 Much has been written and said about the state of the nation’s foreclosure crisis. South Florida has served as ground zero for much of the mess in the past few years and only recently is starting to dig out from under the mountain of foreclosure filings.
New South Florida foreclosures are down. After reporting the No. 1 foreclosure rate for two consecutive months, the metro area covering Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties fell to third in April, according to RealtyTrac Inc. Nationwide, foreclosure activity fell to its lowest level in six years. Meantime, several of the big banks have actually halted foreclosure sales to ensure they are complying with federal guidelines. In his most recent “From the Trenches” video, Oppenheim about the newly passed foreclosure legislation – HB 87 – which is awaiting Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s signature. Roy wrote a letter to Scott asking him not to sign the bill, pointing out that if passed it could push homeowners out of their residences without the due process to which they are entitled. There also has been a re-emergence of the so-called “rocket docket” with the Florida Supreme Court giving its blessing to a plan that allows for lawyers to serve as general magistrates to help push the hundreds of thousands pending foreclosures through the court system. What are the implications of this decision? Watch the video to find out.  Real estate and foreclosure defense attorney, Roy Oppenheim left Wall Street for Main Street, founding Oppenheim Law along with his wife Ellen in 1989 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He also is vice president of Weston Title and creator of the South Florida Law Blog, named the best business and technology blog by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Follow Roy on Twitter at @OpLaw or like Oppenheim Law on Facebook
  Related Stories
 South Florida real estate and foreclosure defense attorney Roy Oppenheim has been keeping his ear to the ground as the real estate market begins to heat up. In a recent article in U.S.A Today, Oppenheim was quoted as saying that lenders are pushing through foreclosures now because the values are up. Meantime, investors have been fueling the recovery, driving prices higher.
In his most recent “From the Trenches” video, Oppenheim talks about the fact that it’s become a seller’s market. When it comes to short sales, Oppenheim says it’s not unusual to see multiple offers. This is having a trickle down effect on the rest of the economy. Construction is starting to heat up, movers benefit as do realtors, mortgage brokers, real estate attorneys and title companies. Last week, the U.S. Commerce Department reported applications for new construction rose to a five-year high. Building permits shot up 14 percent, the highest since June 2008. That indicates not only is the economy starting to simmer, but that more potential home buyers are dipping their toes into the real estate market. However, we are not out of the woods yet, according to Roy, since so-called “rocket dockets” continue to plague those already in foreclosure. Find out more of what Oppenheim has to say about the housing recovery by watching his video. Real estate and foreclosure defense attorney, Roy Oppenheim left Wall Street for Main Street, founding Oppenheim Law along with his wife Ellen in 1989 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He also is vice president of Weston Title and creator of the South Florida Law Blog, named the best business and technology blog by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Follow Roy on Twitter at @OpLaw or like Oppenheim Law on Facebook 
Related Stories
 CSA Astronaut Chris Hadfield strums his guitar in the International Space Station’s Cupola. Credit: NASA Have you seen the YouTube video of Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield singing David Bowie’s “Ground Control to Major Tom” from the International Space Station? The social media loving space man has become a YouTube sensation with more than 10.5 million (yep that’s million) hits and growing. And that’s only within the span of about a week. While the space race slows down, the rest of the planet (which you can see clearly from Hadfield’s video) pretty much has lost interest in space travel, The Canadian astronaut has single-handedly created what might be considered a Renaissance for space exploration. It’s this kind of adventurous spirit, ingenuity and creativity that have made the world a better place to live. And it’s that kind of creativity and out-of-the-box thinking that we need to bring to America’s financial sector and in particular the banking industry. Oppenheim Law was recently interviewed by banking, legislation, regulatory policy, and litigation publisher Bloomberg BNA on many legal topics – from the “dubious constitutionality” of so-called rocket dockets, to why the planet’s biggest banks must be broken up to remain competitive. Ironically, the sub headline that BNA gave to the section relating to the breaking up of the banking industry was “Science Fiction” and appropriately so. I talk about how if we turned the country’s five or six largest banks into 20 or even 30 smaller ones – we would unleash a type of capitalism and creation of new products and concepts that we can’t even begin to envision.
“We would be traveling outside of our solar system much faster. We would be visiting more planets,” I told BNA reporter Kevin Lambert. “Why does all this have to come from science fiction similar to space travel? Banks that weren’t –literally – trying to control the governments could finance this kind of stuff. And that’s the problem. If we broke them up and they could go back to what they were supposed to be doing, I think we would be advancing civilization in a way that would unleash a new Renaissance in this world.” So, how do the two correlate? Let’s go back to Ma Bell, instead of having just one giant phone company that stymied competition and innovation, the company was broken into Baby Bells, which caused them all to have to be better than the next to get customers’ attention. That type of competition is what fosters creativity and with that creativity – as in the case of Ma Bell – came numerous technological advances including the Internet and wireless communication. I have been singing the same song for years, but as we all know breaking up is hard to do. On a positive note, several people who are in a better position than I, including U.S. Attorney Eric Holder, are beginning to hum the same tune I have been singing. Earlier this year, he admitted that America’s biggest banks are indeed too big to jail and too big to fail and it’s high time something is done about it.
Real estate and foreclosure defense attorney, Roy Oppenheim left Wall Street for Main Street, founding Oppenheim Law along with his wife Ellen in 1989 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He also is vice president of Weston Title and creator of the South Florida Law Blog, named the best business and technology blog by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Follow Roy on Twitter at @OpLaw or like Oppenheim Law on Facebook 
Related Stories
Written By Aaron Kase, Lawyers.com, May 1, 2013 and republished in The South Florida Law Blog.  Florida is known as the nation’s capital in foreclosure fraud. A Florida man was recently sentenced to 26 years in prison for foreclosure and short sale fraud. John Lebron, 33, was convicted last week of setting up a complex scheme to buy and sell foreclosed houses, make money on each part of the deal, and default on the loans. He is hardly alone among foreclosure offenders. Florida is known as the nation’s capital in foreclosure fraud. The state was among the hardest hit by the collapse of the housing bubble and subsequently has seen countless homeowners who can’t make their mortgage payments. In the first quarter of this year alone, one in every 104 houses in the state received a foreclosure notice for a total of 85,671, a rate three times the national average, according market research firm RealtyTrac. Of the top ten metro areas in the country with the highest foreclosure rates, seven are in Florida, led by the Miami area at number one. The state projects that it will process over a million foreclosure cases in the next four years, according to the Palm Beach Press. And a lot of foreclosures means a lot of opportunities for scams. Lebron’s scheme involved a complicated house-flopping maneuver using straw purchasers to rip off the banks. However, many of the foreclosure scams out there are aimed directly at distressed homeowners, attempts to wring out what little cash they can come up with or steal the houses outright.
Scams Everywhere How can you avoid getting caught up in a scam? Homeowners subjected to foreclosure proceedings are likely to be deluged with mail and phone calls from attorneys and companies offering to help out. Anyone facing foreclosure really should engage an attorney, but the trick is to make sure it’s someone reputable. “The folks you really have to watch out for are the ones who are heavily advertising on the Internet or television,” says Roy D. Oppenheim, founder of real estate firm Oppenheim Law in Florida. “The acquisition cost of clients is so high that they are more of a marketing operation than legal service.” Shady ventures could acquire hundreds or thousands of clients with only a contracted lawyer or two to handle all of the cases, meaning the firm will likely be of little help even if it isn’t running an outright scam. Beware of organizations promising to save your house or clear your mortgage for free, and avoid out-of-state firms. “Foreclosure defense is a local practice,” says Oppenheim. “You need a relationship with judges, and with the opposing counsel. How will a lawyer from Los Angeles represent someone in Florida?” To perform due diligence and vet your attorney, check out the ratings on websites like Martindale.com, or call up the state bar association to see if there have been complaints registered.” Word of mouth still works, speaking with friends, or people in the neighborhood,” Oppenheim says. “Choose the same way you would choose a stock broker or doctor.” Too Good to be True An attorney will guide homeowners through the process and help achieve the best possible outcome, be it a short sale, a deed in lieu of foreclosure, a loan modification or refinance or even a fight over the validity of the foreclosure. One point that shouldn’t be lost is that a good attorney under the right circumstances can actually achieve a “too good to be true” outcome. The foreclosing entity may not actually possess the loan agreement, or may have improperly robosigned the foreclosure without ensuring it was valid. In Florida, there is a statute of limitations of five years on foreclosures, so once delays start coming in and the bank’s standing is challenged there is a chance that homeowners could get off scot-free. “Should the statute run out, you are in a position where you can have the note and mortgage voided. When that happens, you may end up with never having to pay the mortgage back,” says Oppenheim. “I tell my clients it’s like winning the lottery.” Understand that a voided mortgage is a slim possibility, but watch out for disreputable companies that promise a free house from the get-go without knowing any of the individual circumstances of a foreclosure. “If they start making too many promises, I would head for the hills,” the attorney says. “Put my hand on my wallet and run.”  Real estate and foreclosure defense attorney, Roy Oppenheim left Wall Street for Main Street, founding Oppenheim Law along with his wife Ellen in 1989 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He also is vice president of Weston Title and creator of the South Florida Law Blog, named the best business and technology blog by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Follow Roy on Twitter at @OpLaw or like Oppenheim Law on Facebook
Related Stories
 House Bill 87 Expedites the Foreclosure Process Gov. Rick Scott must decide soon whether he will sign into law a bill designed to speed up the residential mortgage foreclosure process. Supporters of House Bill 87 say they hope it will help ease a foreclosure backlog and rejuvenate the housing sector. But there is cause for alarm as the bill could push homeowners out of their residences without the due process to which they are entitled. Real estate attorney Roy Oppenheim sent the following letter to Gov. Scott asking him not to make this bill become the law of the land. As a practicing real estate attorney for 26 years who represents homeowners in foreclosure, and a national legal commentator for U.S. News and World Report and Yahoo!, I would like to take this opportunity to comment on Florida House Bill 87, which is before you for signature. Based on my review of the bill and my first-hand experience in various courthouses in the state defending foreclosures, I find the proposed bill highly inappropriate in that it violates the constitutional tenant of Ex Post Facto through retroactive application of the law to rights of residential property owners. When you vetoed Senate Bill 718 concerning alimony reform and stated that you would not support [the] legislation because it applies retroactively and thus tampers with the settled economic “expectations of many Floridians.” You went on to add that the retroactive nature of the bill “could result in unfair, unanticipated results.” Florida House Bill 87 would likewise apply retroactively to “all mortgages encumbering real property and all promissory notes secured by a mortgage, whether executed before, on or after the effective date” of the bill.
One such retroactive provision of the bill applies to borrowers who have not defaulted on their loans and who have been wrongfully foreclosed upon. Such parties will lose their legal right to have their homes return to them. Allowing the bill to apply retroactively to existing mortgages and notes would constitute an unconstitutional impairment of contracts in violation of Article I, Section 10 of the Florida Constitution. If you sign the bill into law, it would unconditionally impair the rights of residential property owners in the state of Florida, and further disrupt the Florida economy by creating uncertainty as to the constitutionality and fairness of the bill. I thank you for your time and thoughtful consideration. Roy Oppenheim Real estate and foreclosure defense attorney, Roy Oppenheim left Wall Street for Main Street, founding Oppenheim Law along with his wife Ellen in 1989 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He also is vice president of Weston Title and creator of the South Florida Law Blog, named the best business and technology blog by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Follow Roy on Twitter at @OpLaw or like Oppenheim Law on Facebook. 
Related Stories
| 
