This makes no sense. For one thing, the vast majority of appraisals are ordered by banks, after a price has been agreed upon by both buyer and seller. I think you're even under contract at that point.

Prior to that, most people just use Zillow. Or Redfin. Or they ask their fucking Realtor.

Beyond that, appraisers don't typically walk around your house and look at your pictures and crap. At most they do a drive-by. The whole process is based on finding other properties yours is comparable to, and that's not based on your family photos or the prevalence of giraffe art in your den.

I think these people are trolls. They spent their time and money engineering a very atypical scenario that, frankly, sounds bad only to people who've never bought or sold a property. I guess that's the people they're trying to fool- their "brothers" and "sisters." Sad.