Real estate professional certifications

Home inspection and appraisal are licensed occupations adjacent to real estate sales, with their own exams and their own regulators. The National Home Inspector Examination is the exam most states adopt for inspector licensing and that the profession's associations require for membership; it covers the inspection of a property's systems — structure, exterior, roofing, plumbing, electrical, heating and cooling, interior — the standards of practice and the ethics that govern an inspector, including the bar on contingent fees. The appraiser exam is the national uniform examination written under the Appraiser Qualifications Board's criteria, sat after state-approved qualifying education and supervised experience, and leading to state licence or certification at trainee, licensed, certified residential and certified general levels.

Both are state-licensed on national exams: the state board sets education and experience, the national exam supplies the test, and the licence is the state's. Neither is a step toward a sales licence, and a sales licence is not a step toward either.

Both exams are computer-based through national testing vendors and reported as scaled scores against a fixed pass point. The NHIE outline weights property and building systems, analysis and reporting of defects, and professional responsibilities; the appraiser exam outline covers real property concepts, valuation approaches, market analysis, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice and the federal and state rules that govern appraisers. Education prerequisites for the appraiser exam are tiered by licence level and set by the Appraiser Qualifications Board.

How to use this family page: both occupations are state-licensed on a national exam, so the state board sets the education and experience and the national exam supplies the test. Open the exam guide for the outline and those prerequisites, and work the practice sets by outline section. Appraiser candidates should map their qualifying education to the licence level before registering for the exam.