Posts Tagged ‘Oppenheim Law’
Tuesday, July 26th, 2011
What does the digital future of foreclosures look like with social networks like Facebook? Oppenheim Law explores how living in a gated community or hanging out on Facebook may impact the foreclosure process.
In the never-ending battle by the banks to make things just a little easier for them, courts in Australia began to authorize banks to serve foreclosure proceedings via Facebook.
In order to begin Florida foreclosure defense proceedings, it is necessary for banks to prove that a homeowner has been successfully served, or notified, before proceeding in court. Service is usually carried out by process servers who try to physically track down the homeowner in order to give them the initial paperwork. Now, not only have banks in Australia gotten authorization to serve via Facebook, but banks in New Zealand, Canada and England have also obtained authorization from courts to serve foreclosure notices using Facebook, in addition to the traditional means.
Why is such a new method undesirable here in Florida? Because banks in the rest of the world didn’t have the document mill scandals that plagued Florida.
Currently, electronic service is only permitted when people have authorized it beforehand. However, it is easy to envision a future where lenders will require borrowers to allow themselves to be electronically served. If banks cannot even be relied upon to properly keep track of legal documents and not to commit fraud, then they should not be given yet another potent tool to put in their arsenal.
Florida Foreclosure Law Changes: Gated Communities and Condominiums
A potent tool that banks in Florida did get, however, is a change to the law regarding service of process to gated communities and condominiums. Before July 1st, gated communities and condominiums did not have to allow process servers in unannounced.
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Tags: Facebook, Foreclosure Law Florida, Fourteenth Amendment, Gated Communities, Oppenheim Law
Posted in Florida foreclosures, Florida Law News, Foreclosure Defense | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, July 12th, 2011
Three cheers for Sheila Bair, the former head of the FDIC and a true advocate for the little guy, who resigned this week on July 8th. She fought for what is right for the homeowner, the depositor and the taxpayer.
Shelia was probably the only person in the Obama administration who really “got it.”
As a financial regulator, she understood the crisis as we do at Oppenheim Law, on the ground and in the trenches.
Truly the champion of the little guy, Sheila really understood that there were two sets of rules in this country:one set for big banks and another set for everyone else.
Her opinion was always dismissed and considered inferior to that of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve. She knew that the Obama Administration, while maybe understanding the plight of the little guy, always capitulated to the interests of big business, Wall Street and the banks.
Sheila understood that from Day One her responsibility was to protect the consumer, the depositor, the homeowner, and most importantly, the taxpayer. In a major piece written in the New York Times magazine this past weekend, she questioned why investment banks that were “counterparties” to AIG, like Goldman Sachs, received 100 cents on the dollar from the AIG bailout. Goldman, in fact, received over $12 billion from the bailout. As is well known, many people in the administration were in fact in some way connected to Goldman.
Before the crisis had truly descended upon our nation in 2007, Sheila understood that if banks were required to modify mortgages there was a possibility that the foreclosure crisis which led to the meltdown of the real estate market and subsequent destruction of the economy could possibly be contained.
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Tags: fdic, foreclosure, foreclosure crisis, Oppenheim Law, Sheila Bair, Wall Street greed
Posted in Florida foreclosures, Florida Law News, From The Trenches, Loan Modification, Roy Oppenheim | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, June 14th, 2011
‘Hope’ stands as a fleeting memory for most Americans as unemployment stagnates, housing prices fall and economic growth looms as a lofty promise unfulfilled. And as we get closer to the 2012 Presidential Election, it’s becoming clear that the ideological political landscape that dominated the 2008 election cycle will be eclipsed by a menacing elephant in the room: the economy.
The President is well aware of the uphill battle he faces when it comes to convincing voters and campaign financers that his economic policies and regulations have not only been what we needed the past three years, but also what we need in the next four. According to The New York Times, President Obama has already started reaching out to the skeptical financial industry on Wall Street, hoping to win back one of his most vital sources of campaign cash.
While many on Wall Street view the President’s financial rhetoric as unfair to their industry, his apparent goal is to prove that his fiscal policies have helped to bring the banks and financial markets back to health and toward sustained growth.
The argument goes that the economy would have been dramatically worse at this stage had the Obama administration not taken the action it did in the wake of the real estate and financial crisis.
But how do you prove a negative? You can’t.
Historically, recessions have been ended by a wave of homeowner refinancing that predictably follows a lowering of interest rates. The President faces a number of obstacles to accomplishing a refinancing boom, however.
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Tags: 2012 Election, economic news, Florida real estate, Hope, housing, load modifications, Obama, Oppenheim Law, political news, politics, presidential election, Roy Oppenheim, The New York Times, underwater homeowners, unemployment
Posted in Florida foreclosures, Florida Law News, Florida real estate, Foreclosure Fraud, International News, Loan Modification, Roy Oppenheim, The New York Times, Underwater Mortgage | 3 Comments »
Friday, June 10th, 2011
All the top headlines from popular topics around the web: that’s AllTop.
And now the South Florida Law Blog is listed on this popular directory of top news sources. Fresh off the South Florida Sun-Sentinel Best of Blogs Awards, Oppenheim Law is proud to announce we are part of the feed to the AllTop Real Estate topic: http://real-estate.alltop.com/
What is AllTop?
The website helps users answer the question, “What’s happening?” Alltop prides itself on providing aggregation without aggravation, according to its homepage.
The “online magazine rack” collects the latest headlines from the best sites and blogs. Topics include celebrities, fashion, sports, politics – and real estate. The South Florida Law blog is in good company alongside news giants such as The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC and The New York Times and local blogs from Hanoi to Chicago.
The selection process for Alltop is “highly subjective and judgmental”, not based on an algorithm, as with search engines, so to be included is a special honor. South Florida Law Blog fans are now able to subscribe and view the latest real estate news and commentary alongside their other favorite blogs.
About Alltop and Guy Kawasaki
Named “the granddaddy of blog discovery tools” by Mashable, Alltop was founded by former Apple evangelist and Silicon Valley venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki. Kawasaki was one of the Apple employees originally responsible for marketing the Macintosh in 1984. Kawasaki is a renowned public speaker and best-selling author of 10 books including his latest, Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions. Although he’s been described as a business legend, Kawasaki says that being a legend shouldn’t be your goal in life: “What you should do is create a great product or service…the goal is to change the world…if you do that, maybe you’ll be a legend.”
Tags: Alltop, Florida Foreclosure Defense, Florida Real estate blog, Guy Kawasaki, legal blogger, Oppenheim Law, real estate lawyer, Real Estate News, Roy Oppenheim, South Florida Law Blog, South Florida Sun-Sentinel Best of Blogs
Posted in AllTop, Best of Blogs Awards, Florida Law News, Foreclosure Defense, Roy Oppenheim | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, June 8th, 2011
Nearly 40% of homeowners who took out a second mortgage are underwater on their loans, but the news surrounding second mortgages isn’t all doom and gloom for Floridians, says Florida foreclosure defense attorney Roy Oppenheim.
Second mortgages refer to any loan taken out on a property that is subordinate to the first mortgage, and include home-equity loans or lines of credit.
According to data from CoreLogic and The New York Times, homeowners with a second mortgage are two times more likely to be underwater on their property. CoreLogic’s data also shows that homeowners with second mortgages are facing deeper levels of negative equity in their homes – $83,000 compared with $52,000 – than borrowers without second mortgages.
The bright side is that Oppenheim Law is seeing massive principal reduction on second mortgages through loan modifications, according to Oppenheim. It’s becoming common for the Florida foreclosure defense law firm to negotiate up to 80% in principal reductions of second mortgages, a far greater percentage than first mortgages.
A vast majority of first mortgages were cut up, bundled and sold to investors as mortgage backed securities, the process that played such an enormous role in the Florida real estate crisis. On the other hand, nearly three-quarters of second mortgages are still held by the banks that made the original loans.
The good news for Florida homeowners is that these banks are beginning to treat second mortgages similarly to consumer credit card debt, accepting minimal “pay offs” to settle up with homeowners.
Homeowners who are willing to negotiate a “short payoff” can have tremendous success reducing their second mortgage principal by 50% to 80% and then paying off the remaining balance in cash. Banks are even starting to solicit Florida homeowners with second mortgages to make initial offers for 40% to 50% reductions, which Oppenheim Law is then able to negotiate to as much as 80%.
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Tags: CoreLogic, Florida Foreclosure Defense, Florida Foreclosure Defense Attorney, Florida short sale, Loan Modification, Oppenheim Law, Roy Oppenheim, second mortgages, short sale, south florida real estate, The New York Times, underwater homeowners
Posted in Florida foreclosures, Florida Law News, Florida real estate, Florida short sales, Foreclosure Defense, International News, Roy Oppenheim, Short Sales, strategic default, The New York Times | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, June 1st, 2011
The good:
All we can say is, you never know!
When the real estate market collapsed, Miami’s downtown epitomized the worst excesses of the building boom. Glittering new towers sat mostly vacant. Today Miami’s downtown real estate is booming and bustling with life and commerce thanks to foreign investors and renters.
A report by the Miami Downtown Development Authority indicates that 85 percent of new condo units are occupied. Downtown Miami’s population now numbers about 70,000 compared to 40,000 ten years ago. In spite of Miami-Dade’s 13.2% unemployment rate, downtown bars, shops and restaurants buzz with activity at the end of the workday. Sales at the swank Icon Brickell average 47 units a month.
The bad:
Clearing the backlog of foreclosures slows again as some delinquent homeowners successfully maintain that their mortgage companies can’t prove they own the loans, therefore forfeiting their right to foreclose. After last fall’s robo-signing debacle, many homeowners are waking up and realizing their banks are guilty of sloppy practices at best and forgery at worst. Oppenheim Law continues to see banks dismiss foreclosures.
And the ugly:
Double Dip Housing is no Ameri-cone Dream
As South Florida housing prices hit a new low, the The New York Times and Wall Street Journal chime in unison with a cherry on top: Goodbye, American Dream. It seems renting is the new ‘black’ in real estate fashion as desperate sellers watch not-so-desperate buyers sit on the sidelines waiting for the bottom to hit; while they rent in Miami luxury.
The S&P/Case-Shiller National Index, released today, indicated prices nationwide fell 4.2% in the first quarter after declining 3.6% in the fourth quarter of 2010, in spite of increases in 2009 after the home buyer tax credit and early 2011.
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Tags: Brickell, foreclosures stall, how to defend against foreclosure, Miami, Miami Condo Market, Oppenheim Law, Real Estate, real estate recovery, RealtyTrac, Roy Oppenheim, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Trulia
Posted in Bank Fraud, Florida foreclosures, Florida real estate, Foreclosure Defense, Foreclosure Fraud, International News, Roy Oppenheim, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, June 1st, 2011
What is killing Florida real estate? Excess inventories and falling home prices.
House prices have been continuously falling for the first time in 70 years, and South Florida homeowners should expect the trend to continue.
A surplus inventory of houses caused by Florida foreclosures and short sales is the mortal enemy of home prices. Lower prices are needed to sell off excess inventories of residential properties, and in turn lower prices encourage more inventories from anxious sellers.
So how big are excess inventories and how long will it take for the real estate market to absorb them?
According to Economic Consultant Gary Shilling, we are currently facing a surplus of up to 2.5 million excess house inventories in the United States, a number that is subject to rise with further foreclosures and falling home prices.
To forecast the length of time to work off this excess inventory and have the market return to more favorable inventory and price conditions, Shilling developed projections of supply and demand for residential units.
Household formation averaged about 900,000 per year over the past decade as measured by the Census Bureau. Shilling uses this number as a reasonable estimate of yearly housing demand. However, with many college students moving back with their parents after graduation, household formation is not happening as fast as it once did.
New construction of single family homes and apartment units is running about 700,000 per year, and about 300,000 U.S. homes are torn down, converted or removed from housing stock each year. Based on these numbers, Shilling calculates new housing supply to be about 400,000.
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Tags: Census Bureau, economy, Florida foreclosures, Florida real estate, Florida short sales, Gary Shilling, housing inventory, housing inventory excess, Miami, Oppenheim Law, Real Estate, Real Estate News, Roy Oppenheim, Weston Title
Posted in Florida foreclosures, Florida Law News, Florida real estate, Foreclosure Defense, Foreclosure Fraud, Infographic, Roy Oppenheim | 2 Comments »
What does the digital future of foreclosures look like with social networks like Facebook? Oppenheim Law explores how living in a gated community or hanging out on Facebook may impact the foreclosure process.
