Written by Acorn Sales Company, manufacturing stamps and seals since 1964 · Reviewed by Holly R, VP of Sales and Marketing at Acorn Sales, against Mississippi Real Estate Appraiser Licensing and Certification Board, which operates publicly as the Mississippi Appraisal Board on 22 September 2026 · Updated 25 September 2026
Mississippi goes further than most states in prescribing nothing: no seal, no stamp, and no rule putting your certificate number on the face of an appraisal report at all. Its neighbors in this research batch each carry a number-on-report statute. Minnesota, Missouri, Montana and Nebraska all tell an appraiser where the credential number goes. Mississippi has no equivalent. The Real Estate Appraiser Licensing and Certification Act at Miss. Code Ann. 73-34-1 and following, and the Board’s rules at 30 Miss. Admin. Code Pt. 1501, contain no seal provision, no stamp provision and no placement rule for a resident licensee’s number. The word stamp does not appear in either one.
That leaves a Mississippi appraiser stamp as a work tool rather than a compliance item. What goes on it is driven by USPAP, which Mississippi adopts and which supplies the signed certification, and by what your clients and lenders expect to see beside your name. Because the state fixes nothing, nothing on the die can be wrong by reference to a Mississippi element list. The one real constraint Mississippi does impose is about titles, and it is worth getting right before you engrave anything.
Mississippi real estate appraiser seal requirements at a glance
| Requirement | Mississippi rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Seal required | No. No provision of the Act or of the Board’s rules requires an appraiser to affix a seal or stamp to an appraisal report | Miss. Code Ann. 73-34-1 et seq.; 30 Miss. Admin. Code Pt. 1501 |
| Required elements | None prescribed for a Mississippi licensee. The only number placement rule found applies to out-of-state appraisers on a temporary privilege, who place the temporary privilege number adjacent to their signature on the report | 30 Miss. Admin. Code Pt. 1501, R. 6.2(3) |
| Size and shape | Not prescribed. No diameter, dimension or shape appears in the Act or the rules, because no seal or stamp is prescribed at all | Miss. Code Ann. 73-34-1 et seq.; 30 Miss. Admin. Code Pt. 1501 |
| Device allowed | Not restricted. Mississippi names no instrument and no medium, so an ink stamp, an embosser or a graphic file are all equally acceptable as far as state law is concerned | Miss. Code Ann. 73-34-1 et seq.; 30 Miss. Admin. Code Pt. 1501 |
| Signature and date | Not prescribed by Mississippi. The signed certification on an appraisal report comes from USPAP, which Mississippi adopts, and not from a Mississippi rule | Miss. Code Ann. 73-34-1 et seq.; 30 Miss. Admin. Code Pt. 1501 |
| What must be sealed | Nothing. No Mississippi document calls for an appraiser’s seal or stamp | Miss. Code Ann. 73-34-1 et seq.; 30 Miss. Admin. Code Pt. 1501 |
| Electronic seal | Not addressed. Neither the Act nor Title 30 Pt. 1501 contains a provision on an electronic seal or on a digital signature applied to a transmitted report | Miss. Code Ann. 73-34-1 et seq.; 30 Miss. Admin. Code Pt. 1501 |
| Renewal and lapse | No expiry date is required on the report, so a Mississippi die does not go stale at renewal. It goes stale only if the wording on it stops being true of you | Miss. Code Ann. 73-34-1 et seq.; 30 Miss. Admin. Code Pt. 1501 |
| Firm requirements | The term certified real estate appraiser may not be used following, or immediately in connection with, the name or signature of a firm, partnership, corporation or group. An individual may still sign for an entity if it is clear only the individual is licensed | Miss. Code Ann. 73-34-31 |
| Regulator | Mississippi Real Estate Appraiser Licensing and Certification Board, publicly the Mississippi Appraisal Board | Real Estate Appraiser Licensing and Certification Act, Miss. Code Ann. 73-34-1 et seq.; board rules at Title 30, Part 1501, Mississippi Administrative Code |
Does Mississippi require an appraiser to seal a report?
No. Nothing in the Real Estate Appraiser Licensing and Certification Act requires a seal or a stamp on an appraisal report, and nothing in the Board’s rules does either. The full thirty-five section list of Miss. Code Ann. ch. 73-34 was reviewed and the sections where such a duty would sit were read in full: 73-34-11, 73-34-15, 73-34-31, 73-34-37 and 73-34-47. None of them contains the word seal or the word stamp. The Board’s rules run to thirteen chapters in 30 Miss. Admin. Code Pt. 1501, covering education, experience, examinations, board organization, continuing education, temporary privileges, the roster and registry fee, general categories, licensing for licensees of other states, abbreviations, trainee criteria, supervisory appraiser criteria and disciplinary actions. Not one of them is a seal chapter or a report format chapter.
The section where a seal rule would normally live
Most states that give appraisers a seal put the provision in the section about the credential document itself, and Mississippi has such a section: Miss. Code Ann. 73-34-47, License form and records. It was read in full and contains neither seal nor stamp. That is a more informative silence than it looks. In Missouri the parallel rule, 20 CSR 2245-4.010, calls for the state seal to be imprinted on the credential the commission issues. In Nevada, NRS 645C.390(1)(b) calls for the seal of the Commission on the certificate, license or registration card. Mississippi did not write even that much. There is no agency seal clause in the credential section to be mistaken for an appraiser duty.
What Mississippi does regulate: your title
The one thing the Act is specific about is the use of the designation. Miss. Code Ann. 73-34-31 provides that the term certified real estate appraiser may only be used to refer to an individual who is a licensed certified real estate appraiser as provided by the chapter, and may not be used following, or immediately in connection with, the name or signature of a firm, partnership, corporation or group. The same section adds that this does not prevent a licensed certified real estate appraiser from signing an appraisal report on behalf of a corporation, partnership, firm or group practice if it is clear that only the individual is licensed and the entity is not. That is a design instruction for anyone putting a company name on a die.
The only number-on-report rule in Mississippi, and it is not yours
If you hold a Mississippi credential, no Mississippi rule tells you to put your number on a report. One rule does tell somebody to: 30 Miss. Admin. Code Pt. 1501, R. 6.2(3), in the chapter on temporary licensing and certification privileges. Persons granted temporary privileges shall not advertise or otherwise hold themselves out as being licensed or certified by the State of Mississippi, and must place their temporary privilege number adjacent to their signature on the appraisal report. That rule reaches an out-of-state appraiser working an assignment here under a temporary privilege, and it is the reason a Mississippi appraiser occasionally sees a colleague stamping a number beside a signature and assumes the same duty applies to them. It does not.
Where the word seal does appear in the Board’s rules
Once, and it belongs to another agency. 30 Miss. Admin. Code Pt. 1501, Ch. 9, the chapter on licensing procedure for licensees of other states, asks an applicant to provide a statement under seal from the agency that issued the applicant’s existing credential, confirming standing. That is the out-of-state licensing agency’s own seal on its own certification letter. It is not a Mississippi appraiser device, it is not applied to an appraisal report, and it never touches a file you deliver to a client. Anyone quoting that phrase as evidence of a Mississippi appraiser seal duty has read the wrong subject into the sentence.
What to put on a Mississippi appraiser stamp
With no element list, the die carries whatever is accurate and useful. Most Mississippi appraisers set their name as it appears on the credential, the credential class written out, the certificate number and the state. Nothing obliges you to include the number, but clients, reviewers and appraisal management companies routinely ask for it, and USPAP’s signed certification already names you, so a die that carries the number beside the name saves the typing. Keep the title honest: under 73-34-31 the term certified real estate appraiser refers to an individual, so if your firm name goes on the device, set it on its own line and keep it away from the credential words rather than running the two together.
Embosser, ink stamp or eSeal image
Because Mississippi names no instrument, this is a question about how your reports travel. An embosser leaves a raised impression that looks and feels authoritative on a paper original and reproduces badly in a scan, which is a real drawback when nearly every report is delivered as a PDF. An ink stamp holds a clean edge in a scan and handles the long credential wording well. A graphic file is the natural fit for electronic delivery. Many appraisers here keep an ink stamp for the paper file and an image for the delivered PDF, cut from the same artwork so the two never disagree.
Sizing and layout
Size follows the wording, because nothing else constrains it. Certified General Real Estate Appraiser is a long line, and a rectangular ink stamp sets long lines better than a round die, which bends text into a curve and loses point size. If you want a round embosser, put the name in the center, curve the credential class above it and curve the state and number below. Send us the exact lines you want and we will set them at the largest legible size the die allows rather than starting from a size and shrinking the text to fit it.
Electronic delivery
Mississippi has no electronic seal standard for appraisers, because it has no seal standard at all. Neither the Act nor Pt. 1501 speaks to a digital signature applied to a transmitted report, so electronic delivery here is governed by USPAP, by your client’s requirements and by whatever the lender’s portal asks for. A graphic of your block dropped into a PDF is neither better nor worse in Mississippi law than the same text typed in. The Real Estate Appraiser eSeal Electronic Image Stamp of Seal is $20.00 and arrives as an image file you place in the report yourself.
Renewal, and when a die stops being true
Mississippi requires no expiration date on the face of a report, so a die does not expire with your credential the way it would in a state that makes the expiry part of the required block. What retires a Mississippi die is a change in the facts on it: a new certificate number, a move from licensed to certified residential or from certified residential to certified general, a legal name change, or a firm name change if the firm sits on the device. Trainees moving to a credential of their own are the most common case, since the wording changes completely.
Ordering, and what it costs
Send the text line by line exactly as you want it read, with the certificate number as it appears on your credential. We set the artwork, send a proof and cut nothing until you sign off. For ink, the Real Estate Appraiser Self Inking Rubber Stamp of Seal is $39.95, the Real Estate Appraiser Regular Rubber Stamp of Seal is $34.95 and the Real Estate Appraiser MaxLight Pre Inked Rubber Stamp of Seal is $46.95. For a raised impression the Real Estate Appraiser Soft Seal Embosser is $44.95.
Care, and one honest limitation
Wipe lint off the die face of a self-inking stamp if the lettering starts to fill. An embosser wants nothing but a dry drawer. The limitation worth stating: the Board publishes its own combined rules PDF for Parts 1501, 1503 and 1504 on its website, and that file returned a server error on two attempts, so the official Mississippi Secretary of State copy of the Administrative Code was read instead. That is the same text from the state’s own code publisher, but it is a substitution and it is fair to say so. This page is a research summary and not legal advice. Browse real estate appraiser stamps and seals, or contact us with your wording.
Frequently asked questions
Does Mississippi require a real estate appraiser to have a seal?
No. Neither the Real Estate Appraiser Licensing and Certification Act nor 30 Miss. Admin. Code Pt. 1501 requires an appraiser to affix a seal or stamp to an appraisal report, and the word stamp does not appear anywhere in either one.
Does Mississippi require my certificate number on the report?
No rule was found that requires it of a Mississippi licensee. Mississippi differs from Minnesota, Missouri, Montana and Nebraska in that respect, none of which prescribe a seal but all of which do tell the appraiser where the credential number goes.
Why does my out-of-state colleague stamp a number next to a signature here?
Because a different rule applies to them. 30 Miss. Admin. Code Pt. 1501, R. 6.2(3) requires a holder of a temporary licensing or certification privilege to place the temporary privilege number adjacent to the signature on the appraisal report, and bars them from holding out as licensed by the State of Mississippi.
The rules mention a statement under seal. Does that mean I need a seal?
No. That phrase sits in Pt. 1501, Ch. 9 on licensing for licensees of other states, and it refers to the seal the other state’s licensing agency puts on its own certification of your standing. It is that agency’s device, not yours, and it never touches an appraisal report.
Can my company name go on the stamp?
Yes, with care. Miss. Code Ann. 73-34-31 bars the term certified real estate appraiser from being used following, or immediately in connection with, the name or signature of a firm, partnership, corporation or group. Set the firm name on its own line, clear of the credential wording.
Can I sign a report on behalf of my firm?
Yes. Miss. Code Ann. 73-34-31 expressly preserves that, provided it is clear that only the individual is licensed and that the corporation, partnership, firm or group practice is not.
Where does the signature on my certification come from?
From USPAP, which Mississippi adopts. The Act adds no signature formality, no dating rule and no placement rule of its own on top of it.
Does my stamp expire when my credential renews?
No. Mississippi requires no expiration date on the report, so a die stays usable through renewals and only needs replacing when something engraved on it stops being accurate, such as a new number or a new credential class.
