I am a licensed P&C Insurance Agent looking to get into the appraisal business. I have already completed my 40 hours of fundamental real estate appraisal courses including my 15 hours of USPAP but I can not find anyone to sponsor or train me. I learned about a provisional license (in San Antonio, Texas) which allows a person to sit for the state board exams and if passed begin to appraise on their own if they can submit a document signed by two certified appraisers indicating that you seeked employment as a trainee and they did not have a trainee position available. However, when I contacted the state to request the required documents to apply for the state board exams, the person I spoke with said that the license was really useless because lenders will not hire you to appraise for their clients unless you have a State License or Certified Residential License.
Does anyone have any information or advise they can give me? I am looking on feedback that will either help me find someone to hire me as a trainee or information on lenders or others that will hire someone with a Provisional License.
Thank you.

Well congradulations on passing you education part of being a real estate appraiser! Which two states were you trying to get a license in?

There are 3 levels of appraisal licenses:
State Provisional Licensed Appraiser - You must associate with a State Licensed Certified Appraiser in order for the Connecticut Real Estate Appraisal Commission to issue your Provisional Appraisal License. A state test is not required to be licensed as Provisional Appraiser. Once you are licensed as a Provisional Appraiser, you must associate and work under the direction of a State Certified Appraiser for a minimum of 2 years and maximum of 4 years to complete additional required course hours and to document the minimum required hours of appraisal work.
State Certified Residential Appraiser - Allows Appraiser to appraise 1 - 4 family residential property.
State Certified General Appraiser - Allows Appraiser to appraise all types of Real Estate; residential, commercial and/or industrial property.

I am trying to get licensed in San Antonio, Texas. In Texas, as I understand it, there are two ways to get licensed. One way is to become an Appraier Trainee in which you work under a Certified Residential Appraiser for 2000 hours and then you can take the State Board Exams. After you complete your hours and pass the exam you obtain your license -OR- you can get a Provisional license if you are unable to find an appraiser to hire you as a trainee. To obtain a Provisional license you must pass the required courses and submit two documents signed by two different certified appraisers indicating that you contacted them for a trainee position and that they did not have a trainee position available. Once you have submitted the documents and proof that you passed the courses, you can take the State Board exams and if you pass, you obtain a Provisional License which allows you to do anything that the State Licensed Appraiser can do -- the difference is you do not have to work with a certified appraiser for 2000 hours, you can start appraising on your own.
The problem I am having is that I can not find an appraiser that wants to hire a trainee and I was told that lenders will not contract a person with a provisional license to appraise properties for them so I seem to be in a no win situation. In other words, I can not become an Appraiser Trainee because it seems that most appraisers do not want a trainee and if I obtain my Provisional license, the lenders will not contract me to work for them. I was looking for someone that may have some knowledge regarding lenders that will hire (or contract) an appraiser with a Provisional license or someone that knew of an appraiser in San Antonio Texas that would be willing to hire me as a trainee.
I'm desperate! I have been trying to proceed with my appraisal career for almost two years now. I never dreamed it would be this difficult just to get started.
Apparently a provisional license is different in the state if CT than it is in Texas. In Texas the purpose of the Provisional License is a way for someone to get licensed if they can not find an appraiser to tain them which is great but it doesn't do much good if no one will hire someone that has a Provisional license.

Have you checked with any potential clients or are you taking the State employee's word for it????

Very true..some times State employees do not know that much, they will just tell you no so that they don't have to fill out any more paperwork!

I did check with a Mortgage Company that I currently do business with and they said that a State License was required to do appraisals for them so I just gave up the idea of getting a Provisional License at that point.
After reading your input however, I'm thinking I should look in to this further. There may be other Mortgage Companies out there that will accept a Provisional License.
The Mortgage Companies are probably requiring a State License because they are not familar with the Provisional License. I'm going to try talking with some lenders and explain to them that the requirements for the Provisional License is the same as the requirements for the State License as far as the required classes and the State Board Exams. The only difference between the two is that the State Licensed Appraiser worked 2000 hours under a Certified Appraiser. Maybe if they understand this and that the Provisional License is issued to someone that has successfully completed the classes and passed the state board exams to become a state licensed appraiser but was unable to find a certified appraiser with an open position for a trainee, they will make an exception.
Anyway, your input has made me realize that I may have more success getting the lenders to approve a provisional license than I am having at finding an appraiser to train me. Thanks for the input everyone!

Hey PM,

Try downloading form the States web-site exactly what a provincial Licence is ....and have copies of it to leave when you stop in on Brokers....