The profession

An appraiser is paid to be indifferent to what you want.

That is the whole point of the job. Everyone else in a property transaction benefits from a particular number. The appraiser is the one person structurally kept out of it.

Here is what the work involves, the licence ladder behind it, and the rules that keep the value independent.

A person measuring an empty interior room with a handheld tool, arm extended, lit by raking window light across bare walls and a wooden floor.

The method

Three approaches to value

Every appraisal is built from one or more of three angles. Residential work leans almost entirely on the first.

Sales comparison

What did similar nearby property actually sell for, and what is this one worth once you adjust for the differences. The backbone of residential appraisal.

Cost

What would it cost to rebuild this, minus depreciation, plus the land. Most useful for new construction and unusual property with few comparable sales.

III

Income

What income does the property produce, and what would an investor pay for that stream. The main approach for commercial and rental work.

The appraiser then reconciles. That means explaining which approach and which comparable sales carried the most weight, and why. Reconciliation is judgment, and it is the part that cannot be automated.

Credentials

The licence ladder

Appraisers are licensed at state level, and the titles are not interchangeable. Each rung means more education, more supervised experience and a wider scope of work.

Trainee Appraiser

Working under a certified supervisor. Can inspect and assist, but the supervising appraiser signs and carries responsibility for the report.

Licensed Residential

Independent work on non complex one to four unit residential property, within value limits set by the state and the programme.

Certified Residential

One to four unit residential property without those value limits, including complex assignments. The credential most lenders want to see on a home appraisal.

Certified General

All property types including commercial, industrial and large income producing assets. The widest scope on the ladder.

Separately, an appraiser can be on the FHA roster, which allows them to appraise for FHA insured loans. That is an approval, not a rung.

Independence

Why you cannot call them about the number

Appraiser independence rules keep the lender, the loan officer, the agent and the borrower from influencing a valuation. It is why the order usually travels through an appraisal management company rather than straight from the person writing the loan.

It can feel obstructive when you are the one waiting. It exists because appraisals that bend toward whatever number a deal needs are precisely how lending goes wrong at scale.

Facts are always welcome and go through whoever ordered the report. A closed sale the appraiser missed, a permit, a correction to room count. What cannot travel is pressure.

Appraisers also work to USPAP, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice. That is the ethics and competency framework underneath the licence.

Certified appraisers

Three, in their own markets

Credentials are easier to understand next to people who hold them.

Arizona

Tyler Kane

Certified Residential Appraiser, FHA approved, working north Phoenix and the northeast Valley through TyCorp Inc.

TyCorp Inc

Utah

Weston Groll

Utah Certified Residential Appraiser and FHA approved, based in American Fork, covering 52 cities across 8 counties.

Apex Appraising

Nationwide

Pocket Appraisal

Residential appraisal work arranged across the country.

Pocket Appraisal

Questions

Common questions

What is the difference between licensed and certified?

Scope. A Licensed Residential Appraiser works on non complex one to four unit property within value limits. A Certified Residential Appraiser works on one to four unit property without those limits, including complex assignments. Certified General extends to all property types including commercial. Each step requires more education and more supervised experience.

What does FHA approved mean?

That the appraiser appears on the FHA roster and can perform appraisals for FHA insured loans. It sits alongside the state credential rather than replacing it, and it matters if your financing is FHA, because not every appraiser is on that roster.

Does the appraiser work for the lender?

They are engaged by the lender, usually through an appraisal management company, and the lender is the intended user of the report. But they do not work to produce the lender's preferred answer. Independence rules and professional standards exist specifically to separate who pays for the report from what the report concludes.

Is USPAP a law?

It is the professional standard for appraisal practice in the United States, covering ethics, competency and how reports are developed and communicated. It is adopted and enforced through state licensing, so for a licensed appraiser it functions as binding rather than optional.

Get in touch

Question about the profession?

Credentials, scope or how the independence rules work in practice.