If you are a Florida homeowner facing foreclosure, you may not be thinking about the long-term economy. But Roy Oppenheim, a Florida foreclosure defense attorney, sees the big picture and how it relates to the foreclosure crisis.

Oppenheim offered Florida homeowners his insights on the economy in a recent interview on the talk show “Mind of Money” with Asset Protection Attorney Douglass Lodmell.

As Oppenheim sees it, Florida homeowners—whether they are in a foreclosure crisis or not—have to recognize that the current state of the economy is the new norm. There isn’t going to a rapid change in today’s economy.

“We need to look at what happened in Japan with the lost decade. This could be a lost generation,” Oppenheim says. “I’m not trying to scare people, but you need to understand that the Federal Reserve throwing $600 billion into the economy to prevent it from deflating further suggests that there are real serious problems with this economy.”

What is the way out? Oppenheim offered three possible paths Florida homeowners should be aware of as they make decisions about foreclosure defense strategies. The U.S. could opt for any of these three strategies:

1. The Third World Approach: Inflating the U.S. dollar so that Florida homeowners have more money, debt is worth less and easier to pay off, but real estate is worth more. Oppenheim says this is the current direction the government is taking.

2. Open the Borders: Allowing immigrants who can invest $250,000 or more into the economy to settle here. If upper middle class people from around the world come to America, it will create a demand for products and services.

3. Green Energy Revolution: Finding alternatives to fossil fuels, figuring out how to store and transport that energy, or even finding a way to remove the carbon footprint from fossil fuels. Oppenheim says this would be as significant as the Industrial Revolution and would change the trajectory of the U.S. forever.

What do you do if your house is in foreclosure? Do you put your head in the sand and enter into the financial crisis? Or do you launch a foreclosure defense?

Roy Oppenheim, a respected Florida real estate and foreclosure defense attorney, offered strategic advice for Florida homeowners in a recent interview on the talk show “Mind of Money” with Asset Protection Attorney Douglass Lodmell.

“The bank crisis is a wonderful opportunity to literally engage the bank in hand to hand combat. There’s an old expression that says to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. You need to bring the bank to you,” Oppenheim says.

Engage the bank like you would engage the enemy.

“Once you’ve engaged the bank, you can then attack them on their fraudulent documentation, if there is any. And more importantly you can engage them to do a short sale, a loan modification or a deed in lieu of foreclosure, or maybe a restructured foreclosure. There are many options.”

Of course, Oppenheim says, before you engage the bank you need to assemble a foreclosure defense team. The good news is the bank is usually willing to negotiate. Oppenheim says banks understand it could take 18 to 20 months—at a price tag of about $1,000 a month—to carry a piece of property that’s in foreclosure. The bank also risks sanctions for any illegal activity with the mortgage. Oppenheim says it’s in the bank’s best interest to find some sort of workout.

What if? The dreaded deficiency judgment.

“At the end of the day, our end game is to make sure that at all costs there is not a deficiency judgment against our clients.” None of our clients that we have defended from the beginning have had a deficiency judgment entered against them. “That may change. If we exhaust all options, we would consider bankruptcy.”

What if Florida homeowners have foreclosure issues and also many thousands of credit card debt? Oppenheim looks holistically at the situation and determines how best to approach it. That may mean asset protection, foreclosure defense, or filing for bankruptcy.

Right now, with banks in crisis, everything is negotiable. As Oppenheim sees it, now is the time to ask the tough questions and decide on the best strategy for your foreclosure defense.

More on what Oppenheim thinks about deficiency judgements and protecting your assets.

The tides turned from mortgage crisis to foreclosure financial crisis in October 2010. Florida Attorney Roy Oppenheim made the call three days before the bank fraud story broke in the Wall Street Journal. He reflected on that day with leading Asset Protection Attorney Douglass Lodmell in a recent interview on the talk show “Mind of Money.”

On September 28th at a Florida Assets Protection seminar, Oppenheim predicted: “In the next 72 hours the news you are about to hear, not about the mortgage crisis, but what will be called the foreclosure crisis will make most attorneys in this country question what they learned in law school and why they became lawyers.”

“It’s the tip of a very ugly iceberg,” Oppenheim says about the foreclosure crisis

“The crisis has moved from the debtors to the banks. It’s the repercussions of the banks not playing fair–basically cheating with sloppy and fraudulent paperwork including backdated affidavits, forgeries, and notary fraud.”

While yes, banks did this to try to cut corners, what the banks actually did was cut the corners of the Constitution. Banks were missing essential documentation and denying homeowners of their fundamental constitutional rights.

“Like Humpty Dumpty, the mortgage note is broken up and cannot be put back together again,” Oppenheim points out.

Is 2012 the bottom of the market? Not yet. Most economics are saying in 2019 the homeowners will still owe more than what their homes are worth, considering the banks currently have 107 months worth of inventory in foreclosure.

Millions of people have been illegally foreclosed or are in the process of being foreclosed. The bottom line: banks did not have the right to bring these foreclosures and homeowners now have the ability to push back.

Will this affect fundamental ownership rights? What does it mean for the banks foreclosing? What does it mean for the homeowner who has not paid their mortgage for six months? Oppenheim has answers…

Oppenheim sat down with Asset Protection Attorney Douglass Lodmell for a second time to discuss the specific benefits legal representation can present for homeowners facing foreclosure, attempting a short sale or considering strategic default. We’ve attached the full video at the end of this post.

Oppenheim Law is continuing to defend South Florida homeowners’ deficiency judgments whether the result of foreclosure or improper liquidation and negotiation after a short sale.

“Banks are always going to go after the lowest hanging fruit,” Oppenheim said. “Legal representation and asset protection can make you an unattractive target for the banks and translate into debt settlements for pennies on the dollar.”

Check out the video below to hear Part 2 of Roy Oppenheim’s interview with Asset Protection Attorney Douglass Lodmell and feel free to leave any questions in the comments section of the blog.

Oppenheim met with Asset Protection Attorney Douglass Lodmell to share how Oppenheim Law guides South Florida homeowners through defending themselves and their homes and helps them fashion their own economic bailouts.

“We frequently represent individuals who are professionals and have done everything right in the traditional path to wealth in this nation,” Oppenheim said. “And now because certain institutions that we have all respected for so many years failed us, we are seeing these individuals have to figure out how to deal with getting out of their tricky financial situation.”

The current system, including banks, Congress, the President and the Courts, is failing American homeowners according to Oppenheim and Lodmell.

Oppenheim describes how his firm navigates through the current system to protect homeowners’ rights during the foreclosure process.

Check out the video below for the entire interview and we look forward to reading your comments and answering any questions.