Real estate fraud affects us all. No harm you say? Appraisals like this story contributed to the real estate collapse of 2008 and The Great Recession. Millions lost their homes. The architects of that fraud largely walked away clean.
Listen on Spotify or Apple or Amazon
1992
The banks think he’s a criminal. Financial fraud, they call it. His ‘special’ clients, the real estate investors? They think of him as a facilitator.
Me, I’m Cal Brink. And I’m about to get my first taste of real estate.
I was hired to get evidence that an appraiser was cooking the books on his appraisals. I discovered a pattern when they sent over the files.
So, I took a class, read a book and got my real estate license and joined the local board of real estate agents. That way I could do my own comparison of houses sold. Comps the agents called them.
Most of the people I talked to in that classroom were seeking their fame and fortunes. I was there to secure the data. Little did I know where it would lead me later in life.
I asked one of the biggest agents in Maryland and DC if she would teach me how to comp a house if I promised not to be her competition. Everyone knew her because of the big Easter-style hats she would wear anytime she was selling houses. “It’s my trademark.”
She was fascinated with my job as a private investigator.
“Young’un, you call me if you have any trouble.” She was happy to rid her industry of the malcontents.
It didn’t take me long to see that the appraiser in question, let’s call him George, was a pretty good appraiser. I brought a few of his appraisals to the lady with the hats and she felt he was right on the nose.
Except when the buyer or refinancer was a real estate investor. The investors would often hide their identities behind LLC’s and straw buyers. But, real estate investors they were. The crooked kind.
I followed George through three of his routine days. He’d be at his POE (place of employment) early. About 10:00 or so, he’d venture out to knock out a house visit or two before a late lunch and another appraisal right after. Then back to the office.
Without fail, he’d leave for home at 4:30.
On that Thursday, I followed him as he pulled up to an appraisal in a part of DC begging for gentrification. The listed buyer was an LLC.
George pulled up to the northeast DC townhouse, got out of his car and took a picture of the front of the house. That was how he started all appraisals.
Then he got back in his car and appeared to just sit there and wait. This was a deviation of George’s routine.
At precisely 2:15 pm, a blacked-out Chevy Suburban pulled in right behind George.
I picked up my camera from the passenger seat and readied it in my lap.
George sat up and took notice while looking in his rearview mirror. A stocky man with a baseball cap, standing about six feet and holding a white, thick envelope in his right hand walked up to George’s car as George rolled his window down.
The stocky man leaned down, and a few words were exchanged before the envelope changed hands and George secured it in his glove compartment.
A couple of minutes later, they both went on their way.
From my black for Escort I photographed the highlights and documented the rest. Including the Suburban’s license plate number and the fact that George never stepped foot in the house.
When I returned to my office, I made a phone call and asked for a favor. The license plate came back to a man that was a registered agent of the LLC securing the mortgage.
When the bank sent me over a copy of the appraisal that George had submitted, it came in about thirty-percent high. My lady-in-the-hat confirmed it.
From there, I let the lawyers handle the matter.
What I’ve Learned
Homebuyers think appraisals on their home purchases are there to protect them. Or set the home’s value. Nothing is further from the truth.
Appraisals are there to protect the banks. If your credit score is pristine and you’re putting twenty-five percent towards the purchase price, almost anything will be appraised within the parameters of the contract.
If you are scraping by, maybe had a missed payment a couple years back and your credit score shows a lot of credit usage, you are inviting a full financial colonoscopy. Especially if you are buying a home with only 5% down, or less.
The banks are going to ask the appraiser to value that house with a fine-toothed comb. Check everything.
Because the truth is, appraisals are there to protect the bank’s interest in the loan. If you were to default and you have twenty to thirty percent equity, the bank will be made whole. If you default and you don’t have much into the house, as far as equity is concerned, the bank could take a hit.
Banks don’t like that.
The rules of finance favor the well off, or downright rich.
Same as it ever was.
© 2026 Chris Writes, LLC. All Rights Reserved
Want more behavioral and observational analysis? Join me over at Behavioral Detective HQ.
Make sure you let me know you want in. It’s a private group. Leave a message: “Cal sent me.”