The Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) Licensed Residential Appraiser Exam is a licensure 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 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 licensed residential appraiser. A licensed residential appraiser is legally allowed to appraise non-complex residential properties with less than five units and a value of less than $1,000,000 or complex residential properties with less than five units and a value of less than $250,000.
The exam consists of 110 multiple-choice questions, 15 of which are not scored, that are related to the following areas:
- Real Estate Market (18%)
- Property Description (11%)
- Land of Site Evaluation (3%)
- Sales Comparison Approach (22%)
- Cost Approach (13%)
- Income Approach (4%)
- Reconciliation of Value Indications (2%)
- Uniform Standards (20%)
- Emerging Appraisal Methods (3%)
- Appraisal Statistical Methods (4%)
The exam-taker will have 4 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 exceed 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 Licensed Residential Appraiser Exam, the individual interested in pursuing licensure must have completed at least 150 hours of courses related to appraising property including the 15-hour National USPAP Course or an equivalent course and have at least 2,000 hours of appraisal experience.
If the individual meets both of these 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.