Did anyone catch Marty on the ‘Today Show’ Friday morning? Marty Ummel and her husband, Vernon, recently purchased a home in San Diego and are now suing their buying agent. Marty believes she paid about $175,000 over what the actual value of her new home is worth. So, Marty is suing their Re/Max agent for leading her and her husband to overpay for their home.
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I think this story is interesting because, in a way, Marty is suing the real estate industry and not so much her agent. I say that because the actual agent Marty is suing has already and will continue to argue that, “It’s a home buyers’ responsibility to perform their due diligence as a consumer when making purchases”. I sort of thought that is why Marty, and other home buyers, hire real estate agents and pay high commissions. They’re not confident in their own “due diligence”. If I was confident as a home buyer that I could fully assess the real estate market and make smart home buying decisions why would I ever hire an agent?
So, this brings me to the point of this post…
If it is now the home buyer’s exclusive responsibility to perform the due diligence of buying a home, then it ought to be the real estate industry’s responsibility to provide the data and resources buyers need to perform the task. Agents can not play “hide-and-seek” with real estate data, and then blame consumers when they rely on them to help make decisions. This is why I think Marty is suing the real estate industry more than she is just suing the actions of one agent.
As a side note, watch the NBC interview, and see if you can find the moment I started throwing things at the TV? It’s when the so called “MSNBC Legal Analyst” A.K.A. “NAR Legal Analyst” said, “The bank wouldn’t have given them [the Ummel's] the mortgage in the amount that they got if the appraisal didn’t back the value of the house.” HEY, “legal analyst” are you serious! Have you ever thought that perhaps there is a problem in the mortgage lending industry as well!
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DO YOU FUCKING HOMEWORK B4 you trust someone with your money, dumbass!!
What a bunch of morons.
Had those sales gone to record when these Ummel schmucks wrote and signed their contract? If not, how would the agent or the appraiser know?
Secondly, value IS in the eye of the beholder (as long as it can be supported by an appraisal, and this was.) Did Mrs. Ummel look at any other 1.2 million dollar homes? Obviously this one was up to snuff with the competition, because she bought it. And if she didn’t look at any others, then she is indeed a fool and deserves what she got.
Also, have any of you even thought about percentages? She’s bitching and acting like a ninny because of one that sold for $175,000 less. In terms of a 1.2 million dollar home, that is about 14.5%. To relate that to us normal folks, that’s like buying a $250,000 home and finding out that one up the street sold for $36k less. Are you going to sue everyone you can get your hands on when you find out? If she’s stupid enough to drop $75k on this lawsuit, then does it really suprise you that she bought this house?
Maybe this house had features that made it stand out. Maybe it was more well kept. Maybe those other sales were distressed (i.e. divorce, bankrupt, owner addicted to crack and needs money…who the heck knows?)
Point being the seller thought it was worth it, the BUYER thought it was worth it, the appraisal said it was worth it, and the lender agreed it was worth it, the agent thought it was worth it and likely thought he had provided a good service to these people.
If you get married, but then notice that there is a better looking, smarter single person, do you dump your spouse and then sue your best friend for not doing a better job of advising you? NO. You loved what you saw, you did whatever you could to make the relationship happen, and then you spend your life being happy with what you got NO MATTER WHAT ELSE might be out there.
Or you could act like the Ummels. And waste even more money with an ignorant
lawsuit.
My two cents.
Tom, I am totally agree with you 100%. That lady probably has nothing to do with her life and wants to change the world with that stupidity. I think her husband needs to grow a pear, instead of “supporting her”.
I just have to say to the Ummel: are they nuts? is she trying to get some money just because the economy is bad? does she has something better to do?, I hope she can learn that in a market, you will always find homes (probably exactly the same as your) same sq. ft, same number of bedrooms, even built by the same builder in the same block and… some were sold for less or more money, that is a fact, and a real estate agent can’t do anything about it, also she needs to remember: “The value of something is what someone’s willing to sell it for and what someone’s willing to pay for it”
I hope she can get a life and don’t trouble her poor husband!!! and give those 75k that they already spent to kids in need or to a charity, that will help and change the world as she wants.
and for that ME who wrote those 3 lines, YOU have to know that buyer does not pay the comission, is the SELLER who pays the comission to the agent, so… The Ummels did not pay any comission to the Agent, now who is the dumbass……
Here another two cents.
I think you guys are missing the point of this article. It’s not arguing whether the Ummel’s suit is warranted or the fact that maybe they got a bad deal, but rather, if the Ummel’s are going to be held responsible for their decision to buy (as ME, Tom, Cecile, and everyone else will say they should) then the real estate industry must take the responsibility to provide the needed data, facts, comps, etc. Otherwise how can we expect consumers to make good “responsible” decisions?
As for, “YOU have to know that buyer does not pay the commission, is the SELLER who pays the commission to the agent,”. this is dead wrong! The seller is the one negotiating the price of the commissions, but the BUYER is the only one that writes a check in a real estate transaction. All monies that flow to agents, brokers, or anyone else involved in the transaction are taken out of a portion of what money a buyer brings to the table.
Therefore, the BUYER (Marty Ummel) is paying for everything!
This is about buyer’s remorse. Does anyone know that the seller of the property was a licensed realtor as well? The owner priced her own home for what she thought was fair market value. Had the buyers (anyone stepping in that door) thought that is was NOT worth the “list” price, they know they can offer less. It’s called negotiation, boys and girls.
The Ummels also fired two other realtors prior to selecting the one that is being sued. BOTH are now breathing a HUGE sigh of relief that she actually said: “Ya fired!”
They, apparently, toured other homes with other agents . . . they knew what the market was doing. They felt comfortable with this purchase, otherwise why would they have bought the home?
With websites such as Zillow and other like-property valuation sites, the general public can . . . and DOES . . . utilize them for all kinds of things. Everyone wants to play “realtor” don’t they? Only except when they think that something went wrong.
This home does not have any defective elements . . . which would have been deceit if not disclosed.
The stink is about “value” . . . preceived and/or otherwise.
This is their home, and they will be in it for a long time. They have the ability to pay for it, and they are not one of the unfortunate ones that are looking at a looming foreclosure.
If they “win” their claims and the house, in ten’s years time appreciates in value — because that’s what markets do — can RE/MAX sue for them back?!?
And if you think real estate is bad WITH agents . . . try taking them out of the mix altogether. HA HA HA.
Buyer’s have many places that they can turn to for published data regarding real estate sales. Zillow.com, Reatlor.com, and cyberhomes.com, are three, just to name a few. I’m a Realtor and I do firmly believe that those of us how are Realtors should make our best effort to arm our clients with information that will help them make educated decisions. Ultimately it is the responsibility of the home buyer to do there homework in all aspects of a real estate transaction. There is an enormous amount of free public information regarding real estate available. Technology has seen to that. Buyer’s have NO EXCUSE for suggesting they do not have access to the information. Real estate is like any other supply and demand market. Where there is a meeting of the minds on value, a seller willing to sell at a price a buyer is willing to pay, this establishes the market value of a home. An appraisal is done to justify to the lender and the buyer that that the seller and buyer agreed to price is within reasonable proximity to the overall values in the area. I don’t think these people will be successful with their case. If they are, I suspect the broker will appeal to the highest court possible as it would set a very bad precedence for the industry with long ranging effects.
What I think it comes down to, is that there is a fundamental problem in the real estate industry about how and whether buyers are adequately represented by their agencies. Without knowing all of the nitty gritty of the case, I cannot be a complete arbiter, but most home buyers are unaware–as the industry wants them to be–about how a realtor’s allegiances can easily change. If the Ummel’s signed a buyer’s agreement with an agent, that agent really should be advocating for them. However, the reality is that a million little clauses are built into these agreements to let the agents off the hook for any potential liability.
Without a doubt in my mind, there needs to be more information available to buyers about the reality of the buyer/realtor/seller relationships. For peace of mind, groups like the National Association of Exclusive Buyers Agencies are the place to find referrals and ethical buyers brokers.
Everyone here must be real estate agents. You agents hoard info and don’t disclose anything to the public that you don’t want us to see. If you did, then you would all be out of a job, if you’re not out of one already. Zillow wasn’t around back then, and even if it would have been, the data is scarce at best. There are also public records, but when an agent has access to the MLS, and does not disclose it to a potential buyer when the buyer is requesting comps, then it is outright fraud. Keep complaining agents until you are out of a job once there is complete disclosure and access that the agents have hidden for years from us.
I wonder if Josh is the website designer for open the home and if anonymous is David Blumenshine. Nice try guys! Trying to install fear into the public to use your site is in and of itself unethical.
Hmmmm. “Trying to install fear into the public…” The Real Estate industry is all about disclosure. We @ openthehome.com have nothing to hide— do you?
Me thinks there is a skunck…. Because something really stinks.
Josh & David B…. You guys beating the same old drum over and over again is getting old. Trying to say that the seller does not pay the fees, commissions and such, and that the buyer pays the commission, is truly BS! That is like saying that if someone buys a FSBO with out a Realtors help, then the buyer is getting a better deal because the buyer is not paying any commissions. Well, as we all know, most FSBO are not priced say 6% (as an example) below market value. The seller prices their home at what they think the MARKET value is. Please follow me here. It would be dumb for a seller to find out what their home is worth (either from a Realtor, tax rolls, or best guess estimate) and then do all the marketing, the Open Houses, the negotiating (needless to say expose themselves to total strangers walking thru their home without representation and probably not knowing the buyers true identity) and do all this for a less net profit figure. Instead, the FSBO prices their home and hopes to sell their home at what they think is the current market value. They do not drop that price by say 6% (as an example), they simply hope to make more PROFIT by NOT PAYING A COMMISSION TO AN AGENT! PLEASE GO BACK AND REREAD THAT LAST SENTENCE! Therefore, to say that the BUYER pays any sellers cost, including but not limited to commissions, is as I stated before BS. The seller pays their closing cost and the cost of marketing their home by paying the commission and such from the PROCEEDS FROM THE SALE. Sellers have every right to make as much profit from the sale of their home as they want. It’s just that most sellers agree that a Real Estate agent does it better, quicker, and with less hassle, to say nothing about sellers safety. It does not change the fact of who pays a commission depending on whether a Realtor is involved or not, the seller pays a commission or the seller tries to keeps more money, that’s their right and those are the facts. When the time comes that a better mousetrap (way to sell a home) is invented, the Realtors will adjust to it and life will go on.
It’s just that you David B. have admitted to many a person that you do not sell Real Estate and that you do not want to sell Real Estate. You say you only want to make money off of the online advertisements that you hope to get on to the website. SO please stop talking down about an industry that you USED to be a part of and made a good living off of. You know you have tried a number of incarnations of your ever changing Real Estate model (remember the flat fee model, the 2% and 4% model, now it’s the 1$ coop commission model) but as of yet you have not been able to convince the general public or many (any) fellow Real Estate agents that YOUR way is THE WAY…
Enough for now
Oh and P.S. to HARRY’s BS. who by the way sounds bitter and unhappy in life.
The only info we have on our private site that you, the general pubic does not have, is things like the owners phone #, showing instructions, pet info, whether the home is vacant and things like that… We as Real Estate agents are by law required to disclose material defects and most things that we know about the homes that we show. So I do not understand what you are bitter about. I do not know any agent that would be dumb enough to not give all available (allowable) MLS info to a buyer if asked to. And BTW there are a number of ways for Harry to get most all the same info that we as Realtors PAY FOR and have access to, but it may take Harry getting up off his butt and doing some work.
I am sick and tired of people like Big H that want every thing handed to them, they do not want to take responsibility for themselves, and when something goes wrong in their life, they are the first to point a finger at the other guy or gal.
Sorry to RANT Good Buy.
I say “Poor Marty Umell. ”
Not because she bought at a “fair” price at what turned out to be the top of the market, overpaying (as many thousands of others did) for real estate.
I say “poor Marty Umell,” because her actions in going after the agent make her look like a pathetic loser, incapable of taking responisbility for HER free-market choice to overpay for a house in SoCal.
I’ve been a landscaper for a number of years, but spent almost 15 years in Mortgage & real estate in Southern California. Anyone with only HALF a brain must know that prices go up and have “corrected” before, as well.
The looked at a LOT of homes, so they were perfectly capable of making their own “appraisal” as to the relative value of the home they bought (willingly).
Shame on you, Marty.
Sell your house fast
And so it went for just- launched website Avvo , a new venture from the producers of consumer information portal Zillow. As reported in SeattlePI and later Venturebeat , Avvo does for consumers seeking legal counsel what Zillow did for buyers searching…
I think she over paid for plastic surgery as well. What’s next, is she going to sue he surgeon! Agents and Doctors are both liscensed, shouldn’t he/she have known what she needed done!
They are acting like the younger generation of our time which is surprising given their age……..”If things do not go well in their lives, find someone else to blame”. They are pathetic little people.
My Two Cents,
z-old man,
I don’t think we will see the day when real-estate agents are no more. Surely until that day agents will continue to make 3 – 15k on less than 1 hour of work. It is a great way to accumulate wealth and become a rich yuppy like 90% of Bloomington, Normal.
Wealth accumulation, when threatened becomes nasty as shown in your blog post. A guy goes against the grain, which shakes the ground that pays the payments on the Lexus or over-sized golf cart, and there is anger.
Fairness is not defined by what someone can get away with due to another person’s ignorance. Fairness is defined through experts view of the business then applied in order to be truly “fair.” It appears the real estate business and commissions are not governed on a true fairness model.
If I took your wallet without you knowing, would it be fair or correct? You had every opportunity to guard your wallet.
Life is not fair, but if a guy wants to move into the real estate business with a new definition of ethics, making this available to those who may benefit, then why not support such an attempt?
Does this make you feel guilty if you are practicing “unfair” however supported real estate commissions?
Overall, Americans paid nearly $80 billion for brokerage services in 2007. The government is involved. The facts are there.
Wealth accumulation, when threatened becomes nasty as shown in your blog post. A guy goes against the grain, which shakes the ground that pays the payments on the Lexus or over-sized golf cart, and there is anger.