The Appraiser Qualifications Board (AQB; the Board) is issuing this Third Exposure Draft of proposed changes to the Real Property Appraiser Qualification Criteria (Criteria) and invites your comment. This draft is the product of a multi-year reassessment: five concept papers, two prior exposure drafts, more than 1,000 public comment letters, and the 2025 National Job Analysis, in which the profession itself described the work each credential level performs.

Through all of it, the AQB kept its focus on the one question the Criteria exists to answer: on the day a credential is issued, what is its holder minimally qualified to appraise?

Every proposal in this draft directly answers that question: the education that teaches the work, the examination that tests it, and the experience or demonstration that proves it. Requirements that verify these minimum qualifications remain; those that do not are proposed for removal.

Taken together, the proposals:

• Open additional pathways into the profession, including the Demonstration Pathway, whose complete draft policies are released alongside this draft;
• Tie every requirement directly to the minimum qualifications each credential certifies;
• Revise the classification definitions to state clearly what each credential qualifies its holder to appraise, and to answer where scope of practice is decided; and
• Clarify provisions that have produced confusion in practice.

These proposals do not reduce what the appraiser credentials certify. A credential means what it has always meant: its holder is minimally qualified to appraise what the classification definition states. The proposals make that meaning clearer, and they uphold the public trust the credential carries.

Every comment received in this process has been read by Board members, and the changes in this draft trace directly to that feedback. Thank you in advance for your comments, and if you have any questions, please contact the Board at AQB@appraisalfoundation.org.