1. How is an opportunity created to commit appraisal fraud? Does the appraiser act alone, or is collusion routinely involved?
2. How is appraisal fraud detected? Is intent to deceive easy to prove in appraisal fraud?
3. What pressures or perceived pressures can motivate appraisers to make faulty valuations?
4. How do appraisers rationalize their fraudulent behavior?
5. Why would a county perceive pressure to fraudulently inflate property values?
6. What controls would help to prevent appraisal fraud?
7. What natural controls exist to prevent homeowners from the desire to “massage the value” of their homes?
Hotel worker Danny Ruiz was living with his wife and four children in a cramped New York apartment when he saw a television ad promising the family a way out. “Why rent when you can own your own home?” Pennsylvania builder Gene Percudani asked. The company even offered to pay his rent for a year, while he saved for a down payment. So the Ruiz family fled the city for the Pocono Mountains, where they bought a three-bedroom Cape Cod home in 1999 for $171,000. However, when they tried to refinance less than two years later, the home was valued at just $125,000. “I just about flipped,” said Mr. Ruiz. Later Mrs. Ruiz remarked about her husband, “He went nuts.”