Home-Appraisal Red Flags
In a Cooling Housing Market


By Andrea Coombes
From MarketWatch

If you're a home buyer, you want to pay a fair price for the house. If you're a seller, you want to get the most you can. Both of you rely on an appraiser to get the home's value right.

Appraisals are a key part of just about any residential real-estate deal, but the world of appraisals is not without its scandals. Phony appraisals are often a problem in mortgage-fraud cases, where a group of scammers will pose as legitimate real-estate professionals, hiking up a property's price to turn a quick profit.

There's also the issue of inflated appraisals, where appraisers push up a home's value, often to appease lenders, mortgage brokers and real estate agents. That's a potential problem for buyers who may then end up owning a home worth less than they thought.

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