South Florida Law Blog

As a foreclosure defense and real estate attorney at South Florida’s Oppenheim Law, I witnessed striking developments in the Florida real estate and legal landscape throughout this year. As 2009 comes to a close, the blogger in me decided to reflect on a year that we’ll never forget. In 2009, the United States experienced presidential history and remarkable scandals and […]

It was 4:30 p.m. on Thanksgiving eve at my office, and I was enjoying a moment of quiet phones as I cleared my desk and my mind. The one call that did come was from The Wall Street Journal Real Estate reporter James (Bob) R. Hagarty. He was working on a story about homeowners who are creating their own bailouts, […]

For almost three years now I have talked about the idea that the American Dream of homeownership was really only a mirage. While policymakers had good intentions, homeownership has in many instances become the American Nightmare for numerous systematic reasons including: greed, lax government regulation and pure fraud. In a wonderful front page analysis in today’s Wall Street Journal, they […]

WSJ reporter, James Hagerty, arguably one of the best reporters covering the real estate crisis and with whom I speak with from time-to time wrote a great article this morning concerning professional investors who are going to auction, fixing up the houses and then flipping them for a profit. (Also take the time to look at the slides and related […]

While mortgage modifications continue to be a huge problem for the Obama administration, they seem to be following the advice of the geeks at the Federal Reserve and from the folks in the “Trenches“. (See WSJ Article). You are eligible to do a short sale if (1) you have a government backed loan (Fannie, Freddie, VA, etc.), (2) its your […]

Why Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Banks Prefer…Short Sales It should come as no surprise that only 12.4 percent of Florida borrowers who are at least two months behind on mortgage payments have entered into trial loan modifications through the Obama administration’s Making Home Affordable program. The first date For many who tried to get a Florida loan modification, the process […]

Last week was quite a week. I left Cambridge, MA, after visiting my daughter for the weekend and enjoying a little family rivalry at the Harvard – Princeton football game. After a meeting in New York, I found out the nationally syndicated Randi Rhodes Show wanted me to make an appearance at 5 p.m. to discuss foreclosures and Oppenheim Law’s […]

After reviewing the recent numbers for 2009 published by RealtyTrac, nothing is “just right” and won’t be for some time. With foreclosures on the rise in 2009, the new “three bears” to hit the market have nearly doubled the number of foreclosures this year, and the trend will not be ending anytime soon. The highest growth in the foreclosure market […]