar for the express purpose of acting like a collection agency. This is good news to keep in mind because, in these situations, the banks will be eager to settle.
While we have addressed the deficiency judgment issue for years now, the Sun-Sentinel has now also reported on the danger of what will soon happen. In two or three years, when big banks catch up with their foreclosures, we will see a flood of such deficiency judgments. The main targets of the big banks will be strategic defaulters. Strategic defaulters are the folks who could afford their mortgages but defaulted because they are so underwater that it didn’t make any sense to pay. Not every strategic defaulter has to worry though. A deficiency judgment can only be entered in foreclosure cases. Short sales cannot lead to a judgment being entered against you unless the bank decides to file an action and litigate in court. An action would require the bank to pay attorneys and other fees with no guarantee of success and scrutiny of their documents, which might lead to sanction if fraud is uncovered.
(more…)
Tags: deficiency judgements, Florida real estate, Fraudclosure, Friday the 13, Jason, Oppenheim Law, Roy Oppenheim, Short Sales, South Florida Sun Sentinel, Sun Sentinel
Posted in Deficiency Judgements, Florida foreclosures, Florida real estate, Florida short sales, Foreclosure Defense, Roy Oppenheim, Short Sales, Sun Sentinel | 3 Comments »
Saturday, April 9th, 2011
The Florida Court system, including judges, nearly faced mandatory furloughs and unpaid vacations due to an emergency shortfall in its budget. Court employees faced up to 30 days of unpaid vacation through the end of May. The reason for the short fall was the precipitous drop in foreclosure filings, which generated the fees the courts relied upon for the majority of their budget. With the huge numbers of foreclosures in years past, the estimated revenue from the foreclosure fees meant that the Florida legislature allocated less money from the general state funds to the courts. This reliance on foreclosure filings fees resulted in the courts seeming a bit too amenable to the big banks and the rushing through of foreclosures that would have benefited from more scrutiny. Knowing that the courts were not examining the documents carefully, big banks were able to forge the required paperwork on a massive scale. The forging continued until the document mill scam was uncovered.
With the major banks virtually halting all of their foreclosures due to the document mill scandals, the fees have dried up and now we can see the impact of the courts falling asleep at the switch. The tremendous irony in the matter is that the failure of the courts to properly scrutinize fraudulent foreclosures, leading to the halting of new foreclosures and the drying up of the courts’ fees, would have lead to new foreclosures. Only this time, court employees would have been processing their own foreclosures. According to the Sun-Sentinel, most of the hardship of the court furloughs would’ve been felt by low income employees who are already struggling to make ends meet.
(more…)
Tags: Florida Foreclosure Defense, Florida foreclosures, mortgage fraud, Oppenheim Law, Real Estate, Roy Oppenheim, South Florida Business Journal, south florida real estate, subprime bonds, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Weston Title
Posted in Florida foreclosures, Florida Law News, Florida real estate, Foreclosure Defense, Foreclosure Fraud, Roy Oppenheim, Sun Sentinel | 4 Comments »
Friday, April 8th, 2011
Investors looking for a great deal at Florida foreclosure auctions may want to think twice before clicking “Buy Now”. Records show amateur investors are falling victim to a simple mistake that’s costing them thousands. When novice real estate investors turn up at foreclosure auctions, what they don’t know is they are often bidding on second or third mortgages. These mortgages get trumped by first, or primary, mortgages when the first mortgages foreclose; leaving the investors with only the money left after the first mortgage has been paid off, which in this market usually means nothing.
The Sun-Sentinel interviewed investor, Gus Armenakis. Armenakis bought what he thought was the only mortgage on a home for $102,600. The County had appraised the home at $325,800. After the sale, Armenakis found out that Wells Fargo had a first mortgage on the home for $386,593. This means that as soon as Wells Fargo forecloses on the house, the bank will be able to recoup as much of the value of the house as they can, up to the value of their mortgage, effectively leaving Armenakis out of the entire $102,600 he spent.
This problem is getting worse now that counties offer foreclosure auctions online. Online access opens up the bidding process to more people, most of whom are inexperienced. While the counties do disclose the risks of the bidding process, marketing ploys have effectively played down the risks involved. One such tactic suggested that bidding on real estate is as easy as eBay.
(more…)
Tags: eBay, Florida foreclosure auctions, Florida foreclosures, Florida real estate, foreclosures, Gus Armenakis, House Keys blog, Oppenheim Law, Paul Owers, Roy Oppenheim, South Florida Sun Sentinel, Weston Title
Posted in Florida real estate, Foreclosure Defense, Sun Sentinel | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 6th, 2011
In an eye-opening piece by 60 Minutes this week, Scott Pelley managed to actually interview robo-signers who had forged documents that allowed banks to foreclose on thousands of homes illegally. As we have discussed over the past few years, these document mills re-created the necessary documents that banks were too lazy to keep track of in the heyday of the housing bubble.
Signing 4000 documents a day for $10/hour
Pelley interviews Chris Pindley, a former robo-signer who estimates that he signed over 4,000 documents a day. Pindley signed the documents using a coworker’s name because her name was short and easy to write. This coworker, Linda Green, was given the title of “vice president” of about 20 different banks… at the same time. This “vice president” of multiple banks and her coworkers were paid 10 dollars an hour for their work. Pindley even remarked that as they sat around a table signing papers, he told the others that one day they would be on 60 Minutes: how prophetic.
Homeowner must have all paperwork perfect, while banks cheat and forge
While requiring thousands of everyday folks to have all of their paperwork perfect and wait in line for days just for the chance to beg for some sort of a reprieve, these banks felt that they could forge the documents they needed to throw people out of their homes. These kinds of double standards are endemic in the industry and are an unconscionable assault on the public. Scott Pelley’s work here is an invaluable insight behind the colossal corporate wall into the shenanigans of the banks and the everyday people caught up in the mess.
(more…)
Tags: 60 minutes, Florida foreclosures, Foreclosure Fraud, fraud-closure, how to stop a Florida foreclosure, real estate crisis, Real Estate News, robo signers, Roy Oppenheim, Scott Pelley
Posted in 60 Minutes, Bank Fraud, Florida foreclosures, Florida Law News, Florida real estate, Foreclosure Defense, Foreclosure Fraud | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, April 5th, 2011
Reporting on the winning and losing headlines, South Florida Law Blog brings you the break down and what this means to the Florida homeowner.
While South Florida is #1 for mortgage fraud and foreclosure settlement talks between banks and the Obama administration appear futile at best, this week’s new was not all doom and gloom.
Check out Oppenheim Law’s and Weston Title’s picks in the week’s winners and losers for Florida foreclosure, real estate and the economy.
Winners
Pending home sales up 18% in Miami-Dade
Pending home sales rose 18 percent in Miami-Dade County over the course of the past month, according to new data released today by the Miami Association of Realtors.
Pending home sales, which include single-family home and condominium unit sales, were also up 3.24 percent month-over-month in March, the figures show.
“Increased pending sales reflect the existence of pent-up demand and should result in strengthening home values as distressed housing inventory continues to be absorbed,” said Jack Levine, chairman of the board of Miami Realtors.
Hiring Shows Growing Strength
The American job market is starting to show some muscle, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The jobless rate, our most politically salient measure of economic health, edged down to 8.8% in the fourth consecutive monthly decline despite the fact that more Americans entered the job market.
“It’s a very solid report that shows the labor market gaining momentum,” said David Greenlaw, an economist with Morgan Stanley in New York.
The public sector remained a weak point, as local governments shed 15,000 jobs last month in an effort to close budget gaps, but many other sectors showed strong growth, according to The Wall Street Journal.
(more…)
Tags: Florida Foreclosure Defense, Florida foreclosures, mortgage fraud, Oppenheim Law, Real Estate, Roy Oppenheim, South Florida Business Journal, south florida real estate, subprime bonds, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Weston Title
Posted in Florida foreclosures, Florida Law News, Florida real estate, Florida short sales, Foreclosure Defense, Foreclosure Fraud, Roy Oppenheim, Short Sales, South Florida Business Journal, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Weston Title & Escrow | No Comments »
Thursday, March 31st, 2011
After a few years of torrential storms blowing against the housing market, residential real estate in the Sunshine State is breaking through the dark clouds. Although the forecast calls for scattered rain showers in 2011, the media is starting to report rays of light that signal a recovery.
Consumers are definitely shopping—and they are buying even if it is for good deals.
On the shopping front, an Experian Hitwise webinar reveals traffic to real estate web sites is up 27 percent in February. That’s the highest gain since the first half of 2009. Although rentals are the key beneficiary, it still bodes well for investors trying to rent property and hold on until property values rise.
But consumers are also buying single-family homes and condos across Florida, and specifically in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Seems that confidence is starting to slowly come back even if prices are not moving much.
Home and condo sales rose in Florida rose during February, according to the Florida Realtors. Existing home sales increased 13 percent in February with a total of 13,701 homes sold statewide compared to 12,164 homes sold in February 2010. And February’s statewide sales of existing condos rose 29 percent compared to the previous year’s sales figure. Meanwhile, Florida’s median sales price for existing homes last month was $121,900. A year ago, it was $124,500 for a 2 percent decrease.
The Miami Association of Realtors and the Southeast Florida Multiple Listing Service is also reporting good news. Single-family homes and condominiums sales in Miami-Dade County increased 22 percent in February compared to a year earlier. One stand out on the condo front is Canyon Ranch in Miami Beach, where 46 units have sold since October 2010. Ft. Lauderdale posted an 8 percent month-over-month gain in February even as housing inventory declined.
(more…)
Tags: Experian, FL housing inventory, Florida real estate, Florida real estate news, Florida Realtors, Foreclosure Defense, Foreclosure Law, Oppenheim Law, residential real estate, Roy Oppenheim, Sunshine State, Weston Title
Posted in Florida real estate, Foreclosure Defense, International News, Roy Oppenheim, Weston Title & Escrow | 3 Comments »
Who would ever have thought that the most respected names on Wall Street would cheat the house by playing with a marked deck?
