The Appraisal Foundation
The Appraisal Foundation is a national, nonprofit organization founded in 1987 to establish uniform criteria for professional appraisers. It was recognized by the U.S. Congress in 1989 as the source for the development and promulgation of appraisal standards and qualifications. The Foundation authors the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP), the recognized standard governing professional appraisals.
The American Society of Appraisers is one of eight major appraisal societies that founded The Appraisal Foundation.
As a sponsor of the Appraisal Foundation, all members of the American Society of Appraisers must take and pass a 15-hour USPAP course and exam taught by an Appraisal Qualifications Board- (AQB) approved instructor. All ASA Members are held to these standards and must take USPAP refresher courses on a regular basis in order to maintain their designation with ASA.
The American Society of Appraisers is the oldest appraisal society in the United States. ASA has been training professional appraisers since its precursor, the American Society of Technical Appraisers, began in 1936.
Today, ASA is still the country’s only multidisciplinary appraisal society, providing its members the most solid grounding in the appraisal principles that underlie all classes of property: real, personal, tangible and intangible.