Written by Acorn Sales Company, manufacturing stamps and seals since 1964 · Reviewed by Holly R, VP of Sales and Marketing at Acorn Sales, against District of Columbia Board of Real Estate Appraisers, Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection on 22 September 2026 · Updated 22 September 2026
We cannot tell you what the District of Columbia requires on the face of an appraisal report, because one rule section that could carry the answer is a section we were unable to read. Everything we did reach is set out below, including the statute, which was read in full and contains no seal or stamp duty, and the complete section list of 17 DCMR chapter 23, which contains no section headed seal or stamp. But 17 DCMR Sec. 2314, headed Display of License and License Numbers, is the section where a report-marking duty would sit in the District, and its operative text could not be obtained. We are not going to guess at it in either direction.
So this page does something different from the others in this series. It tells you exactly what was checked and what it said, names the one document that is missing, and tells you where to get it. Ask the Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection for the text of 17 DCMR Sec. 2314 before you order any device for District work. If that section turns out to prescribe something, you want to buy to it rather than to a guess; if it does not, you are in the position almost every other jurisdiction is in, and you buy for convenience.
District of Columbia real estate appraiser seal requirements at a glance
| Requirement | District of Columbia rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Seal required | Not established. The statute carries no seal or stamp duty and no chapter 23 section is headed seal or stamp, but the text of 17 DCMR Sec. 2314 could not be obtained, so we make no claim either way. | D.C. Code Sec. 47-2853.153 (read in full); 17 DCMR ch. 23, section list obtained; operative text of Sec. 2314 not obtained |
| Required elements | Not established. No element list was found in anything we could read. The section that could carry one, 17 DCMR Sec. 2314, is unread. | 17 DCMR Sec. 2314, text not obtained |
| Size and shape | Not established. Nothing we read prescribes a dimension, but we did not read every section of chapter 23. | 17 DCMR ch. 23, section list obtained; operative text of Sec. 2314 not obtained |
| Device allowed | Not established. Nothing we read names a required or permitted instrument. | 17 DCMR ch. 23, section list obtained; operative text of Sec. 2314 not obtained |
| Signature and date | One signature duty is confirmed in the statute: a report drafted by a trainee shall be reviewed and signed by the licensed or certified real estate appraiser. No date requirement was found. | D.C. Code Sec. 47-2853.153(e) |
| What must be sealed | Not established. The only report-marking duty confirmed in the statute is a disclosure one: an appraiser performing an appraisal not represented as certified shall prominently disclose on the appraisal report that the appraisal is not a certified real estate appraisal. | D.C. Code Sec. 47-2853.153(f) |
| Electronic seal | Not established. Nothing on electronic or digital signatures was found in the sources that could be read. | 17 DCMR ch. 23, section list obtained; operative text of Sec. 2314 not obtained |
| Renewal and lapse | Not established for the face of the report. Nothing we read ties report content to the license term. | 17 DCMR ch. 23, section list obtained; operative text of Sec. 2314 not obtained |
| Firm requirements | Not established. Nothing bearing on the face of a report was found in the sources that could be read. | 17 DCMR ch. 23, section list obtained; operative text of Sec. 2314 not obtained |
| Regulator | District of Columbia Board of Real Estate Appraisers, Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection | D.C. Official Code Sec. 47-2853.151 et seq., Title 47 ch. 28 subch. I-B Part L; 17 DCMR ch. 23 |
Where this page stands
This page does not answer whether the District of Columbia requires a real estate appraiser to seal a report, because the research could not establish it. That is an unusual thing for a vendor page to say, and it is the honest position. Two sources were read and neither contains a seal duty. One source that could carry one was not readable. Publishing either a yes or a no on that basis would be a guess dressed as a finding. What follows is the full account: what was read, what it says, what is missing, why it is missing, and how to close the gap yourself in about ten minutes.
What was read, and what it says
D.C. Official Code Sec. 47-2853.153, headed Certain representations prohibited, was read in full on the DC Council’s own code site, subsections (a) through (h). Neither the word “seal” nor the word “stamp” appears anywhere in it. It carries two duties that touch the face of a report, and both are worth knowing. Subsection (e) provides that a report drafted by a trainee shall be reviewed and signed by the licensed or certified real estate appraiser. Subsection (f) provides that an appraiser who performs an appraisal not represented as “certified” shall prominently disclose on the appraisal report that the appraisal is not a “certified” real estate appraisal. That disclosure duty is a real District feature and it is the one thing on this page you can act on with confidence.
What the rule chapter looks like from the outside
The full section list of 17 DCMR chapter 23, the Real Estate Appraisers chapter, was obtained from the official DC rules site. It runs from Sec. 2300 to Sec. 2325 with Sec. 2399 at the end, twenty-seven sections in all. The numbering is continuous: there are no gaps and no entries marked Repealed, which means no seal section was adopted and later struck out of this chapter. None of the twenty-seven headings mentions a seal, a stamp or a signature. The closest heading by subject matter, and the reason this page is unresolved, is Sec. 2314, Display of License and License Numbers.
The one section we could not read
17 DCMR Sec. 2314 is where a report-marking duty would live in the District, and its text is still unread. The official record for it gives its history verbatim: final rulemaking published at 40 DCR 8480 on 10 December 1993, as amended by final rulemaking published at 53 DCR 5846 on 21 July 2006. So the section has stood since 1993 and was last touched in 2006. Its heading covers display of a license and of license numbers, which in other jurisdictions covers a premises display duty, a report-marking duty, or both. Which of those the District wrote is exactly the question, and the heading alone does not answer it. Two further sections are also unread and are the other plausible homes for such a duty: Sec. 2316, Standards of Professional Practice, and Sec. 2323, Appraiser Trainee.
Why the text could not be obtained
This is worth setting out, because it tells you the gap is a delivery problem rather than a missing law. The District serves rule text from its rules site through a scripted viewer that posts back to the server rather than linking to a page, so there is no plain address for the text of a section. The direct address patterns that usually work returned either bare metadata for the section or the site’s own error page. The file behind the viewer is a Microsoft Word document rather than a web page, which the research tooling used here returns as binary data rather than as readable text. The Board’s own code book is published as a PDF on a document host whose robots file disallows automated retrieval. None of that means the section is secret. It means it did not come back as text on this pass.
How to close the gap in ten minutes
Ask the Board. The Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection administers the Board of Real Estate Appraisers and can supply the current text of 17 DCMR Sec. 2314 on request, as can the Office of Documents and Administrative Issuances, which publishes the District of Columbia Municipal Regulations. Ask for Sec. 2314 by its heading, Display of License and License Numbers, and ask at the same time for Sec. 2316 and Sec. 2323, since those are the other two sections a report-marking duty could sit in. One reply covers all three and settles the question for you permanently. If you would rather read it yourself, the rule text file for Sec. 2314 is published on the District’s rules site and opens normally in an ordinary browser.
What to ask when you have the text
Read the section with four questions in hand, because the answers decide what, if anything, you order. Does it reach appraisal reports, or only the license certificate on your office wall? If it reaches reports, does it call for a seal or a stamp, or does it call for the license number to appear? Does it prescribe any wording, such as a credential designation to accompany the number? And does it say where on the report the information goes? Most jurisdictions that answer those questions answer them in one or two sentences. If the section turns out to be a premises display rule, which its heading allows, then nothing in District law prescribes a device and you are buying for convenience.
What you can act on now
Two things. The trainee review duty at Sec. 47-2853.153(e) means a trainee-drafted report goes out under the reviewing appraiser’s signature as well, so if you supervise, plan for two signature blocks. And the disclosure duty at Sec. 47-2853.153(f) means that an appraisal you do not represent as certified carries a prominent statement on the report that it is not a certified real estate appraisal. That statement is a fixed block of words that never changes and that many appraisers put on a rubber stamp rather than retyping. It is the one District device this record supports ordering today, and it is a disclosure aid rather than a seal.
Do not borrow another credential’s rule
The District does prescribe seals for other professions. Architects, professional engineers, land surveyors and landscape architects each work under their own District chapters with their own seal provisions, administered through the same department. None of those provisions reaches a real estate appraiser, and none of them supplies a diameter or a border legend for appraisal work. If a vendor offers you a District of Columbia appraiser seal built to a prescribed size, ask which provision the size comes from. Nothing in the appraiser statute or in the chapter 23 section list contains one, and a size quoted from an engineering or surveying rule has no bearing on an appraisal report.
Choosing a device once you know
Hold off until you have Sec. 2314 in hand, then the decision is the ordinary one. If the section prescribes specific wording, order that wording and nothing else, and ask us for a proof against the rule text. If it prescribes nothing, choose on how your reports travel. An embosser leaves a raised impression that scans poorly, so it suits a wet-signed original. An ink stamp reproduces cleanly in a scan and handles the not-certified disclosure well. A digital image drops into a PDF. Acorn cuts all three for appraisers: the Real Estate Appraiser Regular Rubber Stamp of Seal at $34.95, the Real Estate Appraiser Handheld Seal Embosser at $46.95, and the Real Estate Appraiser eSeal Electronic Image Stamp of Seal at $20.00.
Ordering, and how we will handle a District job
Send us the text you want cut and, if you have it, the text of Sec. 2314 you obtained from the Board. If you do not have it yet, tell us and we will set the artwork to carry only what you can source from your own certificate: your name, your credential level and your license number, with nothing asserted about District requirements. A proof comes back before anything is cut. Browse the real estate appraiser stamps and seals collection, or contact us and we will work from whatever the Board tells you. This page is a research summary and not legal advice, and on the central question it is expressly inconclusive.
- Real Estate Appraiser Stamps and Seals
- Real estate appraiser stamps and seals
- Electronic Seals and eSeal Image Files: What You Get and What You Do Not
Frequently asked questions
Does the District of Columbia require a real estate appraiser to have a seal?
Unestablished, and we are not going to guess. The statute, D.C. Code Sec. 47-2853.153, was read in full and contains no seal or stamp duty, and no section heading in 17 DCMR chapter 23 mentions a seal or a stamp. But the text of 17 DCMR Sec. 2314, Display of License and License Numbers, could not be obtained, and that is the section such a duty would sit in. Get it from the Board before you order.
Which section is missing, and what is it called?
17 DCMR Sec. 2314, headed Display of License and License Numbers. Its published history is a final rulemaking at 40 DCR 8480 on 10 December 1993, amended by a final rulemaking at 53 DCR 5846 on 21 July 2006. Sec. 2316 on standards of professional practice and Sec. 2323 on appraiser trainees are also unread.
Why could you not read it?
The District serves rule text through a scripted viewer with no plain address for a section, and the underlying file is a Word document rather than a web page. The Board’s code book PDF sits on a host that disallows automated retrieval. The section is publicly available; it did not come back as readable text on this pass.
Who do I ask for the text?
The Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection, which administers the Board of Real Estate Appraisers, or the Office of Documents and Administrative Issuances, which publishes the District of Columbia Municipal Regulations. Ask for Secs. 2314, 2316 and 2323 together.
Is there anything about District reports I can rely on now?
Two things from the statute. Sec. 47-2853.153(e) requires a trainee-drafted report to be reviewed and signed by the licensed or certified appraiser. Sec. 47-2853.153(f) requires an appraiser performing an appraisal not represented as certified to prominently disclose on the report that the appraisal is not a certified real estate appraisal.
Could a seal rule have existed in the chapter and been repealed?
The section numbering argues against it. Chapter 23 runs from Sec. 2300 to Sec. 2325 plus Sec. 2399, with no gaps in the numbering and no entries marked Repealed, so no section appears to have been struck out of the chapter.
Should I order a device for District work in the meantime?
Only one, and only if it helps you. The not-certified disclosure at Sec. 47-2853.153(f) is fixed wording that recurs on every report of that kind, which makes it a reasonable candidate for a rubber stamp. Anything that asserts a District seal requirement should wait until you have read Sec. 2314.
What if Sec. 2314 turns out to prescribe wording?
Then order to that wording exactly and nothing beyond it. Send us the section text with your order and we will set a proof against it before cutting, rather than working from a description of what it says.
