Property Valuer Resume Examples & Writing Guide

One page, written for a chief appraiser at a lender or an appraisal management company panel manager. The name, firms and license number are invented. The volumes, turn times and revision rates are numbers you already have in your own log and your forms software.

Appraisal in the US is a licensed profession with levels, and the level decides what work you may accept. Every reader knows the ladder, so state where you are on it and skip the explanation.

• Trainee appraiser: works under a supervisory appraiser and logs supervised experience hours. Write the hours logged and the property types.
• Licensed residential: non-complex one-to-four unit property under a value limit set in the national criteria. Write the state and number.
• Certified residential: one-to-four unit residential with no value limit, including complex work. Most lender and AMC panels prefer this level.
• Certified general: all property types, including commercial and income-producing. Say so plainly, because commercial employers screen for it first.
• Experience hours and qualifying education are set nationally and administered by each state, and the required hours differ by level (roughly a thousand hours at the entry level and several thousand for certified general). Check your own state board for the current criteria before you claim eligibility for the next level.

Designations sit alongside the license, not instead of it. The SRA and MAI designations from the Appraisal Institute carry weight with lenders and commercial clients, and 'in progress' is still worth a line as long as you say so.

• License level, state and expiry, plus which states you are licensed in. Multi-state coverage is genuinely valuable to national clients.
• Property types and geography. A panel manager is filling coverage in specific counties for specific product, and 'rural acreage in three counties' is exactly what they are hunting for.
• Volume and turn time. Reports per month and days from inspection to delivery. These are the operating numbers of the business.
• Quality signals: revision rate, review findings, state board complaints, reconsideration of value outcomes, USPAP currency.
• Whether you take the hard files. Complex assignments, limited comparables, FHA work, manufactured housing and litigation support all raise your rate and your value to a firm.
• Whether you can supervise. A firm that wants to grow needs signature-eligible appraisers who can sign off trainee work.

“License level, coverage counties, monthly capacity and revision rate. That is the whole first screen. Someone who tells me they handle rural work with thin comparables and a 3-day turn time is worth more to me than anyone who writes about attention to detail.”

• Approaches to value: sales comparison, cost, income capitalization, paired sales analysis, market conditions adjustments, highest and best use analysis.
• Forms and standards: UAD-compliant residential forms, narrative reports, USPAP compliance and current update course, FHA requirements, ANSI measurement standard.
• Software: TOTAL by a la mode, ClickFORMS, ACI, Argus for commercial cash flows, spreadsheets for adjustment grids, mobile sketching and inspection apps.
• Data sources: MLS, county tax and deed records, plat maps, cost services, flood maps, rent surveys and commercial data services.
• Property types you can defend in an interview: single family, condo, small income, manufactured housing, rural acreage, land, and any commercial category you have actually appraised.
• Client-facing skills: reconsideration of value responses, review comments, expert testimony, and clear explanation of a conclusion to a homeowner who is unhappy with it.

The hard part of this career is not the exam, it is finding a supervisory appraiser. Your resume is really an application to be trained, so write it for a busy appraiser who is deciding whether you would be more help than work.

1. 1State your registration status and hours plainly at the top: registered trainee, hours logged, inspections completed, property types.
2. 2List the qualifying education you have finished, including the 15-hour National USPAP course, with the provider and year.
3. 3Show you can do the parts that save a supervisor time: measuring and sketching to the ANSI standard, photography, MLS and county record research, building sales grids.
4. 4Bring related experience forward. Real estate sales, title work, mortgage processing, construction, surveying and county assessment work all read well here.
5. 5Say you have your own vehicle, a clean driving record and the flexibility to inspect during business hours, because the work is field work.
6. 6Check the current trainee and supervisor rules with your state board before you apply, since the required hours, supervision ratios and course lists differ by state and change.

• One page under about ten years, two pages if you have a commercial narrative practice, litigation work or designations to list.
• Single column PDF, plain headings. No photo and no date of birth on a US resume.
• In the US, search and apply under 'real estate appraiser'. Property valuer is the standard title in the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, where the work sits with a chartered valuation surveyor and RICS registration, so mention the term once if that is where you trained.
• If you trained abroad, say what your qualification is and where, then state your US license status honestly, including 'qualifying education in progress'. Nobody will hold the transition against you, but an unclear license status ends applications.
• Mirror the posting's words for the applicant tracking system: UAD, USPAP, FHA, complex assignments, reconsideration of value, desk review.
• List your coverage area by county, not just by city. Panel managers assign by county.