Personal Property Appraiser Qualification Criteria

After yesterdays post about the Appraisal Foundation discussion of appraisal qualifications and qualified appraisers at U.S. Trust I had some real positive feedback over the AF/TAFAC initiatives in promoting qualified appraisers. From what I understand, we may be presenting to US Trust private wealth managers in Philadelphia and New York in the near future. Also, and I did not mention it in yesterdays post, there was much interest from the audience on authentication issues.

I also had some questions about the new criteria, so I thought perhaps best to summarize the new Personal Property Appraiser Qualification Criteria as developed by the Appraisers Qualifications Board (AQB) of the Appraisal Foundation, which takes effect on January 1, 2018.

First, if you belong to a sponsoring organizations, such as ISA, AAA and ASA and are appraising, you need to be considered qualified under the new criteria by Jan 1, 2018. ISA has been following the new criteria so as it would not be a shock to the collective membership system. ISA AM and ISA CAPPs should all be qualified based upon the AQB criteria and ISA designation requirements.

If you do not belong to a sponsoring organization, you do not need to follow the criteria. But more and more we are seeing, and the Appraisal Foundation and sponsoring organizations are all out promoting these qualification, and if you are not considered qualified under the new criteria you may be missing out on important assignments. We are finding that more power users of appraisals are becoming acutely aware of qualifications, and soon many will only hire a "qualified" appraiser under the new criteria.

Here is a short summary of the Personal Property Appraiser Qualification Criteria as developed by the Appraiser Qualification Board (AQB) of the Appraisal Foundation Check and see if you are "qualified" under the new criteria, and keep the January 1, 2018 date in mind.

For Qualifying Education, 120 hours of appraisal education is required, which includes the 15 hour USPAP class and exam. In addition to the 15-Hour Personal Property USPAP Course, 45 of the 120 hours are required in valuation theory and principles, and 60 credit hours of education that must cover the topics listed below with particular emphasis on the appraisal of personal property:

• Codes of ethics
• The appraisal process
• Types of appraisals and appraisal reports
• Practices and procedures
• Uses of appraisal reports
• Definitions of value and types of value
• Valuation theory and principles
• Definitions of markets
• Market research and analysis and comparison sales
• Methods of property identification
• Legal and regulatory considerations
• Report writing

AND 30 semesters hours from an accredited junior college, community college or university, or and Associates degree or higher in any field.

For experience, 700 hours of personal property appraisal experience (this experience must be gained through the development of USPAP compliant appraisal reports). So experience such as auction cataloging or pricing and selling fine art does not apply to this area of expertise. There have been many questions about the type of hours in this experience category, but if you can say the hours come from preparing and developing USPAP compliant appraisal reports, then you should be OK. If not, you need to start working on USPAP compliant reports on your own, assisting other appraisers or interning with appraisers preparing USPAP compliant appraisal reports.

In addition to the 700 hours of appraisal experience there needs to be a minimum of 1800 hours performing valuation services, of which at least 900 are in your area of specialization OR a minimum of 4500 hours of market related personal property non appraisal experience in areas of your specialty (auction cataloging and estimates is acceptable for this portion of experience, or pricing and selling etc) OR an equivalent combination of market related appraisal and non-appraisal experience, with a ratio of 1 year to 2.5 years.

The continuing Education Requirement is 70 hours every 5 years, with at least 20 hours of coursework related to valuation theory and taking either the 15 hour USPAP Course or the 7 hours USPAP update course once every two years.

For more detailed information, please click HERE to download the AQBs brochure on the Personal Property Appraisers Qualification Criteria.