NOTE: Your state may accept PAREA or Practicum as an alternative to Trainee license with Trainee/Supervisory model.

Before you can become a licensed residential appraiser in North Carolina, the best way to start is to get your North Carolina Registered Trainee license. In order to obtain your trainee license, you need to complete 79 hours of North Carolina Appraiser qualifying education in no longer than five years, broken up as follows:

• 30 hours of appraisal principles

• 30 hours of appraisal procedures

• 15 hours to uniform standards of Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP)

You’ll also need to complete a 4-hour Appraiser Trainee/Supervisory Appraiser Course. Before signing up for this course, you need to find a supervisory appraiser who will act as your mentor through completion of your experience hours (Step 3).

All qualifying education must be approved via the Appraiser Qualifications Board (AQB) of The Appraisal Foundation, and by the North Carolina Appraisal Board. You must complete all qualifying education prior to the date of submission of a trainee application.

Upon completion, you will need to apply with the state.

After getting your North Carolina Registered Trainee license, it’s time for the next step toward becoming a Licensed North Carolina Real Estate Appraiser: 150 Hours of Appraisal Foundation-Approved real estate appraiser education (75 of which you’ve already completed through your Registered Trainee license). North Carolina follows course requirements set by the Appraisal Foundation.

Once you’ve finished your education, you must conduct at least 1,000 hours of actual appraisal experience. Additionally, those 1,000 hours must be completed:

• Under the supervision of a certified appraiser; and

• Over a period of at least six months.

This means that you must take no less than six months to complete your 1,000 hours of appraisal experience. To put things in perspective, if a trainee works 40 hours per workweek, they will complete their training in a little over six months. If, however, they put in any fewer than 40 hours per week, it would take longer. Here’s a helpful table to give you an overview of the timeframes you’d be looking at:

*This must all be completed under the supervision of a Certified Appraiser—either Residential or General

If the application is accepted, you’ll be sent instructions on how to take the National Uniform Licensing and Certification Examination—the final step before you can apply for your license.

After completing your courses and logging your appraisal experience, you are now eligible to take the National Uniform Licensing & Certification Exam. You’ll need a sponsoring entity in order to take the exam; the education provider where you completed your coursework should be able to give this to you.

• The exam is four to six hours long.

  Both the Licensed Residential Examination and the Certified Residential Examination take four hours to complete, and the Certified General Examination takes 6 hours to complete.

• There are 125 questions on the test.

  The National Uniform Licensing and Certification exam is composed of 125 total questions. Fifteen of these questions are considered practice, and answering those questions wrong does not negatively affect your score.

• A score of 75 points is passing.

  Scores for the National Uniform Licensing and Certification exam range between 0 and 110 points. Each question carries an equal weight of 1 point. In order to pass, you must earn a minimum of 75 points.

• You can take the test more than once.

  The Appraisal Foundation allows you to take the test up to three times.

You get three attempts to pass the exam; after that, you must take 15 additional hours of appraiser qualifying education before trying again. After you pass the exam, you have two years from the date you took the exam to apply for a license.

Now that you’ve passed your exam, it’s time to apply for your license! Generally, candidates can expect the entire application process to take four to six weeks. Factors that affect the processing time are the completeness of the application when filed and the number and nature of any character issues or questions with respect to fitness for licensure.

There is a $200 licensing fee for each license level. Once your application has been filed and processed, your fee will not be refunded unless the Appraisal Board, in its discretion, determines that you did not affirmatively demonstrate minimum requirements on the face of the application.

In most cases, fees to renew a license are the same as the original license cost in North Carolina, and include the National Registry Fee (usually $60) each time you renew.