How to Become a Real Estate Appraiser in Illinois Your 5-Step Guide

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

The best way to become a certified residential real estate appraiser in Illinois is to first get your Associate Appraiser Trainee license. But before you can apply, you need to complete the minimum 83 hours of Illinois Appraiser Qualifying Education (which must be approved by The Appraisal Foundation and the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR)). This coursework is broken up as follows:

• 30 hours of appraisal principles

• 30 hours of appraisal procedures

• 8 hours of valuation bias and fair housing laws and regulations

• The 15-hour National Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) course

Once your qualifying education is complete, Illinois requires you to take an AQB-Approved Supervisor-Trainee Course (4 hours). Before signing up, you’ll need to find a supervisory appraiser who will act as your mentor through completion of your experience hours. (Your supervisory appraiser will also need to complete the AQB Supervisor-Trainee Course if they haven’t already done so.) And finally, you will both need to fill out and submit the Supervisor/Associate Trainee Registration form.

After getting your associate appraiser trainee license, it’s time for the next step toward becoming a certified residential real estate appraiser: 117 hours of Illinois-approved qualifying education. Illinois requires a very specific breakdown of this coursework.

Once you’ve finished your qualifying education, you must conduct at least 1,500 hours of actual appraisal experience. Additionally, those 1,500 hours must be completed:

• Under the supervision of a certified appraiser; and

• Over a period of at least 12 months.

This means that you must take no less than 12 months to complete your 1,500 hours of appraisals. To put things in perspective, if a trainee works 30 hours per workweek, they will complete their training in a little over 12 months. If, however, they put in any fewer than 30 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.

* Must be completed under the supervision of a certified Illinois appraiser. *

After you complete your required work experience hours, it’s time to apply for licensure to the IDFPR. Here’s a list of what you’ll need to to get started:

• Read through the application carefully

• Gather all of your supporting documentation (e.g., transcripts; proof of coursework; experience log; etc.)

• Submit to a background check with fingerprinting – the IDFPR publishes an approved vendor list of where you can have your background check and fingerprints taken

• Prepare the $315 application fee

All that’s left is to mail in the application, supporting documentation, and the fee to the address noted on the application.

After completing your courses and logging your appraisal experience, you are now eligible to take the National Uniform Licensing & Certification Examination.

For Illinois, the test is administered by AMP, a company owned by PSI. We’ve compiled a few pieces of handy information to help you prepare for the exam:

• The exam is four to six hours long. The Certified Residential Examination takes up to four hours to complete, and the Certified General Examination takes up to six hours to complete.

• There are 125 questions on the test. The National Uniform Licensing and Certification Examination 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 Examination range between 0 and 110 points. Each question carries an equal weight of 1 point. 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.