A residential appraisal report is a standardized document, usually six to eight pages long, in which a licensed appraiser lays out a professional opinion of what a property is worth. If you are wondering what an appraisal looks like when it lands in your inbox, expect a predictable sequence: a header identifying the property and the appraiser, a neighborhood profile, a detailed description of the house, a side-by-side grid comparing it to recently sold homes, photographs, a building sketch, a location map, and a final value backed by the appraiser’s signed certification.
The Form You Will Actually See
Almost every single-family appraisal arrives on Fannie Mae Form 1004, the Uniform Residential Appraisal Report (URAR). Freddie Mac publishes the identical form as Form 70. The standardized layout is why appraisals for wildly different homes still feel familiar page to page: lenders, underwriters, and federal agencies rely on that consistency to review the work.1Fannie Mae. Uniform Residential Appraisal Report
Condominiums come on a different form. The Individual Condominium Unit Appraisal Report (Fannie Mae Form 1073) adds dedicated sections for project-level information: HOA budget adequacy, the number of units sold versus rented, whether any single entity owns more than 10 percent of the units, and whether the project includes commercial space. A condo appraisal runs longer and puts more attention on the building and association finances than a report on a detached house would.2Fannie Mae. Individual Condominium Unit Appraisal Report
Two lighter versions of Form 1004 also exist. A desktop appraisal (Form 1004 Desktop) involves no physical visit by the appraiser. A hybrid appraisal (Form 1004 Hybrid) uses property data collected by a separate third party in place of a personal inspection. Your lender’s automated underwriting system decides whether either option is available; most purchase transactions still use the traditional Form 1004 with a full interior and exterior inspection.3Fannie Mae. Desktop Appraisals
The First Page: Who, Where, and What Kind of Job
The opening section reads like an ID badge for the whole assignment. You will find the property address, city, state, and zip, the borrower’s name, the owner of record, the county, and the legal description pulled from county land records. The lender or client that ordered the appraisal is also identified with its address.1Fannie Mae. Uniform Residential Appraisal Report
Just below that, the assignment type is checked as a purchase, refinance, or other category. The appraiser’s name, company, phone number, state license or certification number, and license expiration date all appear here. Those identifiers tell you who did the work, whether the credentials are current, and which parties can legally rely on the findings.
Neighborhood Analysis
Before describing the house itself, the report profiles the surrounding area. This section captures the trends that shape marketability: whether the neighborhood is built up or still developing, whether values are increasing, stable, or declining, and whether local supply is in balance with demand. The appraiser also estimates marketing time, meaning how long a typical home in the area takes to sell.
You will see a one-unit housing price range showing the lowest and highest recent sale prices in the neighborhood, along with the predominant value most homes fall near. A short narrative describes boundaries, land uses, and anything that could push value up or down, such as proximity to a highway, a commercial strip, or a flood zone. If a negative trend is present, the appraiser is expected to flag it here so the lender can weigh it in the risk assessment.
Subject Property Description and Condition
This is where the report gets specific about the house. It opens with the site: lot dimensions, shape, view, zoning classification, and whether water, sewer, electric, and gas are public or private.1Fannie Mae. Uniform Residential Appraisal Report
The improvements section catalogs what sits on the lot. The appraiser records construction materials, foundation type, exterior siding, roofing, and heating and cooling systems. The interior gets its own breakdown: total room count, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, flooring types, and features like fireplaces or covered porches. Every entry eventually feeds into the comparison grid, so the appraiser has to be precise.
The condition rating is one of the more consequential fields on the page. The appraiser rates overall condition and notes needed repairs such as a cracked foundation, roof damage, or outdated electrical work. Problems noted here can affect whether the lender will fund the loan without repairs being completed first, especially on FHA or VA loans where minimum property standards apply.
How Square Footage Is Measured
The gross living area shown on the appraisal drives the per-square-foot value math, so accuracy here matters more than anywhere else in the report. Fannie Mae requires appraisers to follow the ANSI Z765-2021 standard for measuring and reporting above-grade and below-grade square footage on all traditional and hybrid appraisals that include interior and exterior inspections.4Fannie Mae. Standardizing Property Measuring Guidelines
Under ANSI, the appraiser physically measures the exterior walls and calculates finished living area using a consistent method. Basements, even finished ones, are reported separately from above-grade space. If your home’s listing advertised 2,400 square feet but the appraiser measures 2,200 using the ANSI method, the lower figure is what goes into the report. Appraisers cannot voluntarily opt out; if state law mandates a different measurement approach, they must note that and explain how it was applied.
The Sales Comparison Grid
The comparison grid is the analytical core of the report, and it is where most readers should look first. The subject property sits in the left column alongside three or more recently sold comparable homes (comps) in adjacent columns. Each row compares a specific feature: sale price, location, square footage, age, bedroom and bathroom count, garage size, and other value-relevant characteristics.1Fannie Mae. Uniform Residential Appraisal Report
Where a comp differs from the subject, the appraiser makes a dollar adjustment to that comp’s sale price. Adjustments run in one direction only: they modify the comp to make it resemble the subject, never the reverse. If a comp has an extra full bathroom the subject lacks, the appraiser subtracts the estimated value of that bathroom from the comp’s price. If the subject has a renovated kitchen and the comp does not, the appraiser adds value to the comp. After all adjustments, each comp yields an “adjusted sale price” representing what it theoretically would have sold for if it matched the subject.
The size of the adjustments tells you a lot. Small, consistent adjustments across all three comps usually signal a strong value opinion. Large adjustments or wildly different adjusted prices suggest the appraiser struggled to find truly comparable sales, which weakens the reliability of the final number. When reviewing your own appraisal, the grid is the best place to check whether the comps actually resemble your home and neighborhood.
Cost Approach and Income Approach
Form 1004 includes two additional valuation methods, though Fannie Mae does not require either for conventional loans. The cost approach estimates what it would take to rebuild the home from scratch, subtracts depreciation for age and wear, and adds land value. It is most useful for newer construction, where replacement cost closely tracks market value.
The income approach estimates value based on what the property could earn as a rental, multiplying the estimated monthly market rent by a gross rent multiplier drawn from the local market. This rarely drives the final value for a typical owner-occupied home, but you may see it filled in for properties in areas with significant rental activity. FHA and VA appraisals sometimes require these sections even when Fannie Mae does not.
Photos, Sketches, and Maps
Visual evidence follows the data grids and takes up a significant chunk of the report. Expect clear photographs of the front, back, and street view of the subject property. The appraiser also includes front-elevation photos of every comparable sale used in the grid, so the reader can visually confirm that the comps are stylistically similar to the subject.1Fannie Mae. Uniform Residential Appraisal Report
A building sketch shows the exterior dimensions of the home and the math behind the gross living area figure. This is not a decorative floor plan; it is the measurement backup for the square footage number that drives the entire valuation. If the floor plan is atypical or functionally obsolete, a detailed interior floor plan sketch is required instead of a simple exterior outline. Location maps close out the exhibits, plotting the subject and all comps to show how close they sit to one another.
Final Value and Certification
The last section is where everything converges into a single number. The appraiser reviews the adjusted values from the comparison grid, explains why certain comps received more weight, and reconciles the data into a final opinion of market value. If the cost or income approaches were completed, the appraiser addresses how those figures informed, or did not inform, the conclusion.
Below the reconciliation sits the certification, a series of signed statements confirming that the appraiser has no personal interest in the property, no financial stake in the outcome of the loan, and that compensation was not contingent on reaching a particular value. The certification also affirms that the work complies with the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP), the professional code that governs appraisal ethics and methodology nationwide. The lender uses the final value to calculate the loan-to-value ratio, which affects your interest rate, loan approval, and whether you will need private mortgage insurance.
Getting Your Copy
You do not have to ask for the report. Under Regulation B, the lender must provide a copy of the appraisal either promptly upon completion or at least three business days before closing, whichever comes first. This applies to any loan secured by a first lien on a home, including purchases and refinances.5Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Rules on Providing Appraisals and Other Valuations – 1002.14
You can waive the three-day timing requirement and agree to receive the copy at or before closing, but the waiver itself must be signed at least three days ahead. Even if the deal falls through entirely, the lender still owes you a copy within 30 days of determining that the loan will not close. Once the report is in your hands, work through it in the order it appears: header, neighborhood, property description, comparison grid, exhibits, reconciliation. The value conclusion is a single number, but the report is the argument behind it, and the argument is worth reading.