How to become a real estate appraiser in Illinois (2026 requirements)

In Illinois you become a real estate appraiser through the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR), and the first credential is the Associate Real Estate Trainee Appraiser: be at least 18, hold a high school diploma or GED, complete 86 hours of coursework effective January 1, 2026, clear a fingerprint background check, and pay a $225 application fee. No exam is required at the trainee level. You then log experience under an approved supervisory appraiser (or complete PAREA), pass the national licensing exam, and upgrade to the Certified Residential or Certified General credential.

How the Illinois path fits the national path

Illinois follows the same route every state uses, which the national guide "How to Become a Real Estate Appraiser: Licensing Steps and Requirements" explains in full: qualifying education, supervised experience, the national exam, and the state application, all built on the Appraiser Qualifications Board (AQB) criteria effective January 1, 2026. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation runs the program through its Division of Real Estate under the Real Estate Appraiser Licensing Act (225 ILCS 458) and the rules at 68 Ill. Adm. Code 1455. What Illinois adds is a 3-hour supervisor-trainee course (shorter than in most states), a fingerprint background check run through state and FBI channels, experience-hour caps by report type, and a 1-hour sexual harassment prevention training attached to every renewal cycle.

What appraiser credentials Illinois issues

Illinois issues three appraiser credentials plus a temporary permit, according to the IDFPR real estate appraisal licensing page^[1]: the Associate Real Estate Trainee Appraiser (557 prefix), the Certified Residential Real Estate Appraiser (556), and the Certified General Real Estate Appraiser (553), along with a six-month Temporary Practice Permit (572) for out-of-state appraisers.

Illinois no longer issues the Licensed Residential credential. It survives only as a legacy license with the 154 or 554 prefix, and new applicants choose between the trainee and the two certified levels. The trainee credential is not federally recognized: trainees do not appear on the Appraisal Subcommittee (ASC) National Registry^[2] and cannot independently appraise property in federally related transactions, such as mortgages from federally insured lenders.

The federal ASC reviewed the Illinois program in November 2025 and rated it "Good," recording 2,868 state-credentialed appraisers on the National Registry at the time (ASC final compliance review^[3]).

Become an Associate Real Estate Trainee Appraiser

Entry requires 86 hours of education, a background check, and a $225 application, and the credential carries no exam and no experience requirement. The catch is supervision: your experience counts only under a supervisor the Division of Real Estate has approved, and you cannot practice without one.

The 86 hours of qualifying education

Effective January 1, 2026, a trainee applicant must complete 83 hours of qualifying education, made up of the 30-hour Basic Appraisal Principles course, the 30-hour Basic Appraisal Procedures course, the 15-hour National USPAP course, and an 8-hour Valuation Bias and Fair Housing Laws and Regulations course with an examination. The controlling rule is 68 Ill. Adm. Code 1455.150^[4], amended effective September 24, 2024. Because the state also requires the separate 3-hour AQB Supervisor-Trainee Course before it issues the credential, a new applicant's total classroom obligation is 86 hours. Under the rule in force through December 31, 2025, the qualifying-education requirement was 75 hours, plus the 3-hour supervisor course.

The core courses cannot be more than 5 years old at the date of application. USPAP is the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, and Illinois incorporates the 2024 edition by reference at 68 Ill. Adm. Code 1455.240^[5]; every appraiser licensed in the state must practice under it.

The 3-hour supervisor-trainee course

Both the trainee applicant and the supervising appraiser must complete the AQB Supervisor-Trainee Course once, before IDFPR issues the trainee credential or approves the supervisor, per the IDFPR supervisor-trainee association form (SUP-2015)^[6]. Illinois lists the course as ILST-15 and allows it in a classroom or online (IDFPR course registration form^[7]).

Background check and application

You must submit fingerprints through an IDFPR-licensed live scan vendor, processed by both the Illinois State Police and the FBI, within 60 days of submitting your application. Out-of-state applicants use an FBI fingerprint card scanned by an Illinois vendor. The fee is $225, non-refundable, and the application expires 3 years from the date the Department receives it. Failing to disclose all licenses, permits, or examination attempts can result in denial or revocation and a fine of up to $25,000 (IDFPR application for licensure, Form REA-1001^[8]).

Find a supervisory appraiser and log your experience

Trainee experience counts only when the Division of Real Estate has approved the supervisory relationship, and the SUP-2015 form is what creates or ends it. Either the trainee or the supervisor can file the form, there is no fee, and without it the experience does not count toward certification (IDFPR trainee explainer^[9]).

A supervisor must hold a certified credential, must be cleared to supervise by the Division, and may supervise no more than 3 Associate Real Estate Trainee Appraisers at one time. A trainee may work with multiple supervisors; Illinois sets no limit on that side of the relationship.

Illinois also caps experience credit by report type, a rule most states do not have, effective January 1, 2017. Representative maximums from the IDFPR experience credit matrix^[10], for a supervisor plus one participant:

Field reviews, desk reviews, and Standard 3 reviews carry no trainee credit. With 2 or 3 participants on the same assignment, the per-participant maximums drop, and a URAR with 2 or 3 participants earns zero credit. Any assignment that exceeds the indicated hours requires a separate LOG-7575 form.

Using PAREA instead of supervised experience

Yes. Illinois accepts it for the residential experience requirements, a choice the state formalized alongside the traditional route (IDFPR explainer^[11]).

If you take this route, the state requires the certificate of completion to be attached to your licensure application, and a Certified Residential applicant must have obtained both the Licensed Residential and the Certified Residential experience credits. The Pathways to Success scholarship can cover the program's tuition (The Appraisal Foundation's PAREA overview^[12]).

Pass the Illinois appraiser exam

The Certified Residential and Certified General exams are the AQB National Uniform Licensing and Certification Examinations, and in Illinois PSI Services LLC administers them for $62 per exam after IDFPR approves you to test (PSI candidate information bulletin^[13]). The Certified Residential exam gives you 4 hours for 110 scored questions plus 15 unscored ones; the Certified General exam allows 6 hours for the same question count. Passing takes a scaled score of 75 on a 0 to 110 scale, and the score report is issued immediately after you finish.

You can cancel or reschedule without forfeiting the fee if PSI receives notice 2 days before the appointment. PSI offers 15 testing locations in Illinois, from Chicago and Schaumburg to Springfield, Champaign, Bloomington, and Carbondale, and you must bring your own financial calculator with its instruction manual. IDFPR lists exam attempts as unlimited (IDFPR Certified General application process chart^[14]); the real constraint is that a passing result stays valid for only 24 months before the credential must be issued (ASC compliance review^[3]).

Upgrade to Certified Residential or Certified General

You apply to IDFPR for a certified credential once your education, logged experience, and college-level education are complete, and the application fee is $315 for either level. Illinois requires the following, drawn from the IDFPR application form^[8] and the IDFPR Certified General process chart^[14]:

Certified Residential

The Certified Residential Real Estate Appraiser requires 200 hours of qualifying appraisal education, matching the AQB core curriculum; the 3-hour supervisor course is a trainee-level requirement and does not count within the 200. The experience requirement is 1,500 hours obtained in no fewer than 12 months. The college education options are a bachelor's degree; an associate degree in business, accounting, finance, economics, or real estate; 30 semester hours across specified topics; 30 semester hours of CLEP credit; a combination of those; or 5 years of an active Illinois Licensed Residential credential with no adverse, final, non-appealable enforcement action. Under the AQB criteria effective January 1, 2026^[15], a Certified Residential appraiser may appraise 1-4 unit residential property without regard to transaction value or complexity.

Certified General

The Certified General Real Estate Appraiser requires 300 hours of qualifying education, 3,000 hours of qualifying experience obtained in no fewer than 18 months (at least 1,500 of them in non-residential work), and a bachelor's degree or higher. The credential covers all real property at any transaction value, which is what commercial appraisal work in Illinois requires.

After certification: the FHA Appraiser Roster

To appraise for FHA-insured mortgages, you must hold a state Certified Residential or Certified General credential and appear on the ASC National Registry, and you apply online through FHA Connection after confirming your registry record matches exactly (name, license number, license type, and expiration date) (HUD FHA roster appraiser guide^[16]).

Reciprocity and the temporary practice permit

License by endorsement

Certified Residential and Certified General appraisers licensed in another jurisdiction can apply for the same Illinois credential by endorsement: no Illinois exam, no experience log, and no letter of good standing, with IDFPR attaching your ASC National Registry information to the application (IDFPR endorsement flyer^[17]). Endorsement applicants still pay the standard $315 fee. Trainees, assistants, interns, and apprentices from any jurisdiction are ineligible, and criminal convictions (other than minor traffic violations), professional discipline, delinquent student loans, delinquent taxes, and delinquent child support can delay review.

Temporary practice permit

An out-of-state Certified Residential, Certified General, or legacy Licensed Residential appraiser can work a single Illinois assignment on a six-month Temporary Practice Permit for $150, with a 6-month extension available for $75 (IDFPR permit application, Form TEM-1020^[18]). The application must include a letter of engagement or master agreement naming the client and the subject property, or it is incomplete. You consent to Illinois jurisdiction and agree to practice under USPAP and the Illinois Real Estate Appraiser Licensing Act. Trainees and provisional licensees are ineligible. Federal rules require permits to be issued within 5 business days of a completed application; the ASC's May 2026 review found 25 of 181 applications missed that window, mostly because of fingerprint or documentation deficiencies the State reported as resolved within 5 business days of completion.

Renewal and continuing education

Illinois appraiser credentials, including the Associate Trainee, expire September 30 of odd-numbered years, and the 2027 renewal deadline is September 30, 2027 (IDFPR continuing education fact sheet^[19]). The requirements for the 2027 renewal depend on when the credential was issued:

The 28 hours must include a 7-hour National USPAP Update course and a 7-hour Valuation Bias and Fair Housing Laws and Regulations course, and the 1-hour Sexual Harassment Prevention Training (SHPT) sits outside the 28. The 15-hour National USPAP course is not accepted as a substitute for the update course. CE must come from an IDFPR-approved appraiser education provider, you self-certify your hours on the renewal application and must retain the evidence, and out-of-state CE requires Department approval requested before September 30, 2027. The renewal fee is not stated in the renewal materials; the IDFPR appraisal licensing page^[1] links the current fee chart.

What the license costs and how long it takes

State fees for the Illinois appraiser path are fixed and published:

Federal law also lets the state collect an annual National Registry fee of up to $40 from appraisers who perform or seek to perform appraisals in federally related transactions, transmitted to the ASC (12 U.S.C. 3338^[20]). Tuition for the required courses is set by the education provider and typically adds several hundred dollars at the trainee stage, rising with the certified-level coursework.

Processing is fast when the file is complete: the ASC review reported that when applications are complete and staffing permits, "licenses are typically issued the same day." Most of the calendar time is yours, since most trainees finish the coursework over a few weeks or months and then need to line up a supervisor, clear the background check, and work the experience hours for their target credential.

Getting started in Illinois today

Begin at the IDFPR real estate appraisal licensing page^[1], which links every form described in this guide. From there:

1. Pick your target credential. If you are torn between the certified tracks, IDFPR advises taking Statistics, Modeling and Finance first, because it is the same course on both the Certified Residential and Certified General tracks (IDFPR required courses list^[21]).
2. Enroll with an IDFPR-approved education provider and complete the required coursework.
3. Line up a supervisory appraiser who has completed the supervisor-trainee course, and file the SUP-2015 to formalize the relationship.
4. Submit the trainee application and get fingerprinted.
5. Log your hours against the experience credit maximums, or complete PAREA, then sit for the PSI exam and upgrade to certified.