Tricky Dick 2.0 – The art of buying and selling deficiency judgements

The 40th anniversary of Nixon’s resignation, Dyck-O’Neals 25 years as a debt collector and Oppenheim Laws blog.

So as more and more real estate clients keep coming in and telling us that they are being sued by a guy named Dyck-O’Neal.

Well, “Dyck” is a  debt collector and servicer of real estate deficiencies bought from Bank of America and other institutions for mere pennies on the dollar; hence, third-party wardens taking their bounty.  The victims? Homeowners  who haven’t resolved an old foreclosure. The question that keeps coming up in my mind:  “Who is Dyck O’Neal?  It doesn’t sound like just a name. Is it a person or is it a company or is it both?  Who could sleep witthe themselves at night knowing that they only paid a few dollars for the judgments from various banks and are now making other people’s lives miserable?   Is there a real person called Dyck O’Neal?

The fine print: “Dyck-O’Neal, Inc. is a debt collector. This is an attempt to collect a debt and any information obtained will be used for that purpose.”

You just got served by Tricky Dick 2.0

Well, as luck would have it and because I do have a few friends who still represent the banks, I found a colleague of mine who actually once met Mr. Dyck-O’Neal.  Where did they meet? They met at the Mortgage Bankers Conference several years ago.  Typically at most conferences and industry wide trade shows, people are usually selling their wares or trying to get you to buy something from them. But at this convention there was a buzz and flurry around the Dyck O’Neal booth.  And why you may ask.  Simply because unlike the other conventioneers who were all selling, Dyck O’Neal was buying.

What was Dyck O’Neal buying?

He was offering to buy all the real estate deficiency judgments that the banks had obtained during the housing foreclosure crisis over the past several years.  And he was buying them in blocks of thousands at a time. The bankers, apparently like a beehive, were swarming his booth wanting to have him buy their bad paper from them.

Now my understanding is that Mr. O’Neal in fact is a very affable man and most people think very intelligent.

But some have questioned whether or not what he is doing is ‘good’  business or also morally bankrupt. Either way, it is what it is as I have explained in my previous blog posts and YouTube videos.

Will the real Dick please stand up?

Interestingly, the other question that people had is: does one pronounce the name ‘Dyke’ (as it used to be spelled according to research) as in rhyming with ‘pike’  as most pronunciation dictionaries suggest. or, as his parents apparently actually named him, ‘Dick.?’

Have you ever heard the expression, “If it  looks like a duck, walks like a duck,  and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck?”

The great irony here is of course that this Dyck, as most of my clients would suggest, pronounces his name in a manner that is much more fitting and appropriate for what he is actually doing.

From the trenches,

Roy Oppenheim.

Roy Oppenheim, foreclosure and real estate defense attorney. Legal blogger and founder of the South Florida Law Blog.

Oppenheim Law Firm – 

Real estate and foreclosure defense attorney Roy Oppenheim passionately defends Florida homeowners and investors from foreclosure, arranging short-sales, loan modifications, mortgage advice, commercial litigation, and business related matters. Roy is also the original creator of the South Florida Law Blog, named the best business and technology blog by the Sun-Sentinel. Share your comments and thoughts on the Oppenheim Law digital media social networks; they’d love to hear from you. –