The GPAR appraisal form — the General Purpose Appraisal Report — is completed by working through the subject property data, neighborhood and site sections, a sales comparison grid with at least three adjusted comparables, any cost or income approach you develop, a written scope of work, and a reconciliation to a single value opinion, then signing and delivering the report with the required exhibits. The form is designed for non-lending residential assignments, so the fields that anchor a Uniform Residential Appraisal Report to “a mortgage finance transaction” are replaced with open language you tailor to the actual client and use.
One boundary before you start: if the assignment is a federally related transaction — a loan originated by a bank, credit union, or other federally regulated lender — the GPAR is not the correct form. Use the URAR or another GSE-approved form instead. For estate filings, divorce, property tax appeals, pre-listing pricing, bail bond collateral, and similar non-lending work, the GPAR is the standard choice.
Which Version of the Form You’re Working In
There is no single official GPAR template. Each major appraisal software provider publishes its own version, and the layout varies with the platform. a la mode labels its version the “GP RES” form; ACI, SFREP (Appraise-It), and Bradford Technologies (ClickFORMS) each publish their own. All of them share the same core sections — subject data, neighborhood, site, improvements, a sales comparison grid, optional cost and income approaches, and a reconciliation — but field arrangement differs. If the client or court has a preferred layout, confirm that before you begin.
Identifying the Intended User and Intended Use
Under USPAP, the appraiser identifies the intended users and intended use at the start of the assignment, before determining the scope of work, because those two factors shape every decision that follows.1Appraisal Institute. Readdressing, Reassigning, Reappraising The GPAR gives you an open field for both. State exactly who will rely on the report — an executor, a family court judge, a tax board of review, a private seller, a bonding company — and what the report is for. Since there is no borrower, enter “N/A” or the client’s name in the borrower field.
Subject Property Section
Start at the top with the basics: property address, owner of record, county, tax parcel number, and the legal description pulled from the deed or the county assessor’s records. Record the census tract if your local market analysis references it.
The property description fields capture the physical characteristics of the improvements. Enter the gross living area (GLA) in square feet, total room count, and the specific number of bedrooms and bathrooms. Note the year built, construction type (frame, masonry, or mixed), foundation style, roof material, and heating and cooling systems. If you observed deferred maintenance, functional issues, or recent renovations during your inspection, describe them here. The GPAR gives you more narrative room than the URAR’s checkbox-heavy format, so use it. A judge reading the report benefits from a clear written description more than a grid of codes.
Neighborhood and Site
Define the neighborhood boundaries using identifiable physical markers: major roads, waterways, railroad lines, or clear shifts in land use. This tells the reader exactly which market area you analyzed and prevents confusion if the property sits near a boundary where values diverge. Characterize current market conditions — increasing, stable, or declining values, and whether supply of comparable listings suggests a buyer’s or seller’s market. Note the predominant property type, age range, and price range for the area.
The site section covers the lot itself. Record lot size, shape, zoning classification (such as R-1 for single-family residential), topography, drainage, road access, and whether the property connects to public utilities or relies on well and septic. Flag any visible easements, encroachments, or flood zone designations. Site data typically comes from your inspection supplemented by county assessor records, GIS mapping, and the local zoning ordinance.
Sales Comparison Grid
The sales comparison approach carries the most weight in nearly every residential GPAR assignment, and the grid is where you build the case for your value opinion. Industry practice calls for at least three closed comparable sales.2Fannie Mae. Comparable Sales That minimum applies to lending appraisals, and while the GPAR is not bound by GSE rules, using fewer than three weakens the analysis and invites challenge, particularly in litigation.
For each comparable, enter the address, sale price, sale date, proximity to the subject, data source, and the key physical characteristics: GLA, lot size, room count, basement finish, garage capacity, and condition. Then line-adjust for every meaningful difference between the comparable and the subject. A comparable with an extra full bathroom in a market where that feature adds roughly $5,000 gets a negative $5,000 adjustment; a comparable on a smaller lot in a market where lot-size premiums run about $15,000 per quarter-acre gets a positive adjustment. These dollar figures come from paired-sale analysis, regression data, or market extraction, not guesswork. Document the basis for each adjustment in the addenda or the narrative section so the reader can follow your reasoning.
After adjustments, each comparable produces an indicated value for the subject. The tighter the adjusted values cluster, the stronger the analysis. If one comparable is clearly the most similar to the subject in location, size, and condition, give it the most weight in reconciliation rather than simply averaging the three.
Cost Approach and Income Approach
The GPAR includes optional sections for the cost and income approaches. You are not required to develop every approach for every assignment, but USPAP does require you to explain why you excluded any approach you chose not to use.3FDIC. 2006 USPAP and Scope of Work
Cost Approach
The cost approach works best for newer construction, unique properties, or situations where comparable sales data is thin. The formula: estimate what it would cost to replace the improvements today, subtract depreciation, and add the current market value of the land as if vacant. Depreciation breaks into three categories: physical deterioration from age and wear, functional obsolescence from outdated design, and external obsolescence from factors outside the property, like a busy highway or declining neighborhood. Land value is usually estimated from recent sales of comparable vacant lots in the area.
Income Approach
If the subject is rented or could generate rental income, the income approach provides an additional value indicator. The most common residential method is the gross rent multiplier (GRM): multiply the property’s estimated market rent by a GRM derived from comparable rental properties that recently sold. If similar rentals in the area sold for roughly 120 times their monthly rent, applying that multiplier to a $2,000 monthly market rent produces a value indication of $240,000. This approach rarely carries primary weight for single-family homes but adds useful support when the other approaches yield a wide range.
Scope of Work and Reconciliation
USPAP defines scope of work as the type and extent of research and analysis performed in the assignment. The GPAR gives you a dedicated section to describe it. Spell out what you did: whether you conducted an interior and exterior inspection, which public records you reviewed, how you selected comparables, which valuation approaches you developed, and which you excluded and why.3FDIC. 2006 USPAP and Scope of Work Be specific. “Inspected the interior and exterior, reviewed MLS data and county assessment records, and developed the sales comparison and cost approaches” tells the reader far more than “completed a standard appraisal.”
The reconciliation section brings the approaches together and explains which one received the most weight and why. If the sales comparison approach produced an adjusted range of $385,000 to $395,000 and the cost approach indicated $400,000, explain that you gave primary weight to the sales comparison because the market data was robust and the comparables required only minor adjustments. State the final opinion of value as a single dollar amount, not a range, along with the effective date of the appraisal.
Extra Requirements for IRS and Estate Assignments
When a GPAR supports a charitable donation deduction or an estate tax filing, the IRS imposes specific requirements on both the appraisal and the appraiser. A qualified appraisal must be signed and dated no earlier than 60 days before the date of the contribution (for donations) or must reflect the date-of-death value (for estates). The taxpayer must receive the completed appraisal before the due date, including extensions, of the return on which the deduction is first claimed.4Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8283 Appraisal fees cannot be based on a percentage of the appraised value.
To qualify as a “qualified appraiser” under the IRS definition, you must meet all of the following as of the date you sign the report:
- Either hold a recognized appraiser designation from a professional appraisal organization for the type of property being valued, or have completed professional or college-level coursework in valuing that property type plus at least two years of experience.
- Regularly prepare appraisals for compensation.
- Include a declaration in the report that your background qualifies you to appraise the property type.
- Have no disqualifying relationship with the parties: you cannot be the donor, the donee, a party to the transaction, or an employee or close relative of either party.4Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8283
For estate tax filings, the executor reports the value of all assets the decedent owned at death on Form 706.5Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 706 Real property values come directly from the appraiser’s report. When preparing a GPAR for estate purposes, make sure the effective date of value matches either the date of death or the alternate valuation date if the executor elects one.
Retrospective Date-of-Value Assignments
Estate settlements, late-filed tax returns, and litigation sometimes require a valuation as of a past date. The IRS allows estates to elect an alternate valuation date six months after the decedent’s death, which can reduce the estate’s tax burden if property values declined during that window.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 2032 – Alternate Valuation Even when the estate uses the alternate date, the appraiser often still needs to produce a date-of-death value for comparison.
A retrospective appraisal uses historical comparable sales, archived MLS data, and market conditions from the relevant period rather than current data. The effective date of value on the GPAR must clearly state the past date, and the scope of work section should explain the historical research methodology. Courts and the IRS accept retrospective appraisals routinely, but the report must comply with USPAP just as a current-date appraisal would.
Final Review, Signing, and Delivery
Before you sign, run a consistency check across the entire report. Confirm that the GLA reported in the subject section matches the figure used in the sales comparison grid. Make sure the zoning classification, lot size, and room count are the same everywhere they appear. Verify that every adjustment in the grid has a corresponding explanation in the narrative or addenda. Inconsistencies between the property description and the valuation sections are the fastest way to undermine a report’s credibility, especially if opposing counsel is looking for weaknesses.
Attach the required exhibits: exterior and interior photographs of the subject, street scene photos, comparable sale photos, a location map showing the subject and all comparables, and a sketch or floor plan with dimensions that support your GLA calculation. The GPAR’s flexibility means you can add supplementary exhibits — flood maps, zoning maps, historical aerials for retrospective assignments — when they help the intended user understand your analysis.
Apply your electronic signature and the date. Most appraisal software platforms generate a digitally signed PDF that satisfies electronic-signature laws. Convert the final report to a secure PDF and deliver it to the client by encrypted email or a secure file-sharing portal. Include a transmittal letter that records the delivery date, identifies the report, and notes any limiting conditions or extraordinary assumptions. The transmittal letter is your formal handoff. It documents that the client received the report and establishes the starting point for your record-retention obligations.
Records to Keep After Delivery
USPAP’s Record Keeping Rule requires you to retain the complete work file — not just the final report, but all data, notes, correspondence, and supporting documentation — for the longer of two periods: five years after the date of the report, or two years after the final disposition of any judicial proceeding in which you provided testimony related to the assignment. For most non-litigation GPAR assignments, the five-year period applies. For divorce cases, estate disputes, or property tax appeals that go to hearing, the clock may extend well beyond five years if the proceedings drag on. Keep digital backups in a format you can still open years later; proprietary software files should be archived alongside a PDF copy of the delivered report.