Bugs – what do you think of this scenario – instead of doing a fraudulent appraisal to overvalue the property, we find a distressed property in a decent area and ‘overlook’ the reasons it is distressed

For example, there is another post talking about two houses in San Marcos that back up to the train tracks and yet they recently sold for $710K

Couldn’t an appraiser value these houses against the rest of the development and assume that the train tracks are a non-issue? Aren’t appraisers supposed to use their personal judgement? At what point does personal judgement become fraud?

This scenario is essentially the “buy the worst house in the best neighborhood” philosophy being applied in a declining vs rising market.