Couple Loses Suit Claiming Realtor Let Them Overpay for Home
A California couple who claimed their real estate agent failed to tell them they were overpaying for their home have lost their lawsuit.
Marty and Vernon Ummel had contended their agent didn’t disclose that other homes in the neighborhood were selling for $100,000 less than the amount they paid, the Chicago Tribune reports.
The Ummels said they had told their agent they were out-of-town buyers unfamiliar with the area, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. Jury forewoman Wendi Brick told the newspaper that jurors found the agent had met his fiduciary duties. “In any kind of purchase, especially one that big—and most of us have had our own situations we’d been through—the bottom line really stops with you. Whose final responsibility is it to sign a contract? It’s yours,” she said.
The couple’s case was highlighted in a New York Times article that said it could be the first of many brought by buyers as their homes drop in value below that of their outstanding mortgages.
