Recently, the Appraiser Qualifications Board (AQB) has proposed new requirements for those looking to become an appraiser or renew their certification/license. These include mandatory completion of an initial fair housing course lasting seven hours by January 1st 2025, as well as four additional hours every renewal cycle thereafter if this becomes standard practice. The AQB has issued a Q&A to address some appraiser questions and is shown below:
Guidance on Valuation Bias and Fair Housing Laws and Regulations Course Requirements.
Can a CE version of the course count as QE?
Question: What happens when individuals who currently have a credential take a course that meets the valuation bias and fair housing laws and regulations outline (VB–FH) for the 7–Hour course for
Continuing Education (CE), and then they later upgrade? Do they then have to take the 8–hour VB–FH course (7 hour plus exam), just the exam, or are they considered grandfathered (with respect to
the exam) because they held a credential at the time the new requirement was implemented?
Answer: CE credit hours cannot be used to satisfy Qualifying Education (QE) requirements, with the following exception. If an individual seeking to upgrade their credential took a VB–FH 7–hour course
during their most recent CE cycle, a state may recognize the CE course as meeting the QE requirement if the student takes and passes the required 1–hour exam component of the 8–hour VB–
FH QE requirement. As a result, the student would not need to repeat the course content.
It is important to note that both the CE and QE VB–FH courses must be currently approved by the state to qualify for this exception.
Can the course include relevant state–specific content?
Question: If a course that is intended to meet the Real Property Qualification Criteria’s outline for valuation bias and fair housing laws and regulations also includes relevant state–specific course
materials on this topic, is the course eligible for QE or CE approval via the Appraisal Foundation’s Course Approval Program (CAP)?
Answer: The outline for a course on valuation bias and fair housing laws and regulations in the 2026
Criteria requires education developers to follow the complete outline when developing this course, which includes the federal fair housing and antidiscrimination laws and regulations topic. As stated,
the requirement for the sections of the course that cover laws and regulations is that the course addresses federal fair housing and antidiscrimination laws and regulations.
The AQB understands there might be instances where some minor content in the course may refer to or be an example of a state–specific law or regulation. Since CAP approves courses for all states and
territories, it cannot approve a course with material applicable only to an individual state.
Therefore, a Valuation Bias and Fair Housing Laws and Regulations course submitted for CAP approval must strictly adhere to the outlined criteria and cover only the specified content. Minor
references to state–specific issues may be acceptable as examples, but the primary focus must remain on federal fair housing and antidiscrimination laws and regulations.
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