UAD 3.6 for Rural Appraisers: What You Need to Know
If you appraise rural properties, you already know your job is different from the suburban appraiser's. Your comps are further apart. Your property types are more diverse - you might appraise a 1,200-square-foot ranch on 2 acres in the morning and a 3,500-square-foot home on 40 acres with outbuildings in the afternoon. Your service area might cover half a state.
UAD 3.6 is hitting everyone. But it's hitting you differently.
Some of the changes are harder for rural appraisers. And one of them is significantly better. Let me walk through both sides.
The Change That Finally Works in Your Favor
Fannie Mae retired the requirement to physically drive to each comparable sale for UAD 3.6 reports. (Fannie Mae Appraiser Update)
For suburban appraisers, this saves some time. For rural appraisers, this can save hours per report.
If your comparable sales are scattered across a 50-mile radius - which is common in rural markets where transaction volume is low - driving to each comp for a street photo could add 2-4 hours of pure windshield time to every report. With gas, wear on your vehicle, and the opportunity cost of that time, comp drive-bys have been one of the most expensive requirements in rural appraisal work.
Under UAD 3.6, you still need comp photos. But sourcing is at your discretion. MLS photos, county records, aerial imagery, or other available sources are acceptable alternatives to physically driving to the property.
For a rural appraiser completing 12-15 reports per month, eliminating drive-bys could recover 25-40 hours per month. That's not a minor improvement. That's a full work week.
This single change may more than offset the additional time UAD 3.6 requires for room-level documentation and structured data fields - at least for rural appraisers covering large territories.
The Challenges That Are Harder in Rural Markets
The comp drive-by retirement is the good news. Here's what's harder.
The structured data fields assume standardized properties. UAD 3.6 was designed primarily around conventional suburban housing - standardized construction types, typical municipal utilities, common building materials. Rural properties often don't fit neatly into those categories. Mixed-use parcels, non-standard heating systems (wood stoves, geothermal, propane), well and septic systems, agricultural outbuildings, and unconventional construction present data entry challenges when the dropdown menus expect suburban answers.
The good news is that UAD 3.6 does include provisions for atypical properties. But navigating those provisions for the first time - figuring out how to accurately report a property with a wood-burning primary heat source or a 40-acre parcel with three outbuildings - will take additional learning and practice.
Room-level detail is harder when properties are larger and more varied. Documenting dimensions, condition, and materials for every room is time-consuming for any appraiser. For rural properties that might have 15+ rooms, multiple living areas, finished basements, converted barns, or ADUs, the data collection load is heavier than for a standard 3-bed/2-bath suburban home.
Energy efficiency and disaster mitigation fields may not apply cleanly. The new sections for energy features (solar panels, insulation quality, window performance) and disaster mitigation (storm shutters, roof strapping) were designed with certain property types in mind. Older rural homes may not have features that map neatly to these categories. You'll need to know what "N/A" or "not applicable" options exist and how to use them accurately.
Limited comps remain a challenge - and structured data makes it more visible. If you're already stretching to find three comparable sales in a rural market, the new "Additional Properties Analyzed But Not Used" table adds a layer of documentation to your comp selection process. On the positive side, this table lets you proactively explain why you used comps from 15 miles away or from a different subdivision - documentation that can reduce revision requests from reviewers who don't understand rural market dynamics.
Practical Adjustments for Rural UAD 3.6 Work
Extend your inspection time for the first few months. If a rural property inspection currently takes you 60-90 minutes, budget an extra 30 minutes during the UAD 3.6 transition. Room-level documentation for larger properties takes time, and rushing through it leads to data gaps you'll have to fill later from memory.
Use the pre-inspection survey to your advantage. Rural homeowners often know their properties better than anyone - when the well was drilled, what the septic system type is, whether the outbuilding has electric. Sending a survey before your visit captures information that might be difficult to assess visually during the inspection. (This is one of the reasons we built Homeowner Walkthrough Surveys into Appraiser Machine - the homeowner fills it out on their phone with photos, and you arrive with data instead of guesswork.)
Document your comp selection reasoning thoroughly. The "Additional Properties Analyzed But Not Used" table is your friend in rural markets. Use it to explain the geographic range of your search, why closer sales weren't suitable, and what adjustments you made for distance or property differences. Preemptive documentation reduces revision cycles with reviewers who may not understand that a 20-mile comp search radius is normal in your market.
Use the saved drive-by time strategically. If comp drive-by elimination saves you 3 hours per report, don't just absorb that time into the UAD 3.6 learning curve. Track it. Know how many hours you're recovering so you can make informed decisions about fees, report volume, and work-life balance. And keep tracking your inspection mileage - even without comp drive-bys, rural inspection driving still adds up to a significant tax deduction at $0.725/mile.
The Rural Perspective on Fees
The fee impact of UAD 3.6 hits rural appraisers differently than suburban ones.
On one hand, the additional time for room-level documentation and structured data affects everyone equally. On the other hand, the comp drive-by retirement disproportionately benefits rural appraisers. If you were spending 2-4 hours per report on comp drive-bys, getting that time back partially or fully offsets the new data collection requirements.
The net time impact for rural appraisers may actually be neutral or even positive, depending on your service area and typical comp distances. That's worth factoring into your fee calculations. While suburban appraisers may have a strong case for fee increases, your math might look different.
For the full fee analysis, see UAD 3.6 and Your Fees: Will You Actually Get Paid More?.
The Bottom Line for Rural Appraisers
UAD 3.6 isn't one-size-fits-all, and neither is the transition experience. Rural appraisers face real challenges with structured data fields that were designed for standardized properties. But you also stand to gain the most from the comp drive-by retirement - potentially recovering enough time to offset the new requirements entirely.
The preparation steps are the same as for any appraiser: update your software, complete the training, practice with a mock report, and update your inspection workflow. The UAD 3.6 Checklist covers all of this. The difference is in how you weight the changes - and for rural appraisers, the balance is more favorable than the headline anxiety suggests.
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Jon Barrett
Jon Barrett is the founder of Appraiser Machine and has spent over a decade working with independent appraisers. He's built 300+ appraiser websites, co-led a national appraiser mastermind group, and talked with hundreds of appraisers about what's actually working in their practices. He built Appraiser Machine because the operations side of running an appraisal practice was still stuck in spreadsheets and duct tape - and appraisers deserved better.
