Well, well, well. It turns out that the appraiser behind this dubious appraisal has a bit of a dubious history.

Added to my post:

Update: as a reader pointed out, appraiser Jon DiPietra, before joining the firm Horvath & Tremblay, was placed on the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation restricted vendor list, as per Hiten Samtani of The Promote, when at the firm BBG, because of concerns about mortgage fraud. That meant that the corporation, known as Freddie Mac, would not accept his appraisals. DiPietra was later pushed out.