USA: how UAD 3.6 and the new URAR replace numbered appraisal forms

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For years an American home appraisal has been known by a number. A lender ordered "a 1004" or "a 1073", and the form that came back had the same boxes in the same places whatever the property looked like. That habit is ending. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-sponsored enterprises that buy home loans from lenders, are replacing their appraisal forms with a single report built from data, and the date on which lenders must use it is set for 2 November 2026.

The project has two names that travel together. The Uniform Appraisal Dataset, or UAD, is the standard list of data points an appraisal carries; version 3.6 is the redesigned one. The Uniform Residential Appraisal Report, or URAR, is the document a person reads, and it has been redesigned to match. This guide sets out what the two enterprises have published about the change: what replaces what, the calendar from the first live files to the retirement of the old format, what lenders, appraisers and software vendors are asked to do, and what looks different to an agent or a borrower holding the finished report. Where the published pages are silent, the guide says so.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: joint UAD and Forms Redesign Timeline, Freddie Mac's UAD and Forms Redesign questions and answers, and Fannie Mae Lender Letter LL-2026-08 of 30 September 2026.

What the Uniform Appraisal Dataset is

Freddie Mac's questions and answers on the redesign define the Uniform Appraisal Dataset as a standardised industry dataset for appraisal property reporting, sent electronically through the Uniform Collateral Data Portal. That portal, known as UCDP, is the shared channel through which a lender submits an appraisal to either enterprise. The dataset is what makes one appraiser's report comparable with another's: the same fields, the same permitted answers, the same format.

The work is run under the Uniform Mortgage Data Program, which a joint announcement of the two enterprises dated 18 August 2026 describes as a joint effort of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae directed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, their regulator. Fannie Mae's page on the dataset says the two companies have worked on the redesign since 2018 and calls the rollout a multiyear phase.

That page gives the redesign three purposes. It updates the appraisal dataset. It aligns the dataset with version 3.6 of the MISMO reference model, which is where the "3.6" in the name comes from. And it replaces the enterprises' appraisal forms with one report for any residential property type, which Fannie Mae describes as data-driven, flexible and dynamic. Freddie Mac's page adds the intended result: a report that covers all property types, improves the review process and aims to reduce revisions.

The format being left behind is called UAD 2.6.

One report in place of the numbered forms

Freddie Mac's questions and answers list the legacy forms that are retired. Each has a Fannie Mae number and, in most cases, a different Freddie Mac number for the same form. They are replaced by three redesigned documents: the URAR itself, a Restricted Appraisal Update Report and a Completion Report.

The same source states the principle behind the list: form numbers are going away, and the data of the subject property drives the report rather than a form number. The two enterprises have published a guide, "Functioning without Form Numbers", that maps each legacy form to the property type characteristics of the redesigned URAR.

Two of the retired forms deserve a note. The rent schedule, numbered 1007 by Fannie Mae and 1000 by Freddie Mac, is in most cases no longer a separate document: according to Freddie Mac, market rent is estimated in the Rental Information section of the URAR. If a rent estimate turns out to be needed after the report is finished, the original appraiser is expected to amend the URAR. The old combined update and completion form, 1004D or 442, becomes two separate reports, one for each job.

The scope of the single report is wide but not unlimited. Freddie Mac lists four supported scopes of work, traditional, hybrid, desktop and exterior, and says land-only appraisals are outside it. Fannie Mae's Selling Guide supplement for UAD 3.6, published on 2 September 2026, describes the eligible properties as one- to four-unit residences, including accessory dwelling units. Freddie Mac also states that the new URAR is for mortgage purposes only.

The timeline from first files to retirement

The enterprises brought the new format into use in stages. Fannie Mae's Appraiser Update for the second quarter of 2025 described a rollout in four phases. The supplement dates the Limited Production Period from 8 September 2025 to 25 January 2026: during those weeks only lenders approved by Fannie Mae could use UAD 3.6. The Appraiser Update described it as the time when a few lenders would start requesting the new reports, with a Broad Production Period opening on 26 January, when most lenders were expected to adopt; the joint timeline of the two enterprises gives the year, recording that the Broad Production Period began on 26 January 2026. After the limited period, the supplement says, any lender may choose to use the new format.

The supplement puts the mandate in one sentence: all lenders are required to use UAD 3.6 for all new appraisal reports submitted to UCDP on or after 2 November 2026. Until then, according to the same document, a lender that is not using UAD 3.6 stays under the UAD 2.6 policy in the main Selling Guide.

The joint timeline published by the two enterprises then carries the calendar into 2027. A lender that has not moved by the mandate date needs an approved exception, described below. On 20 May 2027 the portal starts refusing new files in the old format, and on 28 June 2027 the old format is retired.

The date that decides which format applies

An appraisal passes through several dates: the day the loan was applied for, the effective date of the opinion of value, the day the lender sent the file to the portal. Only one of them decides the format.

This is why Freddie Mac tells lenders to allow enough time to order, receive and submit UAD 2.6 reports before 2 November 2026.

The same source explains why a single appraiser may be asked for both formats in the same week. Lenders may roll out UAD 3.6 in stages, so the requirement can vary by assignment and by lender. For that reason, Freddie Mac says, the engagement letter between the client and the appraiser should indicate whether UAD 2.6 or UAD 3.6 applies to the assignment.

Once a file exists in the portal it keeps its format. Freddie Mac states that UCDP will not accept UAD 2.6 and UAD 3.6 documents mixed under one document file identifier. The follow-up reports obey the same rule. A Restricted Appraisal Update Report or a Completion Report in UAD 3.6 is delivered as a ZIP file and must be linked to a UAD 3.6 URAR submission; the UAD 2.6 versions stay in XML and link to a UAD 2.6 submission.

The temporary exception and its three periods

On 30 September 2026 the two enterprises announced a policy exception for sellers that need more time. Fannie Mae set out its terms in Lender Letter LL-2026-08, addressed to all Fannie Mae single-family sellers and titled "Temporary Policy Exception for Lenders Unable to Meet the UAD 3.6 November Mandate". The letter took effect immediately, and its guidance expires on 19 May 2027.

The exception does not move the mandate. According to the letter, a lender that implements UAD 3.6 by 2 November 2026 takes no action at all. A lender that cannot must submit a request, through a form the letter names as the UAD 3.6 Policy Exception Request for Fannie Mae-approved Sellers. Freddie Mac's questions and answers add that a seller must request the exception from each enterprise it sells to, and each has its own request form. The letter states no closing date for making the request.

What an approved lender gets changes as the months pass. The joint timeline and the lender letter divide the period into three parts.

The two columns on the right concern the representations and warranties a lender makes when it sells a loan, including on the value of the property. The timeline says UAD 2.6 reports remain eligible for that relief on value until 28 February 2027. From 1 March 2027, in what both documents call the Reduced Functionality Period, they are not: the lender letter says loans delivered with a UAD 2.6 report are then not eligible for enforcement relief for certain appraisal and property value representations and warranties under section A2-2-06 of the Selling Guide.

In the reduced period the timeline says a UAD 2.6 report receives a score of 999 from Fannie Mae and 99 from Freddie Mac instead of an individual score. The letter encourages lenders to implement UAD 3.6 before 1 March 2027.

A worked example of the lengths, counted from the dates in the two documents. The full-function part of the exception, 2 November 2026 to 28 February 2027 inclusive, lasts 119 days. The reduced part, 1 March to 19 May 2027 inclusive, lasts 80 days. Together they make the 199 days of the exception period. The last stretch, which the timeline calls the Pipeline Revisions Period, runs from 20 May to 27 June 2027 inclusive, 39 days, and exists only so that files already in the portal can be corrected and resubmitted. During it, a new UAD 2.6 submission receives an unsuccessful status and a fatal feedback message in the Submission Summary Report, the receipt the portal returns to the lender.

What lenders are asked to do

Freddie Mac's UAD page is direct about the order of work. Lenders that have not started implementation should start now; training staff, testing and completing the transition take longer than expected, the page says, and waiting could cause liquidity problems.

The change reaches beyond the appraisal desk. Freddie Mac notes that lenders delivering loans follow the Phase 5 updates to the Uniform Loan Delivery Dataset, version 5.1.0, which align the property data sent at delivery with UAD 3.6.

One practical point from Freddie Mac concerns systems that check a report before it reaches the lender. A UAD Compliance interface lets appraisal software run the dataset's compliance checks, which cover completeness, validity of format and data type, and reasonableness. The same source says those checks do not include the messages or findings of Loan Collateral Advisor or Collateral Underwriter, the two enterprises' review tools. A report that passes the compliance rules has been found well formed, not approved.

What appraisers are asked to do

For appraisers the sources describe training, software and a change of writing habit. Freddie Mac's questions and answers point appraisers to the enterprises' joint training course, which carries continuing education credit, and ask them to work with their software vendors on functionality and testing. Fannie Mae's Appraiser Update of mid-2025 advised that appraisers should be able to produce reports in either version of the dataset until at least November 2026.

Three job aids published on 23 June 2026 are listed on Fannie Mae's page: guidance for appraisers drawn from lessons learned, photo and image requirements, and reporting under the ANSI measuring standard. Fannie Mae's page also records that Appendices A to H of the specification received minor updates on 10 March 2026, based on findings from the Limited Production Period.

The Appraiser Update describes how the writing changes. Prescribed statements cannot be removed, modified or duplicated. Generic comments, census data, neighbourhood summaries and templates should be avoided. Comment fields are conditional. The reference guide for the new report, Appendix F-1, lists 26 comment fields and runs to 29 numbered chapters and four appendices.

Measurement is the other change of habit. According to the Appraiser Update, appraisers have had to comply fully with the ANSI Z765-2021 standard since 8 August 2025. The exception code GXX001 is retired. Fannie Mae does not allow appraisals based on exterior-only measurement, and allows another measuring standard only where state law requires it.

The policy behind the report is in a separate document. Fannie Mae added its Selling Guide supplement for UAD 3.6 on 4 June 2025. The Appraiser Update says the supplement has the same policy force as the main guide but applies only to UAD 3.6, and that the terminology changed while the policy intent did not.

What software vendors work from

The enterprises do not supply appraisal software. They publish a specification, and vendors build to it. Fannie Mae's UAD page lists the documents by appendix.

Appendix A, the delivery specifications, holds the dataset and its mapping to MISMO version 3.6 XML. Appendix B, the implementation guides, is what Freddie Mac tells vendors to use to map the data and to display the PDF report. Appendix C gives the layouts, Appendix D sample scenarios with their XML files, and Appendix E a report style guide. Appendix F holds the reference guides and Appendix G-1 the cross reference from the redesigned dataset to the legacy one. Appendix H holds the compliance rules, which lenders and vendors use to check a file for completeness, format and reasonableness.

A subschema file completes the set. Fannie Mae describes it as a subset of MISMO version 3.6 with additional enforcement.

The specification has kept moving through 2026, and a vendor's release has to follow it. Fannie Mae's page records that edits to the UAD 3.6 compliance rules were scheduled to be available in production on 14 May 2026, and that the timeline and the questions and answers were republished on 5 May 2026.

How the new report reads for agents and borrowers

An agent or a borrower will not see a dataset. They will see a document that is organised differently from the one they know, and several familiar words are gone.

The Appraiser Update lists the sections of the new URAR: Project, Site, Dwelling Exterior, Unit Interior, Outbuilding, Vehicle Storage, Subject Property Amenities, Reconciliation and Summary, together with the grids. Freddie Mac describes the sections as dynamic and similar in look to two documents borrowers already receive, the Uniform Residential Loan Application and the Closing Disclosure. The same source says the new report has no General Addendum. Commentary sits in fields inside the section it concerns.

A reader who used to turn to the addendum for the explanation will now find it beside the fact it explains, and the list of problems gathered in one place near the end.

That second point follows from how problems are reported. According to the Appraiser Update, defects, damages and deficiencies are recorded in six sections, Site, Dwelling Exterior, Unit Interior, Outbuilding, Vehicle Storage and Subject Property Amenities. They then appear together in the Reconciliation section, and items that need action also appear in the Summary.

On the condition and quality ratings, Freddie Mac says the rating scale itself is unchanged but the definitions have been rewritten for clarity. Three things are new. Separate ratings for the interior and the exterior have been added. The ratings now apply to all residential property types, including manufactured homes. And beneath the ratings sit component-level entries, an update status and a condition status. A newly built home is reported as fully updated.

Other details show the same move towards description. Freddie Mac says accessory dwelling units are reported with more detail, including size, condition, rooms and location. For a unit in a condominium or co-operative project, the Appraiser Update describes two new data elements on the condition of common amenities; a photograph captioned "Observed Deficiency" goes in the Project Information Exhibits. The sales comparison grid, where the subject is set beside comparable sales, can show more than 70 rows.

How any of this bears on a particular sale depends on the property and on the lender's own review. The sources describe the layout of the report; they do not say that a given rating or comment leads to a given lending decision.

Transfers, construction loans and other pipeline cases

The questions and answers republished in 2026 deal with files caught between the two formats. Freddie Mac's version gives the rules for four situations.

An appraisal that moves to another lender. UCDP does not allow a lender to reuse, in its own submission, a document file identifier from another lender's submission. At delivery, however, the new lender can use the transferring lender's identifier or its successful Submission Summary Report.

A loan with an old-format appraisal that closes late. A loan with a UAD 2.6 report can still be sold after UAD 2.6 is retired, Freddie Mac says, and the standard rules on when an appraisal expires apply. The retirement closes the portal to old-format submissions; it does not cancel a report already accepted.

A home still being built. A UAD 2.6 report made subject to completion can be submitted before the mandate. The completion certificate that follows, Form 442 or 1004D, or an accepted alternative, must be kept in the loan file for the life of the loan.

A rent estimate needed after the fact. The original appraiser amends the URAR.

What the published pages leave open

Three points are not settled by the documents read for this guide, all of them dated on or before 10 October 2026.

Government-backed loans follow their own calendar. Freddie Mac's questions and answers say the requirements of the Federal Housing Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Agriculture were included in the redesign, and direct readers to each agency for its implementation plan. Fannie Mae's Appraiser Update of mid-2025 said the three had stated their intention to adopt UAD 3.6 and would publish their own plans and timelines. The dates in this guide are those of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac only.

The pages read do not say what a borrower is handed, or who produces the readable PDF from the data file. Freddie Mac's page says only that vendors use the implementation guide to display the PDF report.

Fannie Mae's letter names no last day for requesting the exception, and the terms on Freddie Mac's side are taken here from the joint timeline, not from a Freddie Mac bulletin.

Kooky, from Shaka

Kooky edits Agents Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for real estate professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.

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