The Uniform Standards of Professional Appraiser Practice (USPAP) Certified Residential Appraiser Exam is a certification examination designed by the Appraiser Qualifications Board (AQB) and administered by a variety of administrators throughout the United States that is used to determine whether or not an individual has the knowledge necessary to appraise residential properties with certain restrictions.
This exam, which is very similar to the USPAP Licensed Residential Appraiser Exam, assesses the individual’s understanding of a variety of topics related to appraising residential properties including factors that affect the value of properties, legal concerns, economic principles, real estate analysis, appraisal statistics, and a variety of other similar topics.
This exam, or an equivalent exam if another appraiser exam is offered by the local licensing authority, is required in order to become a certified residential appraiser. A certified residential appraiser is legally allowed to appraise any residential property with less than five units regardless of the value of the property.
The exam consists of 165 multiple-choice questions, 150 of which are scored and 15 that are not scored, that are related to the following areas:
- Factors that Affect Real Estate Value (5%)
- Legal Concerns (5%)
- Types of Value (5%)
- Economic Principles (5%)
- Real Estate Markets and Analysis (4%)
- Property Description (11%)
- Highest and Best Use Analysis (9%)
- Appraisal Math and Statistics (3%)
- Sales Comparison Approach (15%)
- Site Value Methods (5%)
- Cost Approach (9%)
- Income Approach (7%)
- Valuation of Partial Interest (1%)
- Appraisal Standards and Ethical Concerns (16%)
The exam-taker will have six hours to complete the exam and the exam-taker will receive a pass/fail grade based on whether or not he or she makes enough correct responses to meet or exceeds the threshold set by the AQB or the local licensing authority. The exact number of correct responses required to pass the exam varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction depending on the exact version of the exam that each administrator is using
In order to register for the USPAP Certified Residential Appraiser Exam, the individual interested in pursuing certification must have completed at least 200 hours of courses related to appraising property including the 15-hour National USPAP course or an equivalent course, an associate’s degree or higher, and at least 2500 hours of appraisal experience.
If the individual meets the experience and education requirements, he or she may register for the exam by contacting the local licensing authority for the area in which he or she is pursuing a career.