Appraising Then and Now: From Polaroids and Typewritten 1004s to UAD 3.6

Appraising then and now are two very different jobs wearing the same name. Ask an appraiser who started in the early 1990s to describe a typical report and they'll talk about a clipboard, a measuring wheel, a Polaroid or a roll of film, comp books from the board of Realtors, a calculator with a paper tape, and a 1004 that went out by courier or fax. Ask one who started in 2021 and they'll talk about AMC portals, UCDP findings, CU scores and revision requests. In about a week, every one of them starts filing UAD 3.6. Here's how we got from there to here, era by era, and what's been gained and lost.

Key takeaways

• Most of the big shifts came from crises: the savings and loan collapse brought licensing, and the 2008 mortgage crisis brought HVCC, Dodd-Frank and the rise of AMCs.
• Data standardization came in two waves: the UAD in 2011 and UAD 3.6 now.
• The tools got dramatically faster. The paperwork around the tools grew faster still.

The timeline at a glance

Now the longer version.

Before licensing: the 1980s

Before 1989, being a residential appraiser in many states took no state license at all. Plenty of appraisers were excellent and many had designations from professional groups, but there was no common floor. Then the savings and loan industry collapsed, and Congress concluded that bad and sometimes fraudulent appraisals were part of the story. Title XI of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act created the Appraisal Subcommittee in August 1989 and required state certified or licensed appraisers for federally related transactions. The deadline for regulated institutions to use credentialed appraisers was pushed to December 31, 1991 while states got their programs running.

Those early license holders are the senior appraisers today, and many of them are retiring. More on that in the appraiser shortage and the trainee bottleneck.

The 1990s: film, fax and the measuring wheel

This is the era people get nostalgic about, so it's worth being honest about it.

What it was like. You picked up the order by phone, often from a loan officer you knew by name. You drove out with a clipboard, a 100-foot tape or a wheel, and a camera. If it was film, you dropped the roll at the one-hour photo on the way back and hoped the front exterior wasn't blurry. Comps came from MLS books, printouts and calls to agents. Sketches were graph paper. Adjustments were done on a calculator. Early form-filling software helped, but plenty of reports still had typed or handwritten parts, glued photos, and went out by courier, mail or fax.

What was better. Fewer forms. Fewer intermediaries. You talked to the person who ordered the report. A question about a comp was a phone call, not a portal message from a reviewer you'd never meet.

What was worse. Everything was slow. Data was thin and hard to verify. A missing photo meant a second trip. And the direct relationship cut both ways: the loan officer who sent you work could also stop sending it if your value came in low.

The 2000s: speed and pressure

Digital cameras, MLS online, emailed PDFs and better form software made the mechanics much faster in the early 2000s. Volume exploded with the housing boom. So did the pressure. Many appraisers from that era tell the same story: a broker who wanted a number, and work that dried up if you didn't give it. It is no accident that the next reform was all about independence.

2008 to 2010: HVCC, Dodd-Frank and the AMC era

When the market crashed, the regulators went after the conflict at the center of the old system. The Home Valuation Code of Conduct took effect May 1, 2009, for loans sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, walling off loan production staff from appraiser selection. Lenders, many of whom didn't want to run appraiser panels themselves, turned to appraisal management companies. The GAO found that lenders increasingly relied on AMCs partly in reaction to the independence rules, and that appraisers were concerned about AMC fees and review practices.

The same spring, the 1004MC Market Conditions Addendum became required for appraisals effective on or after April 1, 2009, adding a structured market trend grid to one- to four-unit appraisals. Then Dodd-Frank in 2010 wrote appraisal independence into federal law and required lenders and their agents to pay fee appraisers customary and reasonable fees. HVCC itself was replaced in October 2010 by the newer independence requirements.

For many appraisers, this is the dividing line. The relationship with the person ordering the report became a relationship with a platform. In NAR's 2025 survey, 46% of appraisers practicing before 2010 said the appraisal process had gotten worse since HVCC and Dodd-Frank.

2011: the first UAD

The Uniform Appraisal Dataset, developed by the GSEs at FHFA's direction, standardized how key fields were reported on the 1004, 1073, 1075 and 2055. Condition became C1 to C6. Quality became Q1 to Q6. View and location got coded abbreviations. Dates and sales types got fixed formats. Reports went through the Uniform Collateral Data Portal, which opened for submissions in June 2011, ahead of the September 1, 2011 requirement.

Appraisers grumbled about abbreviations like "N;Res;" in a view field, and rightly. But the UAD also made something new possible: the GSEs could analyze millions of appraisals as data. That set up the next shift.

2015 to 2019: the robot reviewer

Fannie Mae's Collateral Underwriter became available to lenders on January 26, 2015. Every report delivered to Fannie Mae now came back with a risk score and messages about things like comparable selection and adjustments. Lenders and AMCs began writing revision requests straight from CU flags. Ask any appraiser when "please explain why the following comparables were not used" became common, and this is roughly when they'll point to.

In 2018, the Appraisal Qualifications Board cut the experience needed for a Licensed Residential credential from 2,000 hours to 1,000 and for Certified Residential from 2,500 hours to 1,500, a sign that the profession's leadership was already worried about who would replace the retiring generation.

2020 to 2024: boom, bust and bias scrutiny

The refinance wave of 2020 and 2021 was the busiest stretch most appraisers had ever seen, layered on top of pandemic inspection rules, exterior-only and desktop work and expanded appraisal waivers. Then rates crossed 7% in October 2022 for the first time since 2002 and volume collapsed.

At the same time, appraisers found themselves in a national conversation about racial and ethnic bias in valuations. The PAVE Task Force released its action plan in March 2022, and in July 2024 federal agencies finalized guidance on reconsiderations of value. The GSEs and FHA set their own ROV requirements that year. For many appraisers it meant more documentation, more process and more scrutiny on every adjustment, on top of a fee and volume squeeze. We wrote about how all of that adds up in why appraisers are burned out.

2026: UAD 3.6 and the redesigned URAR

Which brings us to this month. UAD 3.6 retires the separate forms the industry has used for decades, including the 1004, the 1073 and 1075 condo forms, the 2055, the 1025, the 1004C, the co-op forms, the 1007 rent schedule and the 1004D, and replaces them with one dynamic redesigned URAR delivered as MISMO 3.6 XML. Fields appear only when they apply. There are structured sections for defects and cost to repair, site influences, per-component condition, energy and disaster mitigation, and the properties you analyzed but didn't use. The GSE Appendix H-1 lists 728 compliance rules.

If you learned on the 1004, the redesigned URAR vs. Form 1004 comparison is the fastest way to see what moved where, and the UAD 3.6 complete guide covers the rest.

What's actually better now

It's easy to romanticize the old days. Some things are plainly better:

• Photos and data are instant. No more one-hour photo or second trips for a blurry exterior.
• Measurement standards are clearer. ANSI Z765 gave everyone the same rules for GLA. See ANSI Z765 and GLA under UAD 3.6.
• Independence is real. The pressure to hit a number hasn't vanished, but it is no longer normal for the loan officer to pick the appraiser.
• Your own history is searchable. Twenty years of your own reports can be a data set instead of a filing cabinet, if your software lets you use them. More on that in data-driven adjustments from your own past reports.

What's worse now

And some things are plainly worse:

• Distance from the client. Many appraisers never speak to the person whose loan depends on their work.
• Fees that didn't keep up with the growing size of the report.
• Review by checklist. Automated flags turned into templated revision requests.
• More systems. More portals, more logins, more fees, more retyping.

What the next era could look like

Every era in that table started with a change appraisers didn't ask for. UAD 3.6 is no different. But this one comes with a real opening: the report is now structured data from end to end, which means software can check it against the GSE rules as you write, carry forward what you already know, and learn from your own history instead of making you start every report from a blank form. That's what we're building with Carat, and it's priced at $99 a month per appraiser so a small shop can afford to change. You still inspect, analyze and sign. It's always your report.

The appraisers who came up with film and fax adapted to digital cameras, then the UAD, then CU. They'll adapt to this too. The hope is that this time, the change gives some time back. If you'd like to see how that feels on a real report, create an Carat account.