How to Plan a Strategic Default in Florida by Roy Oppenheim

Hi, this is foreclosure defense and legal blogger, Roy Oppenheim, and I’m from the trenches. Part of our summer school program, we’re going to be talking about strategic default.

So, what does strategic default mean? It means different things to different people. The government thinks it means that you do absolutely nothing and you just walk away. That is not strategic default. Strategic default is where you get expert advice from a foreclosure defense attorney, real estate attorney, from your financial advisors, and you develop a plan on how to basically engage your bank in a conversation about what you’re going to do if you’re under water. Unfortunately, the banks do not respond to you when you are, in fact, paying your mortgage every month. The only time they respond is if you stop paying them, and so, unfortunately, what you have to do…it’s kinda like Eastern martial arts, you need to engage them, you got to embrace them, you gotta get them into a, effectively, a mortal hand-to-hand combat. Once you do that, you can then engage them in a conversation about what your options are, and there are lots of options, and we’re going to be talking about each of these options in this summer school program on different videos.

There is of course, as we’re talking about right now, strategic default. As part of that strategic default you may decide to do a modification, you may decide to do a foreclosure defense, you may decide to do a deal leading to a foreclosure, you may decide to do a short sale, ultimately you may decide to go bankrupt, or there is a permutation of all these different options that you can take advantage of over a period of time. But the most important thing I wanna leave you with today is that the only bailout that you’re going to have is one that you self-initiate. The cavalry’s not coming, the government programs, each of them has been one dismal failure after another, and the only way that you can start to dig out is to grab your own shovel, start digging and get yourself out of whatever hole you’re in, and the way you’re going to do that is not by putting your head in the hole, but digging yourself out, and the way you’re going to dig yourself out is by engaging a civil conversation with your banks, and the way you’re going to do that is through strategic default.

So this is Roy Oppenheim, in the trenches, look forward to hearing from you and if you have any questions or any comments, please feel free to contact us. Have a great summer.