Written by Acorn Sales Company, manufacturing stamps and seals since 1964 · Reviewed by Holly R, VP of Sales and Marketing at Acorn Sales, against State Board of Appraisers, Abstracters, and Home Inspectors, Appraiser Division, Arkansas Department of Labor and Licensing on 22 September 2026 · Updated 22 September 2026
Arkansas is one of only two jurisdictions in the country whose rule still calls for a seal on an appraisal report. 17 CAR Sec. 200-203(b)(2) says all written appraisal reports shall make specific reference to any person or persons and bear the signature or signatures and seal or seals of all properly registered, licensed, or certified person or persons who participated significantly in the performance of the appraisal or delivery of appraisal services. That is a live rule in the Board’s current 2026 rule set. But the statute behind it has moved. The Board’s 2023 statute compilation headed Sec. 17-14-305 with the word Seals and had appraisers authenticate reports with a seal indicating the credential number. The 2025 compilation drops Seals from the heading, and subsection (a)(1) now reads that the appraiser shall authenticate all written appraisal reports with the registration, license, or certification number of the appraiser. No seal.
So Arkansas appraisers sit in an unusual position: a rule that calls for a seal, a statute that no longer does, and a rule that never described what the seal should contain, how large it should be or what shape it should take. Confirm the current position with the Board before you order, and if you do order, build the device around the one element both texts agree on, which is your registration, license or certification number. A device carrying your name, your credential and that number satisfies the statute’s authentication element on its face and answers the rule as well as anything can, given that the rule specifies nothing.
Arkansas real estate appraiser seal requirements at a glance
| Requirement | Arkansas rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Seal required | Yes under the Board’s rule, no under the current statute. The rule has all written appraisal reports bear the signature and seal of everyone who participated significantly. The 2025 statute compilation asks only for authentication with the credential number. Confirm with the Board before ordering. | 17 CAR Sec. 200-203(b)(2) (SBAAHI 2026 Rules, Subpart 2); Ark. Code Ann. Sec. 17-14-305(a)(1) (2025 compilation) |
| Required elements | The rule prescribes none. It calls for a seal without describing its contents. The statute’s authentication element is the registration, license, or certification number of the appraiser, with signature added separately. | Ark. Code Ann. Sec. 17-14-305(a)(1) (2025 compilation); 17 CAR Sec. 200-204(b) |
| Size and shape | Nothing prescribed. The rules carry no seal specification of any kind: no diameter, no dimension, no border and no shape. | 17 CAR Sec. 200-101 et seq. (no specification) |
| Device allowed | Not specified. The rule names a seal without naming an instrument, so an embosser, a rubber stamp and an applied image are each equally undescribed by it. | 17 CAR Sec. 200-203(b)(2) (SBAAHI 2026 Rules, Subpart 2) |
| Signature and date | Signature is separate from the seal and is spelled out: the credential holder shall affix his or her signature, at a minimum, to the letter of transmittal, if applicable, and to the certification page of each appraisal report or appraisal service prepared by him or her or under his or her direction. No date provision was found. | 17 CAR Sec. 200-204(b); Ark. Code Ann. Sec. 17-14-305(a)(1) (2025 compilation) |
| What must be sealed | All written appraisal reports, under the rule, and the duty reaches every properly registered, licensed, or certified person who participated significantly in the performance of the appraisal or the delivery of appraisal services, not just the lead appraiser. | 17 CAR Sec. 200-203(b)(2) (SBAAHI 2026 Rules, Subpart 2) |
| Electronic seal | Not addressed. Neither the statutes nor the rules contain a provision on an electronic seal or a digital signature for appraisal reports. | 17 CAR Sec. 200-101 et seq.; Ark. Code Ann. Sec. 17-14-101 et seq. |
| Renewal and lapse | Not addressed in the current rules. The 2023 statute compilation provided that seals remained state property, to be returned on suspension or revocation. The 2025 compilation carries no such provision. | Ark. Code Ann. Sec. 17-14-305 (2023 compilation compared with 2025) |
| Firm requirements | No firm seal is described. The duty in the rule attaches to each properly registered, licensed, or certified person who participated significantly, so a two-appraiser report carries two signatures and two seals rather than a company device. | 17 CAR Sec. 200-203(b)(2) (SBAAHI 2026 Rules, Subpart 2) |
| Regulator | State Board of Appraisers, Abstracters, and Home Inspectors, Appraiser Division, Arkansas Department of Labor and Licensing | Ark. Code Ann. Sec. 17-14-101 et seq.; SBAAHI Rules, 17 CAR Sec. 200-101 et seq. (2026 Rules, Subparts 1 and 2) |
One of only two seal jurisdictions, and the ground has shifted
Across the fifty states, the District of Columbia and the territories, only North Carolina and Arkansas have a text calling for an appraiser to seal a report. Everywhere else the answer is a signature plus a credential title and number, or nothing at all. So an Arkansas appraiser asking whether a seal is needed is asking a question that actually has a yes in it, which is rare. The complication is that the yes now comes from the Board’s rule and not from the statute. That gap appeared between the Board’s 2023 and 2025 statute compilations, and the rule was carried forward into the 2026 rule set unchanged. Read both texts before you decide, and treat the Board as the place to settle it.
What the Board’s rule says
17 CAR Sec. 200-203(b)(2), in Subpart 2 of the 2026 rules, reads: “All written appraisal reports shall make a specific reference to any person or persons and bear the signature or signatures and seal or seals of all properly registered, licensed, or certified person or persons who participated significantly in the performance of the appraisal or delivery of appraisal services.” Three things are worth pulling out of that sentence. It applies to all written appraisal reports, not a subset. It asks for signature and seal together, as two separate things. And it reaches everyone who participated significantly, which on a co-signed report means two sets of marks rather than one.
What the statute says now, and what it used to say
The Board publishes its own compilation of the appraiser statutes, and the two most recent editions do not match. The 2023 compilation gave Ark. Code Ann. Sec. 17-14-305 the heading “Compliance with uniform standards and code of ethics, Seals, Licensing and certification documents”, had appraisers authenticate written appraisal reports with a seal indicating the registration, license, or certification number, and added at subsection (b) that seals remained state property to be returned on suspension or revocation. The 2025 compilation drops Seals from the heading and rewrites subsection (a)(1) so that the appraiser “shall authenticate all written appraisal reports with the registration, license, or certification number of the appraiser”. The seal is gone from the statute; the number stayed. Arkansas Code itself is published on Lexis and was not readable directly, so both readings come from the Board’s own published compilations.
The rule calls for a seal and never describes one
This is the part that surprises people who arrive expecting a specification. Nothing in the Arkansas rules says what an appraiser’s seal should contain, how wide it should be, whether it should be round or rectangular, or whether it should be embossed or inked. There is no element list, no diameter, no sample artwork and no approval step. Compare North Carolina, the other seal jurisdiction, which prescribes a minimum diameter and ties the design to what the board authorized at licensure. Arkansas does none of that. So the device is a design decision constrained only by the statute’s authentication element and by what a reader of your report needs in order to identify you.
What to put on the device
Build it around the number, because the number is the one element both the current statute and the former seal language agree on. A practical Arkansas block carries the appraiser’s name as the credential reads it, the credential title, the words State of Arkansas, and the registration, license, or certification number. That block authenticates the report by number on its face, which is what Sec. 17-14-305(a)(1) now asks, and it is a seal in the ordinary sense of the word, which is what the rule asks. Leave off an expiry or renewal date, since neither text calls for one and a printed date only gives the die a shelf life. Leave off the words Official Seal, because no Arkansas text authorizes or approves an appraiser device.
The seal that is not yours
A trap worth naming, because it produces a steady stream of confused orders. 17 CAR Sec. 200-204(c)(3) refers to a seal of the Department of Labor and Licensing imprinted on the license or certificate document itself. That is the state authenticating the piece of paper it issued to you. It is not your report seal, it is not artwork you can reproduce, and it is not something a stamp maker can or should cut. If a vendor offers you an Arkansas appraiser seal that carries the look of a state or department emblem, that vendor has read the wrong subsection. Your device identifies you; the Department’s seal identifies the Department.
Signatures are a separate duty
Do not let the seal question swallow the signature question, because Arkansas is specific about signatures in a way it is not about seals. 17 CAR Sec. 200-204(b) and Sec. 17-14-305(a)(1) together provide that the credential holder shall also affix his or her signature, at a minimum, to the letter of transmittal, if applicable, and to the certification page of each appraisal report or appraisal service that was prepared by him or her or was prepared under his or her direction. That is two named places in every report, and it is an obligation in its own right. A stamp does not discharge it. Sign, then mark.
Embosser, ink stamp or eSeal image
With no instrument specified, the choice turns on how your reports are delivered. An embosser gives the raised impression most people picture when they hear the word seal, and for a jurisdiction whose rule uses that word it has an obvious appeal: the Real Estate Appraiser Handheld Seal Embosser is $46.95, the Desk Seal Embosser is $44.95 and the Long Reach Desk Seal Embosser is $129.95 where the mark has to reach into the middle of a bound report. The weakness is reproduction: a raised impression often vanishes in a scan, and an authentication mark that disappears from the delivered copy is not doing its job. Many Arkansas appraisers emboss the signed original and apply the Self Inking Rubber Stamp of Seal at $39.95 to the copies, or use the eSeal Electronic Image Stamp of Seal at $20.00 for reports delivered as PDFs.
Sizing and layout
Arkansas sets no dimension, so legibility decides. A round die of the kind normally cut for professional seals carries a name and credential around the rim with the number across the center, which reads well and suits the word seal. A rectangular ink stamp sets the same four lines straight and handles a long credential title better. Whichever shape you choose, size the number so it survives a photocopy and a scan, because the number is the element the statute names. If your reports are bound before signing, measure the distance from the page edge to where the mark has to land before choosing between a standard reach and a long reach embosser; the Extended Long Reach Desk Seal Embosser at $169.95 exists for exactly that problem.
Ordering
Send your name as the credential reads it, your credential title, and your registration, license or certification number. Tell us the shape you want, whether the same artwork should be cut to an embosser, an ink stamp and an eSeal image so all three agree, and, for an embosser, how far in from the edge the impression has to reach. Because Arkansas prescribes no layout, we will set a proof and you decide. Proof the number against your own credential rather than against the proof sheet. Browse the real estate appraiser stamps and seals collection, or contact us with your wording.
Care, and when to reorder
An embosser wants paper dust kept off the plates and one sheet at a time between them; forcing two sheets flattens the die and rounds the letters. Re-ink a self-inking stamp before the impression grays, using the ink made for that model, a few drops rather than a flood. A pre-inked stamp takes its own oil-based ink through the top of the die and should rest overnight afterward. Reorder when the facts on the die change: a new credential number, a move between registration, licensure and certification, or a legal name change. Renewal alone changes nothing, since neither the rule nor the statute puts a date on the report. This page is a research summary and not legal advice.
Frequently asked questions
Does Arkansas require a real estate appraiser to seal a report?
Yes under the Board’s rule. 17 CAR Sec. 200-203(b)(2) says all written appraisal reports shall bear the signature and seal of everyone who participated significantly. The current statute is a different matter: the Board’s 2025 compilation of Ark. Code Ann. Sec. 17-14-305(a)(1) asks only that reports be authenticated with the appraiser’s registration, license, or certification number. Confirm the position with the Board before you order.
Why do the rule and the statute disagree?
Because the statute changed and the rule did not follow. The Board’s 2023 statute compilation headed Sec. 17-14-305 with the word Seals and had reports authenticated with a seal indicating the credential number. The 2025 compilation drops Seals from the heading and substitutes authentication by number. The seal sentence survives in the Board’s rule at 17 CAR Sec. 200-203(b)(2).
What has to be on an Arkansas appraiser seal?
Nothing is prescribed. The rule calls for a seal and never describes one: no elements, no diameter, no shape and no approval step. The sensible content is the element the statute names, your registration, license or certification number, together with your name and credential title so a reader can identify you.
Does the seal replace my signature?
No. They are separate duties. 17 CAR Sec. 200-204(b) and Sec. 17-14-305(a)(1) have the credential holder affix a signature, at a minimum, to the letter of transmittal, if applicable, and to the certification page of each appraisal report or appraisal service prepared by or under the direction of that holder.
I co-signed a report. Do we both mark it?
That is what the rule describes. 17 CAR Sec. 200-203(b)(2) reaches all properly registered, licensed, or certified persons who participated significantly in the performance of the appraisal or the delivery of appraisal services, and asks for the signature or signatures and seal or seals of each.
Is the seal on my license certificate the one I use on reports?
No. The seal referred to at 17 CAR Sec. 200-204(c)(3) is the Department of Labor and Licensing seal imprinted on the license or certificate document itself. It authenticates the document the state issued to you and is not artwork for your own device.
Does Arkansas allow an electronic seal?
The question is unanswered in the texts. Neither the statutes nor the rules contain a provision on an electronic seal or a digital signature for appraisal reports, so nothing permits it expressly and nothing forbids it. An image of your own device in a PDF is governed by USPAP and your own practice.
Do I have to give the seal back if my credential is suspended?
The 2023 statute compilation said so: seals remained state property and were to be returned on suspension or revocation. The 2025 compilation carries no such provision, and the current rules do not restate it. This is one more reason to settle the point with the Board.
