Marty Ummel feels she paid too much for her house. So do millions of other people who bought at the peak of the housing boom.
What makes Ummel different is that she is suing her agent, saying it was all his fault.
Ummel claims that the agent hid the information that similar homes in the neighborhood were selling for less because he feared she would back out and he would lose his $30,000 commission.
Real-estate lawyers and brokers say the case, which goes to trial in North County Superior Court on Monday, is likely to be the first of many in which regretful or resentful buyers seek redress from the agents who found them a home and arranged its purchase.
“When your house appreciates $100,000 in the first six months, you’re not quite as concerned that maybe the valuation was $25,000 or $50,000 off,” said Clifford Horner of the law firm Horner & Singer. “But when your house goes down, you ask: ‘Who might have led me astray here?’ ”
That civil jury had better ask for some damn good evidence that her broker cut off her internet connection and/or duct taped her face and hands before locking her in a closet so that she had no way of looking this info up herself.
This is just like the whole “predatory lender” bullshit currently being yakked about by those in the media. If you’re going to dump a shitload of money down on what will be probably the biggest investment in your life, and you decide to listen to someone you don’t know from Adam and then be too stupid and/or lazy to look shit up yourself and/or spend $500 – 1000 to hire a lawyer to translate the legalese, you deserve to get bent over the tallest rail in town and be gangfucked for every penny you have.
Crowds throwing tomatoes are optional.
I think we ought to re-examine the role the politicians had in setting this mess in motion.
As I recall, a few years back some liberal weenies were pinging the lending institutions pretty hard about not expending credit to risky people, claiming a pattern of discrimination. The activists got the pols to lean on the credit community to loosen up their lending rules, “to be fair.” IIRC, there was some implied promise of a safety net, ’cause things couldn’t possibly be as bad as the stingy ol’ bankers made it out to be. So, green-lighted to loosen up their rules, the lenders jumped in with both feet.
Surprise, surprise. Those risky people were risky for a reason. But now it’s all the banks’ fault for misleading all those poor, gullible
dumbassesvoters.Like the poor woman and her hubby who were featured on one of the news channels the other night. She said they were “Forced” to sign their mortgage documents! My hearing aid must’ve been off when the newscasters talked about the part where these people had their reading and reasoning abilities taken away and were bound, beaten and threatened with death if they didn’t sign those papers ! You can bet more and more of these sorry excuses will find a way play the poor me game. Cause heaven forbid they should have to take responsibility for anything and pay for their own stupid mistakes.
I’ll cut them one little bit of slack… IF they had asked their realtor to do comparable valuations report, whether formal or informal, and the realtor did actually doctor it up in order to get the sale to go through, then they should win this case.
When you pay (even if it’s through a commission) an “expert” to give you advice and they lie to you, then you have a valid case.
IANAL, but that’s how I see it. Sure, they could have done their own research or even just have done more research and maybe have found out the price was too high. If what they say is true, they should also be able to sue the appraiser, who also should have known better and was also being paid for their expert opinion.
I remember when I worked in a coin shop waaaay back when and the owner was telling about how he had to be careful with what people said and what he said. Seems someone had gone to a dealer and said “How much is this coin worth?” and the guy said “I’ll give you $X for it” which was significantly below it’s real value. They sued and won, saying that they asked for his professional opinion, and he misled them. If they had said “How much will you give me for this?” he could have said anything and been off the hook.