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- Jun 2, 2019
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Fraud does not have a loose legal meaning these days.“Fraud” has a loose meaning these days. Is it “fraud” to represent that a property is worth far in excess of its appraised value while only paying taxes on the lower appraised amount? If so, Stewart is just as guilty.
And no, what Stewart and millions of other American home owners have done is not hypocritical when you understand that what is taxed is the value, not the sell cost.
When a property goes up for sale, the appraised value is listed as well as what the owner is looking for. The information is readily available upon request by the seller. There is nothing illegal on creating an asking price above the appraisal value….because the appraised value is required to be disclosed upon request.
If you are dumb enough to pay an asking price without looking at the appraised value, that’s on you.
Now what Trump did was fake the appraised value (illegal) to gain loans (illegal) and to devalue when paying taxes on the property (illegal).
Trump has every right to set the asking price as high as he wants…as long as he discloses the real, appraised value upon request. That’s what Stewart did.
Full disclosure: I was a licensed real estate appraiser in the state of Maryland. So, just fair warning before to try to argue the finer points with me.