Annals of Corruption:

Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., sold his Washington, D.C., home last year to a brokerage industry official whose organization is under the purview of a committee Perdue sits on. The deal was made off market, without the home being listed for sale publicly.

Though an appraisal provided to ProPublica by the buyer found that Perdue sold for slightly under market value, four local real estate experts disagreed, telling ProPublica that the almost $1.8 million sale price Perdue garnered seemed high. Their estimates of the premium ranged from a few thousand dollars to as much as about $140,000. A fifth expert said the price was squarely fair market value.

You have to ask yourself, why would Perdue sell the house to an official of an industry Perdue has governmental power over for under market value?

Real estate “market value” is tricky, as far as I understand it, because it’s about intangibles like what people are willing to pay and what other houses in the area might sell for (or might not) and whether the neighborhood is going up or down and yadda yadda – there’s a lot of guesswork and prediction and self-fulfilling prophecy.

So! There’s an easy solution for this quandary – don’t do an insider deal with someone you have government power over.

“Determining fair market value is always a gray area, unless the sales are done in a competitive open market,” said Craig Holman with the watchdog group Public Citizen. “Since the purchase and sale of this property by Sen. Perdue was not done on the open market, it raises serious suspicions as to whether the sale was in fact at fair market value.”

And questions about why it wasn’t done on the open market in the first place.

Perdue has faced multiple allegations that he has mixed his private financial interests with his official work. The most prolific stock trader in the Senate, he bought and sold shares in companies that the committees he sits on have jurisdiction over. Some of his trades came at fortunate times. Earlier this year, the Justice Department investigated him and other lawmakers for possible insider trading. Perdue denied the allegations. Prosecutors ultimately decided not to bring charges against him.

Now let’s talk about the curb appeal.