Appraisers board revisions align with federal appraisal standards; committee forwards with neutral recommendation

A proposed amendment to the Real Estate Appraisers Board regulations, adopting changes tied to federal appraisal standards and updating education and experience requirements, was passed to the full committee with a neutral recommendation pending additional information.

Virginia Wetzel of LLR and Laura Smith, board executive for the Real Estate Appraisers Board, explained the revisions are required to conform South Carolina rules to federal Appraiser Qualifications Board (AQB) minimums and a recently passed state law (Act 196). Smith said most changes clean up duplicative language and that one substantive addition is an eight-hour valuation-bias and fair-housing training requirement beginning Jan. 1, 2026. “Starting 01/01/2026, they are adding … hours of the course for valuation bias and fair housing laws and regulations,” Smith said.

Committee members expressed concern about state sovereignty and asked whether the course additions and education requirements are federal mandates; Smith and LLR staff said the AQB and the Appraisal Foundation set minimum criteria for states that wish to participate in federally related transactions. Smith directed members to the Appraisal Foundation website for the AQB criteria and agreed to provide the committee a copy of the AQB criteria and the revised regulatory text.

Given members’ requests for documentation, the committee voted to forward Document 5,340 to the full committee with a neutral recommendation pending receipt of the AQB materials and related documentation. The motion as recorded in the transcript: “Document 5,340 is passed the full committee with a neutral recommendation pending the receipt of additional information.”