Marty Ummel was in the news this week. Maybe you heard a little bit about it?
The San Diego housewife sued her real estate agent because she feels he didn’t do his job and allowed her and her husband (who is apparently a mute) to “overpay” for her million dollar home.
She appeared on the Today show, this morning.
She didn’t do much to discount general perception that she is, as in the words of her agent, “a nut job”.
I don’t think many people believe she will win her case; mostly, we just look on, amused (bemused?).
From MSNBC:
MSNBC legal analyst Susan Filan told Curry that she doesn’t think the Ummels will prevail in court.
“I don’t think it’s a suit that has merit,” she said. “I think the standard of proof will be that this agent willfully, deliberately and with malicious intent withheld this information. This information that was allegedly withheld is public information. The bank wouldn’t have given them the mortgage in the amount they got if the appraisal didn’t back the house.”
“We feel the appraisal was manipulated,” Marty Ummel responded.
In her lawsuit, which is to go to trial in March, she says that the agent did not meet requests to give them a written appraisal until after the deal had gone through, telling them orally that the value of the house was the $1.2 million they paid for it.
“You can’t just say, ‘Oh, it’s the same size. It’s the same value.’ What’s the nature of the interior? Maybe it was painted all black,” Filan said. “You can’t just look at little boxes on a map and say that one should be the same value as that one.”
Exactly.
Source: Home buyer who overpaid sues real estate agent – By Mike Celizic, MSNBC
