Buying in the murky foreclosure waters is not quite as dangerous as swimming with the sharks thanks to Foreclosure Title Insurance, says Florida foreclosure defense attorney Roy Oppenheim.

More than 500,000 foreclosure filings entered Florida’s books in 2009, and those properties now saturate the South Florida real estate market. While these economic times are challenging for most, they can be the best time for some South Floridians to capitalize on an unprecedented opportunity who want to purchase foreclosures.

Foreclosure buyers can now add a perk to their deals with Foreclosure Title Insurance. Check out how South Florida real estate investors can protect themselves with Florida Foreclosure Title Insurance.

Real Estate Black Swan Arrives: Free Legal Foreclosure Workshop February 4

The attorneys at Oppenheim Law point to the crisis in Haiti as a “black swan event,” an occasion no one could have foreseen with drastic effects on the South Florida real estate landscape.

Join Oppenheim Law at the next free legal real estate workshop on February 4, as Roy Oppenheim explains how the tragedy in Haiti will affect South Florida foreclosure. The workshop will also provide insider tips for buying and selling Florida real estate in this turbulent market and explain how to avoid deficiency judgments at all costs through South Florida short sales and other Florida foreclosure defense strategies.

What: The Black Swan is Here: Free Real Estate Workshop

When: Thursday, February 4, 2010 – 6:00 to 7:00 PM

Who: Real estate professionals and homeowners facing foreclosure, buyers, and sellers

Where: 2500 Weston Road, Suite 404, Weston, FL 33331

Cost: Free with advanced registration

RSVP: To register email roy@oplaw.net or call 954.384.6114

For more information visit the Oppenheim Law News Room to access all of the event’s details. Please feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions or suggestions for the workshop.

Oppenheim Law looks forward to seeing you all on February 4^th.

Unlike the flippers of the past, these folks are true professionals as this IS their business. They are not cops, firemen or teachers by day and flippers by night.

In fact, OppenheimLaw and Weston Title represent a number of these types of professional groups. They are all well funded and clearly taking advantage of the fact that the Banks are drowning in too much stuff and thus many times are clueless to the true value of an asset.

Further, as we have explained before, the Banks would rather get back cold cash now than continue trying to make old loans work through loan modifications, when they know the likelihood of re-default remains high.  That is why we at OppenheimLaw and our sister title company, Weston Title, are calling 2010 the “Year of the Short Sale.”  Banks actually still do about 20% better according to a recent Federal Reserve study when they allow a short sale to proceed as opposed to the Bank proceeding all the way through the foreclosure process. Of course with millions of homes that have already been foreclosed upon by the Banks, the Banks have to somehow get rid of their unwanted inventory.

One word of caution: if you are thinking of becoming a “professional flipper” do your homework; and do not think for a moment that there is a title company out there that will allow you to use the funds from the final buyer as your source of funds to purchase the property at the courthouse’s steps or in a short sale. That practice is now dead.

Thus, if you are in a position to look at flipping as your way to help bail yourself out from being underwater to treading water with your head up high… call me!

Roy Oppenheim

From the Trenches

Refusing to let banks and lenders continue to steamroll homeowners and their rights, I recently submitted an Opinion Editorial to the Sun-Sentinel describing the consequences the State of Florida is facing if it continues to allow deficiency judgments on foreclosed properties.

My article was published in the paper’s Sunday Outlook section.  Here’s a summary of why I believe the United States of America sure seems to be turning into the Divided States of America.

States like Florida are allowing their homeowners to suffer and be enslaved by debt even after the foreclosure process, while homeowners in many other states are free from this obligation.

Thankfully, members of the Florida Legislature are starting to realize they either need to change the laws or continue to watch the Florida population implode while the economy continues to tank.

“The model is broken, and it won’t get fixed until there is a national uniform standard,” I wrote. “The options are: All states become recourse states, like Florida, and every homeowner becomes a servant to the banks, or Florida can stop sucking up to the banks, get competitive with other non-recourse states like California and stick up for the little guy.”

The entire article is posted in the Oppenheim Law News Room.

Fully aware of the battle facing South Florida homeowners, the Pompano Beach Highlands Civic Improvement Association has announced its next meeting will be dedicated to the topic of foreclosure defense for homeowners.

The Association has invited real estate attorney and legal blogger Roy Oppenheim to outline the foreclosure process, discuss the defenses to a foreclosure action, and offer alternatives available to distressed homeowners such as loan modifications and short sales.  The meeting will be held at Pompano Beach Highlands Park on Tuesday, October 6th at 7 p.m.

• Who:  The Pompano Beach Highlands Civic Improvement Association with guest speaker, Roy Oppenheim
• What:  Residential Foreclosure Prevention Meeting
• Where:  Pompano Beach Highlands Park, 1650 NE 50th Court, Pompano Beach , FL 33064
• When:  Tuesday, October 6th at 7 p.m.
• Why:  Learn what options are available to homeowners in foreclosure and what to do in the process of foreclosure.

For more information regarding Pompano Beach real estate be sure to check out the Sun-Sentinel blog “Living With Rules” by local columnist Daniel Vasquez.

All of this data has been download from the MLS South Florida residential market and compiled into graphs and statistics.

South Florida Real Estate Trend Charts
Sales Price To List Price Ratio
Number of Properties Sold
Highest Priced Home Sales
Number of Short Sales for Sale
Number of REO for Sale
Average Home Sales Price
Average Days Home for Sale on the Market
Number of South Florida Properties for Sale

Evan Rosen’s Analysis
I always try to let the statistics speak for themselves without giving too much input or opinion, certainly as it pertains to the future.  I do however like to point out the highlights or low-lights from the stats or make note of anything I notice while researching and compiling the data that would not be readily observable to the reader.

In this month’s graphs and statistics, we see the continued trend of approximately six months now of level average sales prices.  Besides that, I believe there are three other interesting statistics worthy of comment.

• First, the number of properties selling per month has doubled in just the past four months after an extended period of low sales volume.
• Second, the number of bank owned/post foreclosure properties has fallen significantly from the prior month.
• Third, the number of short sales available are flat, which is not surprising based upon my experience with short sales.  There’s nothing easy or “short” about a short sale. Additionally, most agents don’t want to be bothered fighting with a bank to try to get a short sale approved when they can easily get a post foreclosure or “REO” property.

The fact that sales prices have been level (a large increase in properties selling and decreased foreclosures available) is a good indication of a stabilizing market.  However, it’s very possible that a second large wave of foreclosures is coming, which would have the potential to affect these trends.  As I’ve said in prior newsletters, this looks like the bottom statistically but only time will tell the facts.

by Evan Rosen

In fact, the Wall Street Journal reported that 18 percent of all U.S. households will refinance in 2009. That is a whopping 72 percent increase from last year or almost $2 trillion! Interest on these loans will average about 4.7 percent – rates I have not seen in my entire career nor has anyone since the 1950s!

So let our homeowner self-bailout begin! I always said it would be South Florida’s new home buyers and the folks who had maintained good credit that would lead us back to normalcy. But, don’t kid yourself… without the stimulus package the lenders would still be on life support. Now at least we are all seeing and feeling less of a chill as the spring thaw begins. So start shopping around for what will likely be the best mortgage deal you will likely see in your lifetime!

Interested in buying or selling a home in South Florida? Take advantage of these low South Florida morgage rates and contact us at Weston Title for more information.

So for real estate professionals the fact that the industry is showing any signs of life is positive. In addition, it is great news for first time homebuyers and folks who were priced out of the real estate market for a decade. The relationship between household income and price is starting to converge. As I have said for several years that is what caused the bubble to burst (the fact that prices exceeded what people could afford to buy based on their incomes). Now as prices drop those folks that still have jobs (92%) can get a great deal. In fact, almost half of all sales are now either short sales or bought from the banks after they foreclose.

Thus, the bailout will not come from Washington even after they spend and waste $3 TRILLION but from first time homebuyers and folks who maintained a good credit score during this crisis and begin to start seeing see value.

Happy Hunting