Appraisal Fraud

Fraud sucks. Especially when you’re the patsy. This term is huge when it comes to protecting YOU in the homebuying process.

Appraisal fraud occurs when a house is overvalued by an appraiser in a fraudulent manner. So, if an appraiser comes to you with a bright idea of lying to the bank about how much a home is worth...likely with the intent of "allowing you" to get that $422,000 mortgage which you can't really afford...appraisal fraud is about to be committed.

And it happens in the other direction as well. YOU want your current home to be valued as LOW as possible because your taxes are 1.3% of its value each year and the lower the appraised price, well, the less you pay in taxes.

Often appraisal fraud is occurring under your radar. You might not know that the appraiser is doing anything wrong. After all, it might seem brilliant to mark up the price on your home when you refinance, or if you want to buy it and flip it. Any scheme to inflate numbers is shady. If you do it, the consequences often involve stripes. Vertical ones in a jail. Hope they are slimming on you.