This story was written by Randy Dotinga

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Real-estate appraiser Karen Long isn't very busy, and she thinks she knows why. Her unwillingness to fudge figures has given her a reputation. She suspects her honesty keeps away clients who don't want surprises.

"If you're not going to meet [their anticipated] value, they just walk away and find another appraisal," says Ms. Long of State Center, Iowa. "It goes on all the time."

No one knows exactly how often appraisers tinker with reality. But reports suggest that they face enormous pressure to tweak their numbers. Some observers predict they'll face even more if the real estate market cools.

"I don't think that anyone can assume that the appraised value of their home is based on reality. Appraisal fraud is so common that homeowners need to assume the opposite," says research director David Callahan of Demos, a public policy center. Demos released a report about appraisal fraud in March, sparking intense discussion in the real estate press.

Homebuyers and sellers may barely give a second thought to appraisers. After all, appraisers are typically hired by mortgage brokers or lenders, and their reports often come out during the final loan-approval process, after both sides have settled on a price. And while buyers pay for appraisals, the typical fees - several hundred dollars - pale in comparison with all the other costs. 
 
But a too-high or too-low appraisal can spell big trouble for buyers and lenders. Imagine, for example, that an appraiser artificially boosts the value of a $200,000 home to $230,000. The purchaser - or someone who's refinancing her home - "may decide to tap this artificial equity, and it's not really there," says Alan Hummel, an appraiser in Des Moines, Iowa, and former president of the Appraisal Institute. "When they turn around and try to sell the property, they're upside down. They can't sell it for what they owe against it."

The lender, often a bank, may find itself on the hook too: If it needs to foreclose on a default loan, it might not get the amount it lent out.

In a 2003 survey of 500 appraisers by a private firm, 55 percent of appraisers said they'd felt pressure to overstate values, according to the Demos report. The National Association of Realtors has warned the United States Senate about the prevalence of appraisal fraud, and thousands of appraisers have signed an online petition calling for reform.

Who's putting the pressure on appraisers? Appraisers blame mortgage brokers and lenders who are paid by commission. For them, just as for real estate agents, more expensive homes translate into more money.

"There are a certain number of mortgage brokers who will try to push appraisers on every single deal," says P. David Rij, an appraiser in San Diego. "They always want more than what the property is worth."

If home sales hit the skids, perhaps due to higher interest rates, some specialists expect appraisers to encounter more pressure, possibly leading to more fraud. "It's possible it will get worse," says Mr. Hummel.

Members of Congress have pushed for appraisal reform, but they've been unsuccessful. "There's been an absence of strong federal action to reduce appraisal fraud, even though there's a consensus among professionals in the field that this is a major problem," says Mr. Callahan of the Demos center. He isn't sure what changes will work. But a good start, he says, might be to create a "firewall" between brokers and appraisers to prevent conflicts of interest and undue influence. Perhaps, he says, appraisers could be assigned randomly.

For now, real-estate specialists say there are several ways to avoid appraisal fraud: