The path to becoming a real property appraiser may seem like a difficult venture. But the reality is, it just seems that way because that path takes time. With more stringent education and experience requirements, there’s a higher barrier to entry in appraisal compared to other real estate careers. However, the benefits many appraisers experience—higher salary potential; deep fulfillment—way outshine the challenges of becoming one.
Read on to learn more about the important work of real estate appraisers, the challenges of being one, and how you can successfully break into the field.
How the work of appraisers influences the real estate market.
Real estate appraisers do meaningful work that influences the U.S. real estate market in big ways. Let’s explore how.
Appraisers determine fair market values of homes.
A real estate appraiser has one main responsibility—to provide an accurate fair market value of a real estate property based on its best use. And it takes a lot of knowledge, training, and expertise to understand how to do that.
Among the many steps in the appraisal process, appraisers must:
Understand Federal and state property appraisal procedures and abide by them
Learn the different valuation approaches in detail and choose the most appropriate one to use when appraising properties of all types
Use savvy research skills, analytical thinking, logic, and mathematics to estimate the fairest market value of a home
Create comprehensive appraisal reports documenting methods in detail and share with buyers, lenders, sellers, and real estate agents—all of whom have interest in the results
New appraisers need several months to a few years of training and on-the-job experience to learn all of the valuation standards and best practices. With so many skills to master and such a big responsibility, it's no wonder why the field is harder to break into than others in real estate.
An appraiser’s work can affect home values.
As an appraiser, your assessment of fair market value could influence the values of homes on the same street, in the same neighborhood, and sometimes those in an entire city.
When determining a home’s value, appraisers will factor in the prices of “comps” (recently sold comparable properties), alongside primary home traits, which include:
If a home is undervalued during an appraisal, it can negatively affect the future values of similar properties in the area over time. This can be a costly mistake resulting in reverberations across the local real estate market for years to come.
This is another reason why the education and training requirements for appraisers are lengthy. It takes time and practice to develop the expertise necessary to conduct appraisals accurately.
Appraised values influence final purchase prices.
When a home’s appraised value is lower than a buyer’s accepted offer—known as an “appraisal gap”—lenders won't move forward with mortgage approval. Lenders don’t want to lend more than a house is worth, which leaves the buyer with a few options: try to renegotiate to reduce their purchase price, pay the difference out of pocket, or cancel the sale altogether.
As you can imagine, these are high stakes for both buyers and sellers. Appraisers have a responsibility to conduct appraisals accurately because, ultimately, their opinions of value can make or break a deal.
So how hard is it to become an appraiser?
The training process to become a licensed real estate appraiser requires more of a time investment up front than other real estate jobs. Some may also see appraisal as a demanding career with a lot of pressures to wade through. But like all careers, it’s all relative.
It takes time to become an appraiser.
Between the required education and experience hours, earning a real estate appraiser license can take several months to a year or more. After completing the Trainee level, there are three appraiser license levels you can pursue, each with its own education, experience, and exam requirements. The highest two license levels—Certified Residential Appraiser and Certified General Appraiser—require some college credits or a bachelor’s degree.
Here’s a breakdown of the requirements.
Appraiser License Level | Qualifying Education Hours Required | Required Experience Hours Working under a Certified Appraiser | College Degree Requirement | Exam Requirement |
Trainee Appraiser | 75 hours | None required | Not required | Not required |
Licensed Residential Appraiser | 150 hours | 1,000 hours in no less than six months | Not required | Must pass exam National Uniform Licensing Examination for Licensed Residential Appraisers |
Certified Residential Appraiser | 200 hours | 1,500 hours in no less than 12 months | Must complete one of these options: Bachelor’s Degree Associate’s Degree with a focused field of study Successful completion of 30 college semester credit hours in specific areas of study Successful completion of CLEP® exams in certain subject matter areas | Must pass National Uniform Licensing Examination for Certified Residential Appraisers |
Certified General Appraiser | 300 hours | 3,000 hours in no less than 18 months and 1,500 hours must be in non-residential appraisal work | Must have bachelor's degree or higher in any field and from any accredited college or university | Must pass National Uniform Licensing Examination for Certified General Appraisers |
If you’re currently working full time, you may find it a little challenging to complete these requirements while still working. But plenty of people have done it, and so can you.
And here’s the upside that’s not often found in other real estate fields: once you complete the initial education hours to become a Trainee Appraiser, you can usually find a paid position working for a Certified Appraiser to earn your experience hours. This means you can start earning an income fairly early on in your training process.
Learn more about how long it takes to become an appraiser.
Salaries are lucrative...but mostly at the highest license levels.
Average appraiser salaries trend higher than the national average salary in any field. But appraiser salaries are the most lucrative at the advanced license levels. And those levels involve more education requirements and years of on-the-job training for licensing.
Here’s a breakdown of current median appraiser salaries.
Appraiser License Level | Annual Median Salary |
Trainee Appraiser | $45,447 annually |
Licensed Residential Appraiser | $57,301 annually |
Certified Residential Appraiser | $78,127 annually |
Certified General Appraiser | $107,751 annually |
Source: Salary.com, December 2022
Your eventual salary level as an appraiser also depends heavily on your location, the state of the real estate market in your locale, and your ability to secure work (if you plan to work independently). Working for an appraisal firm often means a more stable, but capped, salary. Working as an independent appraiser means the sky’s the limit on how much you can earn.
Learn more about how much you can expect to make as an appraiser.
An appraiser’s job can be demanding.
Some might consider the job of an appraiser a little demanding given that many parties have an interest in the results of an appraisal report. Lenders want confirmation that a loan amount matches the value of a home since it’s used as collateral. Buyers (and their real estate agents) want favorable appraisals that move deals forward. Sellers hope for higher fair market values to support listing their homes for top dollar.
These external pressures may make the job feel demanding. The key is to stick to what you know and what you learned in training. There’s a reason the appraisal field has high standards, expectations, and lengthy training processes. The years of education and experience you’ll undergo translate into deep expertise you’ll always have to lean on, whether it’s Year 1 or Year 50.
The journey to becoming a home appraiser has its challenges, sure, and it can seem “hard” compared to other careers. But often, the payoff of a lucrative and fulfilling career as a trusted valuation expert is well worth it.
