The Grand Rapids Press reports on appraisal fraud. "Not a week goes by that appraiser John Meyer does not get a request to 'hit the number' on a home's value to ensure a loan goes through. 'I had a guy from New Jersey last night call, and he wanted me to do the appraisal if I can assure him I would hit $800,000,' Meyer said recently. 'I told him I couldn't do that.'"

"Walker appraiser Fred Vander Wal has similar stories. 'I had two last week screaming at me about what they wanted me to do,' Vander Wal said. 'It was a 7-year-old home, and it was just trashed, holes in the walls, carpeting all ruined. They said, 'They're not going to loan on this if that's the real condition. Can't you tone it down a little bit?'"

"That would be appraisal fraud, and Meyer said it's 'one of the primary problems out there.' A recent example is the $325 million settlement by lending giant Ameriquest for what 49 state prosecutors call deceptive lending. Many of those allegations included inflated appraisals."

"Marge Eppes believes her Holland home was subject to an inflated appraisal. In 2002, she was trying to refinance the loan on her 3-year-old, three-bedroom home at a lower rate. The appraisal came in at $148,000. Eppes said the mortgage company told her it was not enough to cover the refinance."

"'Two months after that, they sent another person out,' Eppes said. 'They said it was worth $175,000.' The closing fell through for other reasons, and Eppes has since refinanced with another organization, but she was troubled by the difference in values."

"Appraisers across the country say they are asked to do it. A recent survey by Ohio-based October Research Corp. found 55 percent of appraisers reported being pressured to overstate home values. 'We get the requests all the time,' said Meyer in Kentwood. 'They say, 'Unless you can come up with another $20,000 more, we're not going to pay you.'"

"'We run into it all the time,' said Fred Skidmore, an associate broker. 'They've refinanced within the past year and a half, and the refinance appraisal came out higher than what we're able to sell it for today.' To settle with their lender, 'they'd have to come to the table with money,' he said."

"Remember the savings and loan debacle of the late 1980s that required a $200 billion taxpayer funded bailout? 'A lot of appraisers were complicit in that,' Meyer said."

"Vander Wal said much of his business is reviewing others' appraisals, many of which are problematic. He declined to name companies requesting them or the original appraisers for fear of losing business. 'Out of the reviews I've done in 10 years, easily 95 percent of them had serious problems,' he said. 'They would overvalue the properties by 20 or 30 percent.'"

"'We've reviewed some in which we looked at the appraisal, and everything looked right,' he said. 'We pulled the listing cards (with the sale information) and every one of the sale prices was inflated by $20,000 over what they really sold for.' He did not know the motive, but the extra money may have given the owners some extra spending money or allowed a buyer to have a 100 percent financing on the house without the mortgage lender realizing it."

"Real estate lawyer Nyal Deems said some instances are egregious. 'A really sad example is one where you find it was treated as a three-bedroom house and it turns out it was a mobile home parked on a lot,' he said. As a result, the buyer took on significantly more debt than the property is worth."