Glossary

The Appraisal Foundation (TAF)

Also known as: TAF

The private, congressionally authorized nonprofit that sets appraiser qualification criteria and appraisal standards for the United States through its two independent boards, the Appraiser Qualifications Board and the Appraisal Standards Board.

Congress designated The Appraisal Foundation as the source organization for USPAP and appraiser qualification criteria in Title XI of FIRREA (1989), giving a private standard-setting body quasi-governmental authority: state appraiser boards must adopt AQB criteria to license or certify appraisers, and federal financial institution regulators must recognize USPAP as the minimum standard for federally related transactions. The Foundation itself does not write appraisals, discipline appraisers, or issue licenses — those functions sit with state appraiser regulatory boards — but it controls the content both of the exam and education criteria those states must apply and of the standards those appraisers must follow. A third body, the Appraisal Practices Board, issues non-binding Voluntary Guidance and Advisory Opinions that interpret how USPAP applies to specific recurring problems, such as valuing green buildings or handling reliance on automated valuation models, without altering USPAP's binding requirements themselves.