The Georgia Real Estate Appraisers Board recently adopted its final regulations regarding standards for developing and reporting an “evaluation appraisal.” The regulations state that, where permitted by federal law and policies, a state-licensed or certified appraiser performing an evaluation appraisal need not comply with the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice.

The new regulations state that a licensed or certified appraiser may offer “an appraisal which is limited in its scope and development” where an appraisal by a licensed or certified appraiser is not required by federal law. These situations include transactions with a value less than or equal to $250,000, transactions where there is no advancement of new money other than funds necessary to cover reasonable closing costs and transactions with business loans with a value equal to or less than $1 million in which rental income from the property is not the primary source of repayment.

The regulations contain a list of approximately 20 items that a certified appraiser must include in each evaluation appraisal.

Also significant: the regulations state that the evaluation must contain “an estimate of the property’s market value” and that “a valuation that does not provide a property’s market value or sufficient information and analysis to support the value conclusion is not acceptable as an evaluation appraisal. While a broker price opinion, a competitive market analysis, an automated valuation model and a tax assessment value may be useful in developing an evaluation appraisal, the information obtained from these methods of valuation is insufficient standing alone to meet all of the criteria necessary to be an evaluation appraisal.”