How To Become A Residential Fee Appraiser: What It Is and Career Path

What is a residential fee appraiser and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a residential fee appraiser. For example, did you know that they make an average of $20.89 an hour? That's $43,447 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 7% and produce 5,600 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreResidential Fee AppraiserUS Average

Salary

3.4

Avg. Salary $43,447

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.0

Growth rate 7%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.43%

Asian 2.83%

Black or African American 4.39%

Hispanic or Latino 6.56%

Unknown 3.85%

White 81.94%

Gender

female 30.98%

male 69.02%

Age - 51

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 51

Stress level

5.0

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.5

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

2.1

Work life balance is very poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a residential fee appraiser

Explore residential fee appraiser education requirements

Most common residential fee appraiser degrees

Bachelor's

71.5 %

Associate

15.8 %

Master's

6.1 %

Start to develop specific residential fee appraiser skills

Skills	Percentages
Residential Real Estate	18.14%
Income Properties	7.80%
Condominiums	6.22%
FHA	5.51%
USPAP	5.48%

Complete relevant residential fee appraiser training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 2-4 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New residential fee appraisers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a residential fee appraiser based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real residential fee appraiser resumes.

Obtain the necessary licensing

Becoming a licensed residential fee appraiser usually doesn't require a college degree. However, you need to pass an exam to become a licensed residential fee appraiser in most of states. 43 states require residential fee appraisers to have license for their work. You can see the list of states below.

State	Education	Exam	License url
Alabama	Degree required	State exam required	Licensed Real Property Appraiser
Maryland	Degree required	State exam required	REAL ESTATE BROKER
Alaska	-	-	Real Estate Broker
California	Degree required	State exam required	Real Estate Broker License
Colorado	Specific course required	State exam required	Real Estate Broker License

Research residential fee appraiser duties and responsibilities

Manage valuation disputes of clients with in-house or fee appraisers, submit BPO's/Appraisal reports error and concerns.
Respond quickly to client's individual needs, and provide high quality USPAP compliant reports.
Appraise commercial properties in the Houston area and demonstrate compliance to USPAP and state regulation.
Experience valuating single family residential, small income residential, condominium, new construction and HUD certify manufactured housing.

Prepare your residential fee appraiser resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your residential fee appraiser resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a residential fee appraiser resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable residential fee appraiser resume templates

Build a professional residential fee appraiser resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your residential fee appraiser resume.