10/24/2026
Agent and Lender friends, many of you are hearing about UAD 3.6 and the new appraisal report changes. I have not had much to say on the issue until now, because real information has been sparse and I had not yet completed one of these assignments. I have completed a few now, so I have some more insight to share.
Some brief history - appraisers have been completing appraisal reports for most lender work on the same form(s) for about 20 years in UAD 2.6. It's not a great format for the lay reader, but it's what we're used to, and part of what makes it not great for the reader is the very flexibility in reporting that appraisers often need due to the variables any property can present.
In Fall 2025, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs) attempted to go live with a new version of the report, UAD 3.6, which is friendlier to the lay reader, but more importantly for the GSEs and other entities who seek to compile appraisal data, more friendly to their AI. The new form greatly increases the scope of work and reporting for the appraiser, and removes the flexibility of reporting from the old UAD that was difficult for the AI to process. The technical demands of the new report have been challenging for appraisal software providers, and as a result, the GSEs postponed until November 2, 2026. As of today, many software providers are still not fully ready, and yet the assignments are coming in and the November 2 mandatory adoption date stands.
The question I keep getting is "How will the new appraisal report affect agents?"
This is a fair question, and the answer is - probably not that much. I understand that a lot of the “information” floating around social media implies that UAD 3.6 will change the way appraisers value features, updates and improvements to the seller’s property. This is not true. Valuation techniques and standards are not changing, only the way we report details.
You may be called by an appraiser and asked for some details like, “How tall are the ceilings in the 3rd bedroom?” “How deep is the water at the end of the dock?”, or “How high above grade is the front door threshold?” If you can’t answer these questions, I think it’s unlikely to hold up your deal and we can probably figure out an answer together. You may never even get one of these calls, but you need to know that your appraiser now has to answer these questions, and many more, on every single report if the factor is present.
And that's the big impact I want you to hear about from me and my personal experience.
The UAD 3.6 assignment I did this week should have taken me 1 hour of work in the report. The subject property was the most basic dwelling I am asked to appraise, on a floor plan I’ve seen 30 times, in a development I’ve worked in 100 times, with a homogenous set of comps. This is the type of assignment that is the icing on the cake of my typical workload, and makes the hard ones that I don’t get paid extra for worthwhile. On Monday, using software that was top-of-the-line for UAD 2.6, but is still not ready for UAD 3.6, it took me 5 additional hours to complete this assignment.
While my software provider will eventually be ready (not by 11/2, to be clear), it became obvious to me in the course of these reports that neither software nor my aptitude for clicking hundreds of additional boxes will ever make the completion time for UAD 3.6 equal to that of the old form, and yet this is exactly the justification that lenders and Appraisal Management Companies (AMCs) are using to attempt to keep fees the same or only offer an inconsequential increase. New software promising increased efficiency will be coming online but it will all come with significant additional expenses to the appraiser as well.
Because of the increased time, scope of work and software costs, many appraisers will be requesting higher fees and longer turn times for UAD 3.6 assignments, and declining assignments where they predict a client will simply never pay a fair fee for what’s now required. Many others are simply retiring or transitioning away from lender work. The result could be that agents experience delays in appraisal fulfillments and buyers see higher fees.
In order to advise your clients and skillfully navigate this period of transition, I recommend that you communicate early with your lender about what version of the report they’re ordering, and communicate with your counterparts in the deal that some flexibility in timing may be necessary.
Lenders, it’s come to my attention that some, probably many, of you are being told by your AMCs that the new form doesn’t increase an appraiser’s workload, and I want you to hear from me – that’s not true, as I laid out above. We regularly see AMC offers as low as 35-40% of an average appraisal fee (though because AMCs are not required to disclose the total fee, that’s an estimate based on VA fee tables and my conversations with agents and loan officers) and UAD 3.6 doesn’t appear to be changing that practice. There is a concerted effort among appraisers to resist what we perceive as an unethical, abusive profit model, and so if you encounter delays in order acceptance, I encourage you to inquire into what your AMC is offering the people actually doing the work.
