How about one Residential and one Commercial and you can have both if you meet the distinct and separate requirements.
I like the other suggestions though.
Brother Lawrence, years ago I thought there should be a USPAP(c) for commercial and a USPAP(r) for residential, and I thought there should be no such thing as a one license eats all like the general license type is today. Yes, if you wanted to appraise residential and commercial one would need to get and pay for two separate licenses. Much like you suggest. But I've come to do away with that idea. In part because of management and the definitions problems it would present. Then, during those passing years I watched my state on the real estate selling end do away with separate "agents" licenses and "broker" licenses.. Every selling person in my state is now just a "broker" and this state has a one-license system on the selling side.
With the advent of this last change in education requirements for appraisers, leaving new "Licensed" appraisers still not even needing a eighth grade education while demanding new commercial GCs to have four year degrees.... I've changed my mind. With the above I now advocate for a 100% move to an appraisal one-license system. No more residential "license," no more residential "certified," and no more general certified either as we know it today in that having such a license implies anything. For many reasons I have come to this.
The concepts in appraising are just as difficult in residential assignments as they are commercial. Anyone appraising in the current markets should easily appreciate and agree with that one. So therefore, ALL new appraisers should have four year degrees, not just commercial appraisers. Then we have the B.S. separation of the license types ability to address different real estate. Clearly the cut off point of 4 units versus five units is a bunch of political hokus pokus of licensing. It is territorial behavior that has nothing at all to do with the public trust. I have come to believe the current licensing system does nothing more than foster blatent violation of the public trust. Commercial appraisers, as a group, are not smarter, better, more qualfied, or anything else, over residential appraisers, as a group. The current licensing situation just perpetrates the fraud of licensing by leaving a public impression that is just simply false.
The Competency portion of USPAP is all we need, not different license types. The present education requirements are nothing more than an artificial barrier put in place to impede currently licensed appraisers from being able, at age 50 to 80 in general, to successfully move to a nothing more than artifically raised to a higher platform licensing type. These people have often been appraising for decades, and we are telling appraisers aged 65 or more to go back to college for four years? At something on the order of $20,000 a year plus the income loss? Does it make sense to demand this of total newbies never real estate appraisers before? .... Yes, we should. .... But to demand it of an appraiser with 10 to 40 years of service in that happens to lack a college degree?
Sorry, the current situation stopped making any sense at all. The only reason for it is to create a caste system 100% meant to do nothing more than protect the territory turf of existing GCs, many of whom do not have college degrees, and many of whom couldn't appraise their way out of a wet paper bag if I were asked. Hence, my opinion the current licensing system does nothing more than to go on perpetrating a fraud of licensing on the public. Let's cut to the chase... A one license system, 100% of all new people seeking to become appraisers have to have four year degrees, and we help the current appraisers... ALL OF THEM... reach competency for all real estate types that they may confront over their years ahead of them. Let's strive for a real trade of pros... just like those in sales are doing.
