Yesterday, I wrote about a shady mortgage loan officer who is now working for a loan-modification company. This individual, who helped talk his clients into risky loan products that often landed them in financial chaos, is now working to help people struggling to make their mortgage payments. And there's no guarantee that he's not scamminmg these people, either. Loan-modification companies are not always the most trustworthy of firms.

Now there's news from the Center for Public Integrity that real estate appraisers in California and Florida who've had their licenses revoked often go to work as real estate agents.

That's right: Appraisers who forged appraisal reports or over-inflated the value of homes, and were inept enough to get caught doing this, are now trying to sell homes to clients.

Is it any wonder so many people view the mortgage-lending and real estate industries as a bit of a cesspool?

The Center for Public Integrity cites one former appraiser in particular, Serge R. Wainer. He lost his license because he forged a home appraisal. But that didn't stop Wainer from selling homes in Florida. That's because even though he lost his appraiser's license, he retiained his real estate sales license.

The report from the Center for Public Integrity is sure to make your blood boil.

Unethical appraisers — and most real estate appraisers, by the way, are honest, hard-working folks — cause much of the housing industry's problems by overinflating the values of homes to make loan officers happy. When loan officers were happy, they sent more business to appraisers. It was a symbiotic relationship that eventually helped bring the housing market to its current dismal state.