They're BaaAAaack!

So I am skimming over the Ben Jones housing bubble blog and I notice the name "Marty Ummel" mentioned in one of the posts and I say to myself, "Hey, I know that name". I remember that name from a Marin IJ article that I almost chose to blog. I was unable to find the original IJ article in their archives (it was back in late 2005 or early 2006 if I remember correctly) but as I recall these were the folks who (for reasons that I find hard to believe) actually left God's Country (aka Marin County) for that "armpit" Southern California. As I recall they lived in the Dominican Hills area and Vernon and Marty Ummel were fund raisers for Dominican College University at the time.

Well, the Ummels are back in the news (you can see the video here). Apparently, the Ummels feel they paid too much for their SoCal house, they are watching it fall in value, and, naturally, are suing someone and that someone is their real estate agent:

CARLSBAD, Calif. - A North County woman who says she paid too much for her home, which she bought at the height of the housing boom, is taking her case to court.

In 2005, Marty Ummel and her husband bought a four-bedroom house in Carlsbad for $1.2 million. The Ummels say their agent was dishonest about the price of other homes in the neighborhood, and then rushed them to close the deal before the Ummels found out comparable houses on the same street sold for as much as $175,000 less.

She has now filed suit against her real estate agent, claiming fraud.

""We feel that we were misled. We feel disappointed. We do feel angry," she said... We've worked hard and to think that we've done that our whole lives -- and then for a realtor not to tell us about the biggest purchase of our lives -- that there was a house selling for much less," she said.

But in a deposition, an expert witness hired by the defense said of the Ummels: "They simply didn't do what is expected of a knowledgeable sophisticated buyer, and are now looking for someone other than themselves to take responsibility.'"

The defendant in this case, Mike Little of Remax Associates, told the New York Times the case is quote "ridiculous."

"There are a lot of folks out there who are in a desperate situation right now with their homes and they're simply looking for someone to blame," said Diana Olick of CNBC.

"If they have information that is pertinent to their purchaser they should disclose it, but at the end of the day, the buyer is responsible for their own actions," said Robert DeLeonardis, the former president of the Manhattan Association of Realtors.

People in the real estate industry are calling this a "landmark lawsuit."

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't mind seeing the real estate industry being sued; I don't mind that at all. And I am sure there are a lot more law suits to come. But seriously, how many of you are actually going to tell me that the Ummels didn't buy with the full expectation that "houses only go up in price" and "now is [always] a good time to buy" so it doesn't matter if you willingly pay a stupid price for a house? These are former Marin residents after all and that makes them "special"; as the Marin RE bulls were frequently telling us "bubbleheads" early in the history of this blog, Marin residents are all rich, all financially savvy.

So what do you think? Do the Ummels have a legitimate gripe (listen to the reasons Marty Ummel lists in the video)? Is this case truly a "landmark" case? Will we be seeing more upside-down buyers suing their real estate agents? Or are the Ummels just more spoiled, whining Marinites who didn't get their way? And what does this portend for the future?