Chief Appraiser

THE BODY OF KNOWLEDGE
Before we begin —
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Welcome to Chief Appraiser

A couple things worth knowing before you dive in.

Still Being Built — And That's Where You Come In

Chief Appraiser is in beta. That means the tool you're using today is real and already useful, but it's still growing — more guidelines, sharper search, more ways to ask a question the way you'd actually ask it. Every question you search, and everything you tell us through the Feedback button, is how we decide what gets built next.

Why not just use AI?

Because AI alone can sound confident and still be wrong. Chief Appraiser starts with the real guideline document — the actual page, the actual language — so you always know exactly where an answer came from. The plain-English summary underneath is AI, doing what it's actually good at: explaining a citation, not guessing at one.

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Chief
Appraiser
The Body of Knowledge for Residential Real Estate Appraisal
Using Chief Appraiser means you accept our Terms of Use.  ·  In beta. Help us build it →
How do you want to search?

Chief Appraiser is a free, cited search engine over the actual FHA, VA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and USPAP guidelines. Ask a real question and get the real passage — the source and the page number, not just an AI guess.

A plain-English summary comes with every citation, so you get the speed of AI without losing the source.

Does FHA require repair for a cracked window? How many comparable sales does Fannie Mae require? What is the FHA appraisal validity period? What conditions require a subject-to appraisal? What are UAD condition ratings C1 through C6? Does Fannie Mae allow desktop appraisals? What are VA appraisal fees and turn times in my area? What are VA minimum property requirements? Does Fannie Mae allow hybrid appraisals? What is the VA tidewater procedure?
Chief Appraiser  ·  5638 passages indexed  ·  15 sources  ·  chiefappraiser.org