UAD 3.6 Checklist for Solo Appraisers: Templates, Photos and AI Tools

A solo appraiser is ready for UAD 3.6 when four things are in place: report software that produces the new URAR, rebuilt comment templates, a photo and sketch routine matching the GSE job aids, and a one-page sheet per lender. General AI assistants such as ChatGPT or Claude help with drafting and checking around the fields, never with the fields themselves.

The timing is no longer theoretical. UAD 3.6 became mandatory for new reports submitted to the GSEs' portal on 2 November 2026, judged by each report's initial submission date. Lenders that could not meet it were able to request a one-time exception, announced on 30 September 2026, to keep submitting new UAD 2.6 reports through 19 May 2027 (resubmissions until 27 June 2027), and Freddie Mac's notice says it will not be extended. Your lenders may therefore send both versions at once, so the checklist below works for either, and the first item is simply asking which one you are being engaged for.

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The checklist covers steps, not software choice; for choosing a platform, read the software tutorial in this series first. Everything here is written for a practice of one, perhaps with a trainee, where nobody else will catch a missed photo or a stale template.

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What changed, in the terms that affect your week

UAD 3.6 replaces the family of static forms (1004, 1073, 2055 and the rest) with a single dynamic Uniform Residential Appraisal Report. The report adapts to property type and inspection level rather than being a different form each time. Three changes matter most to a solo practice because they alter what you do at the property and at the desk.

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• The engagement letter, not the form number, tells you the assignment type. Under the old system the form number told you (a 2055 meant exterior only). The new report covers traditional, hybrid, desktop and exterior-only assignments in one format, and the joint GSE FAQs say those details should be in the engagement letter. If they are not, settle them with the client before you drive out.
• The ratings have more parts. The quality and condition scale itself has not changed, but the GSEs rewrote the definitions so the levels are easier to tell apart, and they added separate interior and exterior condition and quality ratings, so a report can show where the two differ.
• There is no General Addendum. Commentary goes in specific fields within each section of the URAR, so reasoning about highest and best use, market influences and reconciliation sits where the reader looks for it, and your old addendum library stops fitting.

Measuring stays on ANSI Z765-2021, which Fannie Mae's Selling Guide already requires for hybrid appraisals and those with interior and exterior inspections. What changes is the reporting: the GSEs' ANSI job aid splits area into six categories (finished, finished nonstandard and unfinished, each above and below grade), with worked cases such as a low-ceilinged room reported as nonstandard. So your sketch routine needs checking even if you have measured the same way for twenty years. The authoritative sources are the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac UAD pages, and the field-by-field guide is Appendix F-1, the URAR Reference Guide. Bookmark both and recheck them, because the job aids and appendices are revised.

The readiness checklist, grouped by where the work happens

Each item carries a way to verify it. Tick nothing on trust; a checklist you cannot test is a wish list.

Group 1: Before the engagement

1. Confirm the version. Ask the lender or AMC in writing whether the order is UAD 2.6 or UAD 3.6. Verify by having the answer in your order notes, not your memory.
2. Confirm the inspection level. It sits in the engagement letter now. Verify by quoting the level back in your acceptance email.
3. Update the fee table. Expect your first few reports to take longer while you learn the structure, so time your own dry run before you quote. Verify by having a measured time from the practice report described below.
4. Check your software version. It must produce the new URAR and let you run the GSEs' UAD compliance rules through your software provider's API. Those rules check the data for completeness, validity and reasonableness; they do not include Collateral Underwriter or Loan Collateral Advisor messages. Verify by running a test report and finding the compliance check button.

Group 2: At the property

1. Carry the GSE field job aids. The joint UAD Inspection and Reporting Tips document, released by the two GSEs on 21 October 2025, sets out where the information you collect differs from legacy reporting and the new inspection and research requirements. Keep it, and the photo and image job aid, on your phone.
2. Capture interior and exterior condition separately. Note defects room by room so you can justify two different ratings later.
3. Record the new structured items. The URAR holds more detail on accessory dwelling units (size, condition, rooms and location), and the photo job aid lists required images for outbuildings, vehicle storage and amenities, plus conditional ones for non-residential use, recent renovations and value-affecting views. Add a line for each to your inspection sheet.
4. Follow the measuring standard. Use ANSI Z765-2021, sort each area into the six reporting categories as you measure and note how you treated anything unusual. Verify by comparing your sketch totals with the public record and writing down why they differ.

Group 3: At the desk

1. Build templates by section. Not one library of long paragraphs, but short blocks for each place the report expects commentary.
2. Run the compliance check before upload. Fix data errors, then read the narrative once yourself.
3. Keep a final read-through list. A short list of the five slips you personally make most often.
4. File the workfile the same day. The workfile rules are covered in the workfile checklist in this series.

Group 4: After delivery

1. Log the lender's feedback. A one-line note per revision request builds your lender sheet over time.
2. Update templates monthly. Any comment you retyped three times becomes a block.

Templates: build the library around the report's sections

The old habit was a long addendum with canned paragraphs. The new report discourages that, so rebuild your library as short, editable blocks keyed to sections. Each block should hold a skeleton with blanks for the facts, never finished prose that you might forget to edit.

Here is an illustrative block for the market-conditions area, as it might sit in your template file:

[MARKET BLOCK - neighbourhood demand]
Supply and demand in [area name] over the last [12] months: [increasing / stable / declining] marketing times, [number] closed sales versus [number] in the prior period, median days on market [number]. Concessions: [none seen / typical range]. Source and date pulled: [MLS, date].

Every bracket is a fact you must supply. If a bracket survives into a delivered report, your final read-through list should catch it, so add "search the file for [ and ]" as item one. A square-bracket search takes five seconds and is the cheapest quality control a solo practice has.

Where AI drafting is safe

AI earns its place at the block-building stage and the rewriting stage. Give it your own past commentary, with client and borrower names stripped, and ask for blocks with blanks. A prompt that works:

Below are three market-conditions paragraphs I wrote for different assignments. Names and addresses removed.
1. Turn them into one reusable template for a single-family property with bracketed blanks for every fact, number, date and source.
2. Do not add any market claim, trend or statistic. If the original paragraphs do not support a sentence, leave a blank instead.
3. Keep my sentence length and plain tone.
[paste paragraphs]

A realistic output keeps your sentence rhythm but sometimes smuggles in a phrase such as "the market remains competitive". That is a claim you have not made, so the instruction in line 2 is load-bearing, and you still delete anything the output adds. For deeper prompting on narrative sections, see AI prompts for appraisers.

Where it is not

Do not paste the subject property's address, owner names or lender details into a tool whose data terms you have not read, and never let a tool choose a Q or C rating, a comparable, an adjustment or a value. Those are your professional conclusions. The privacy question is dealt with in the privacy-terms tutorial; short version, check whether your inputs are used for training and whether you can switch that off, and keep the answer in a note beside your tool list.

Photos: a routine that survives a revision request

The GSEs published a UAD 3.6 photo and image job aid in June 2026, and it is the list to build your routine around. Required images include a subject property photo, the street scene, the dwelling front and rear, every kitchen and every bathroom, main living areas and below-grade areas, outbuildings inside and out, vehicle storage and amenities, the sketch or floor plan, and subject and comparable photos for the sales comparison section. Others are conditional, such as a manufactured home's HUD data plate, non-residential use, recent renovations or water frontage. The job aid sets no minimum photo count and no captioning rule beyond an optional caption, so consistency is up to you: the same sequence every time means a missing shot shows up as a gap in the numbering. Reconcile the routine with each lender's engagement letter as well, because some ask for extras.

A naming scheme that works on a phone camera roll and a desktop:

YYYYMMDD_ORDERID_01_front
YYYYMMDD_ORDERID_02_rear
YYYYMMDD_ORDERID_03_street
YYYYMMDD_ORDERID_10_kitchen
YYYYMMDD_ORDERID_11_bath-main
YYYYMMDD_ORDERID_20_condition-defect-ceiling-bed2

Numbers 01 to 09 are exterior and street, 10 to 19 interior rooms, 20 to 29 defects and special features, 30 onwards comparables. You can stop a rename job halfway and still know where you are.

Photo rules worth writing on a card

• One defect photo per condition rating justification, because the interior and exterior ratings are now separate and each needs support.
• File each defect photo under the section it belongs to. Defects, damages and deficiencies have no standalone section in the new report; they sit within site, exterior, interior, outbuilding, vehicle storage and amenity sections.
• One photo for each special feature you report: an accessory unit entrance, a solar array, a mitigation device.
• One wide and one close photo for anything you describe as deferred maintenance, so a reviewer can see both extent and detail.
• Take the comparable street scene on the same day you view it, not later from memory of a listing photo.

Using AI on photos without losing control

The safe job is classification and labelling, not judgement. Many tools can read a folder of images and propose labels such as "kitchen", "bathroom", "exterior rear". You check each label against the scheme above, then rename. A realistic mistake: an assistant labels an enclosed porch as a "sunroom" when you report it as unfinished area. The label is harmless in your folder but would be harmful in a narrative, which is why the folder name follows your scheme, and the report text follows your eyes.

If you try this, strip location metadata from the images first unless you know the tool handles it, and use a tool whose terms let you opt out of training. The exact tool matters less than the habit of checking a sample of five labels per job before trusting the rest.

Sketches and measurements: the habit that costs most to fix late

Sketch software tied to your report platform will carry most of the load, but the habits are yours. Check these before your first live UAD 3.6 report:

1. Measure the exterior once, at the same points, and note the corner measurements you could not take.
2. Write the basis of any area you do not report as finished above-grade area (unfinished, below grade, nonstandard ceiling height, an addition you could not confirm was permitted) at the time, not after the compliance check flags it.
3. Compare your total with the public record. A difference under a few percent is normal; a bigger one needs a sentence in the report explaining your method.

A worked check, with illustrative numbers. Say your sketch gives 1,842 square feet and the public record shows 1,960. The gap is 118 square feet, about 6 per cent. Your notes show a converted garage the record counts and you do not. You would write one sentence saying the record includes the converted space, that you excluded it because it lacks the finish and heat you require, and attach the interior photo. Without that sentence, a reviewer sees a discrepancy; with it, they see a judgement.

The lender sheet: one page per client

Lenders and AMCs differ in turnaround, extra photos, who receives questions and how they want revisions requested. Keep one page each. A filled-in illustration:

AI can help here in a small way: paste your own notes after a call and ask it to format them into this table, then check every cell against the lender's actual wording. It turns five minutes of tidying into thirty seconds, and it is the sort of low-risk job worth starting with.

One planning note for any client still on the old version. Freddie Mac's exception notice says UAD 2.6 reports lose some functionality from 1 March 2027 (a collateral risk score of 99 in Loan Collateral Advisor and 999 in Collateral Underwriter, and no representation and warranty relief on value), so expect legacy orders to thin out well before the May cut-off and do not build new legacy templates now.

A practice report: how to run your dry run

This is the single most useful item on the whole list. Take a closed assignment from your own files, one you know well, and rebuild it as a UAD 3.6 report using only your current notes and photos. Time each stage and record what was missing.

An illustrative log for a three-bedroom house:

The total, 240 minutes, is not a benchmark; it is the baseline you beat next time. Each "what went wrong" entry becomes an item on your inspection sheet or template library. That conversion is the whole value of the exercise.

Where AI helps most, ranked by risk

1. Lowest risk: administrative formatting. Lender sheets, naming schemes, checklists from your notes.
2. Low risk: turning your notes into a first-draft narrative block. You supply every fact; you edit every sentence. The comps prep tutorial covers draft checks in more depth.
3. Medium risk: consistency checks. Ask a tool to compare your narrative with your data table and list contradictions. It will miss some and invent some, so treat its list as prompts to look, not findings.
4. Not for AI: ratings, adjustments, comparable selection, value.

The consistency prompt, with an illustrative output:

Here are my commentary text and the data I entered. List every place the text contradicts the data, such as bedroom counts, dates, areas and condition ratings. Quote both sides. Do not suggest fixes and do not comment on value.

A realistic reply might say: "Text says four bedrooms; data says three. Text says renovated 2019; data says updated 2016." Those are exactly the slips worth catching. It might also add a false alarm, such as flagging "C3" against a sentence that says "average condition", which is not a contradiction. You decide which are real.

Handling the first revision request under the new report

Revision requests arrive in a different shape once commentary sits in sections. A reviewer might write: "Please support the interior condition rating and clarify the exterior rating." Under the old forms you would add a paragraph to the addendum. Now you need to find the right section, edit it, and make sure the data fields still agree.

An illustrative routine, taking about fifteen minutes when your notes are good:

1. Open your defect photos for the room or system in question and re-read your inspection notes.
2. Write two sentences yourself: what you saw, then why it fits the rating definition.
3. If you want help with tone, give an AI tool only those two sentences and ask for a tidier version that adds nothing. Compare the result word by word with your original.
4. Re-run the compliance check, because a changed rating can break a related field.
5. Log the request on that lender's sheet, including how long the reply took.

Here is how the rewrite step might go. Your sentences: "Kitchen ceiling shows a 40 cm stain near the extractor, dry to touch, no active leak found. Rated C4 interior because of the stain and worn flooring." A good tidy-up returns almost the same text with cleaner punctuation. A bad one returns "minor cosmetic staining, consistent with age", which sounds reasonable but adds a cause you never established. That single phrase is why you compare against the original every time.

Mistakes that show up in the first few reports

• Leftover brackets. A template blank reaches the lender. The bracket search fixes it.
• One condition rating for both sides. With separate ratings, an unjustified match looks lazy.
• Confusing 2.6 and 3.6 orders. Wrong version means redoing the whole file. Ask at engagement.
• Assuming the compliance check covers quality. It checks data, not your reasoning or any score.
• Trusting an AI-polished paragraph. A fluent sentence can hide an unsupported claim; read it against your notes.

Verifying that you are ready

You are ready when you can answer yes to each of these without looking anything up:

1. I have completed one practice report and logged the time.
2. My templates are blocks with blanks and I search for brackets before delivery.
3. My photo scheme, sketch method and defect notes cover interior and exterior separately.
4. Each active lender has a one-page sheet.
5. I know which AI steps I use, what data goes into them, and which are banned.

If you would rather map these steps against your own practice, that is what my AI implementation consultation covers. Either way, set a date in your diary to recheck the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac UAD pages monthly, because the job aids, FAQs and appendices are revised; the exception window, by contrast, is one-time and not due to move.

UAD 3.6 readiness questions solo appraisers ask

Is UAD 3.6 mandatory yet?

Yes. UAD 3.6 became mandatory for new reports submitted to the GSEs' portal on 2 November 2026, judged by each report's initial submission date. A one-time exception announced on 30 September 2026 lets lenders that requested it keep submitting new UAD 2.6 reports through 19 May 2027, with resubmissions until 27 June 2027. Ask each lender which version applies to each order.

Can AI fill in the UAD 3.6 data fields?

It should not. Fields hold facts you observed, measured or verified, and your signature covers them. AI is safe on the work around the fields: rewriting your own notes into narrative, checking a draft for contradictions, sorting photos into a naming scheme and building your checklists.

Do I need new templates for every lender?

Usually you need one master set of comment blocks plus a short lender sheet recording each client's quirks: inspection level, photo extras, turnaround, who receives the compliance check. The master set is yours; the sheet changes per lender and stays one page.

What should I do first if I have not started?

Install the UAD 3.6-ready version of your report software, then complete one practice report on a past assignment. A dry run exposes missing templates, measuring habits and photo gaps far faster than reading release notes, and it costs you a few hours rather than a live deadline.

Further reads

• AI for Commercial Appraisers: Lease Abstracts and Income Prep — If your practice also takes commercial income work.
• ChatGPT for Appraisers: Drafting Market-Conditions Sections — Drafting market commentary inside the new structure.
• Appraisal Institute on AI: What Appraisers Should Check First — What the profession's bodies say about AI use.
• Can AI Help Draft a Reconsideration of Value Response? — Handling lender queries once reports are in.
• AI for Real Estate Appraisals: Report Narratives and the USPAP Checks — Report narratives and the USPAP checks around them.
• How to Set Up Human Review for AI Work Without Slowing Down — A light review step for any AI-touched draft.
• AI for Canadian Appraisers: CUSPAP, Privacy and Practical Uses — CUSPAP confidentiality, competence and work-file rules read against AI, plus privacy points and practical appraisal uses that keep client data out.
• AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.

Sources: Fannie Mae's Uniform Appraisal Dataset page and the joint GSE UAD 3.6 FAQs (1 October 2026); Freddie Mac's UAD page, its 30 September 2026 temporary policy exception notice, the UAD 3.6 photo and image job aid and ANSI reporting job aid (June 2026); Fannie Mae Selling Guide B4-1.3-05 for ANSI Z765-2021. All checked 4 November 2026.