source:
  type: guide
  id: fnma-sel-b4-1.1-03
  authority: Fannie Mae Selling Guide B4-1.1-03 — Appraiser Selection Criteria
  description: Fannie Mae Selling Guide B4-1.1-03 — Appraiser Selection Criteria.
  coverage_tier: operative
obligations:
- id: fnma-sel-b4-1.1-03-full
  canonical_id: fnma-sel-b4-1.1-03-full
  section: Fannie Mae Selling Guide B4-1.1-03 — Appraiser Selection Criteria
  type: do
  tags:
  - regulator-direct
  - fnma
  - selling-guide
  - corpus-expansion
  - tier-operative
  primary_source:
    tier: 1
    authority: Fannie Mae Selling Guide B4-1.1-03 — Appraiser Selection Criteria
    source_class: fnma-guide
    source_url: https://singlefamily.fanniemae.com/media/document/pdf/selling-guide
    snapshot_id: 5f7b8b79da595d76
    fetched_at: '2026-05-25T14:09:57Z'
    content_hash: sha256:98cf85a02861bbe84914a0e339b327c8fc131869a8a573882007bbeea60c5701
    paragraph_quote: 'B4-1.1-03, Appraiser Selection Criteria (06/04/2025) Introduction
      This topic contains general information on appraiser selection, including: Appraiser
      License and Certiﬁcation Appraiser Trainees Knowledge and Experience Selection
      of the Appraiser Supervisory Appraiser Uniform Appraisal Dataset (UAD) 3.6 Policy
      Appraiser License and Certiﬁcation Fannie Mae requires a lender (or its authorized
      agent) to use appraisers or supervisory appraisers that are state- licensed
      or state-certiﬁed (in accordance with the provisions of Title XI of the Financial
      Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989 and all applicable
      state laws). The lender (or its authorized agent) must document that the appraisers
      it uses are licensed or certiﬁed as appropriate under the applicable state law.
      The lender must ensure that the state license or state certiﬁcation is active
      as of the eﬀective date of the appraisal report. The appraiser must note their
      license or certiﬁcation number on the individual appraisal report forms, in
      compliance with the Uniform Appraisal Dataset Speciﬁcation, Appendix D: Field-Speciﬁc
      Standardization Requirements. Fannie Mae’s appraisal report forms identify the
      appraiser as the individual who performed the analysis, and prepared and signed
      the appraisal report as the appraiser. This does not preclude appraisers from
      relying on individuals who are not state-licensed or state-certiﬁed to provide
      signiﬁcant professional assistance, such as an appraiser trainee or an employee
      of the appraiser doing market data research or data veriﬁcation in the development
      of the appraisal. Under some state laws, a lender’s use of an unlicensed or
      uncertiﬁed appraiser that is working as an employee or sub-contractor of a licensed
      or certiﬁed appraiser will satisfy the state’s licensing and certiﬁcation requirement,
      as long as the appraisal report is signed by a state-licensed or state-certiﬁed
      supervisory or review appraiser. The state-licensed or state- certiﬁed appraiser
      that signs the appraisal report must acknowledge in the report the extent of
      the professional assistance provided by others and the speciﬁc tasks performed
      by each individual, and must certify that each Published May 6, 2026 521 named
      individual is qualiﬁed to perform the tasks. Appraiser Trainees Fannie Mae allows
      an unlicensed or uncertiﬁed appraiser, or trainee (or other similar classiﬁcation)
      to perform a signiﬁcant amount of the appraisal (or the entire appraisal if
      they are qualiﬁed to do so). If an unlicensed or uncertiﬁed individual provides
      signiﬁcant professional assistance, they must sign the left side of the appraiser
      certiﬁcation as the Appraiser if they are working under the supervision of a
      state-licensed or state-certiﬁed appraiser as an employee or sub-contractor,
      the right side of the appraiser certiﬁcation is signed by that supervisory appraiser,
      and it is acceptable under state law. If the jurisdiction does not provide license
      numbers for trainees, the term “Trainee” should be entered in the “Other” ﬁeld
      in the Appraiser Certiﬁcation section. Knowledge and Experience Lenders must
      use appraisers that have the requisite knowledge required to perform a professional
      quality appraisal for the speciﬁc geographic location and particular property
      type; and have the requisite knowledge about, and access to, all necessary and
      appropriate local data sources for the subject property''s geographic area,
      including multiple listing service(s) and government records. Appraisers that
      are not familiar with speciﬁc real estate markets may not have adequate information
      available to perform a reliable appraisal. Although the Uniform Standards of
      Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) allows an appraiser that does not have
      the appropriate knowledge and experience to accept an appraisal assignment by
      providing procedures with which the appraiser can complete the assignment, Fannie
      Mae does not allow the USPAP ﬂexibility. Selection of the Appraiser The lender
      is responsible for the selection of appraisers and for the qualiﬁcations and
      quality of work provided by the appraisers that are selected; may not use appraisals
      ordered or received by borrowers or other parties with an interest in the transaction,
      such as the property seller or real estate agent. Fannie Mae does allow lenders
      to use third- party vendors (for example, appraisal management companies) to
      manage the appraiser selection process. However, it should be noted that if
      a lender enters into a contract with any vendor, contractor, or third-party
      service provider, the lender is accountable for the quality of the work performed
      as if it was performed by an employee of the lender. The lender (or its authorized
      agent) must Published May 6, 2026 522 establish policies and procedures to ensure
      that qualiﬁed individuals are being selected in accordance with Fannie Mae requirements,
      including the Appraiser Independence Requirements. ensure that an appraiser
      has demonstrated the ability to perform high-quality appraisals before using
      an appraiser’s services. The quality of an appraiser’s work is a key criterion
      that must be used in determining which appraiser the lender (or its authorized
      agent) uses for its assignments. The requirement for an appraiser to produce
      a high-quality work product must always outweigh fee or turnaround time considerations.
      develop and maintain a documented process to monitor the appraisers it uses.
      The process (at a minimum) must include an annual review of an appraiser''s
      state licensing or certiﬁcation status and a procedure for suspending or terminating
      business with individual appraisers. Additionally, the lender must have a procedure
      for referring appraisers to the applicable state appraiser licensing and regulatory
      board. Delegating these responsibilities to a third party does not relieve the
      lender of its responsibilities related to the appraisal or the value, condition,
      and marketability of the property. See B4-1.3-12, Appraisal Quality Matters,
      for information related to ongoing review of appraisals. Note: Fannie Mae does
      not approve appraisers. Therefore, when selecting appraisers, lenders must not
      give any consideration to an appraiser’s representation that they are approved
      or qualiﬁed by Fannie Mae. Supervisory Appraiser As noted in the License and
      Certiﬁcation section in this topic, Fannie Mae allows an unlicensed or uncertiﬁed
      appraiser, or trainee (or other similar classiﬁcation) that works as an employee
      or subcontractor of a licensed or certiﬁed appraiser, to perform a signiﬁcant
      amount of the appraisal (or the entire appraisal if they are qualiﬁed to do
      so), as long as the appraisal report is signed by a licensed or certiﬁed supervisory
      or review appraiser and is acceptable under state law. If a supervisory appraiser
      is used, the supervisory appraiser does not need to physically inspect the subject
      property or comparables, but must sign the right side of the report and certify
      that they directly supervised the appraiser that prepared the appraisal report,
      have reviewed the appraisal report, agree with the statements and conclusions
      of the appraiser, agree to be bound by certiﬁcations as set forth in Fannie
      Mae’s appraisal report forms, and take full responsibility for the appraisal
      report. A supervisory appraiser may not sign the left-hand side of the appraisal
      report unless they have met the requirements of the appraiser as noted in the
      License and Certiﬁcation section in this topic. Uniform Appraisal Dataset (UAD)
      3.6 Policy Lenders using UAD 3.6 must follow the requirements in the UAD 3.6
      Policy Supplement . Recent Related Announcements The table below provides references
      to recently issued Announcements that are related to this topic. Published May
      6, 2026 523 Announcements Issue Date Announcement SEL-2025-04 June 04, 2025
      Announcement SEL-2022-09 October 05, 2022 Announcement SEL-2022-01 February
      02, 2022'
  judgment: false
