Invesor ring artificially boosting property values

[Mark Safrin]

How common is for a group of investors to sell properties amongst themselves to inflate the apparent value of the property before approaching a HML to draw out the value?

Came across one such group. If I understand it correctly, they are hoping our appraisers will just use the last sale price as the preferred comp.

I don't think they realise our professional underwriters are not dumb. Nor that people in the industry speak to each other.

I am however wondering how common this is.