Written by Acorn Sales Company, manufacturing stamps and seals since 1964 · Reviewed by Holly R, VP of Sales and Marketing at Acorn Sales, against New Jersey State Real Estate Appraiser Board, Division of Consumer Affairs on 22 September 2026 · Updated 22 September 2026
New Jersey requires no appraiser seal, and the chapter that governs you contains the words “seal” and “stamp” exactly zero times. N.J.A.C. 13:40A was read end to end, from 13:40A-1.1 to 13:40A-9.12, in the Division of Consumer Affairs’ own consolidated chapter text, and neither word occurs in it. What the Board asks for is in N.J.A.C. 13:40A-7.2: an appraiser includes on all appraisal reports, at the place wherever the appraiser’s signature appears, the appraiser’s designation and state license or certification number.
Two details in that sentence shape the device. The marking goes wherever the signature appears, not once at the front of the report, so a long report can need it in several places. And the designation is not free text: 13:40A-7.2 goes on to say that the appraiser uses only the designations permitted under N.J.A.C. 13:40A-7.3. That combination, a repeated block with wording the Board controls, is exactly what a stamp is good at.
New Jersey real estate appraiser seal requirements at a glance
| Requirement | New Jersey rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Seal required | No. A complete read of N.J.A.C. 13:40A found no occurrence of “seal” or “stamp”. The chapter asks for a designation and a number beside the signature instead. | N.J.A.C. 13:40A-1.1 through 13:40A-9.12 (searched in full; no seal or stamp provision) |
| Required elements | The appraiser’s signature, the appraiser’s designation and the state license or certification number, at the place wherever the signature appears. Only designations permitted under 13:40A-7.3 may be used. | N.J.A.C. 13:40A-7.2; N.J.A.C. 13:40A-7.3 |
| Size and shape | None prescribed. No diameter, dimensions or shape appear in the chapter, because no seal or stamp provision exists to size. | N.J.A.C. 13:40A-1.1 through 13:40A-9.12 (searched in full; no seal or stamp provision) |
| Device allowed | Nothing is prescribed and nothing is prohibited. A rubber stamp, a pre inked stamp, an embosser or a graphic file are all ordinary ways to reproduce the designation and number block. | N.J.A.C. 13:40A-1.1 through 13:40A-9.12 (searched in full; no seal or stamp provision) |
| Signature and date | The signature is the anchor: the designation and number attach at the place wherever it appears. No dating direction appears in the chapter. Subchapter 6 requires appraisals to conform at minimum to USPAP, so report dating runs through USPAP. | N.J.A.C. 13:40A-7.2; N.J.A.C. 13:40A-6.1(a) |
| What must be sealed | Nothing has to be sealed. The marking duty applies to all appraisal reports, and inside each one it repeats at every place the signature appears. | N.J.A.C. 13:40A-7.2 |
| Electronic seal | Not found. No rule in N.J.A.C. 13:40A addresses an electronic seal or a digital signature on a transmitted report. USPAP governs by reference through Subchapter 6. | N.J.A.C. 13:40A (no provision on point); N.J.A.C. 13:40A-6.1(a) |
| Renewal and lapse | No expiration date is among the elements, so a fixed block does not go stale at renewal. A change of designation, such as moving from licensed to certified, is what makes a correct die wrong. | N.J.A.C. 13:40A-7.2; N.J.A.C. 13:40A-7.3 |
| Firm requirements | No firm marking rule was found. 13:40A-7.2 is a duty on the individual appraiser. Subchapter 9 covers appraisal management companies and contains no seal or stamp provision. | N.J.A.C. 13:40A-1.1 through 13:40A-9.12 (searched in full; no seal or stamp provision) |
| Regulator | New Jersey State Real Estate Appraiser Board, within the Division of Consumer Affairs, Department of Law and Public Safety. | N.J.S.A. 45:14F-1 et seq.; rules at N.J.A.C. 13:40A |
Does New Jersey require an appraiser to have a seal?
No. The Division of Consumer Affairs publishes its own consolidated copy of N.J.A.C. 13:40A, the State Board of Real Estate Appraisers chapter, and that document runs from 13:40A-1.1 through 13:40A-9.12: subchapters 1, 2, 2A, 3, 4, 5, 6 on standards, 7 on general provisions, 8 on reciprocity and 9 on appraisal management companies. Read in full and searched, it contains no occurrence of “seal” and none of “stamp”.
The statute points the same way. N.J.S.A. 45:14F-8 is the section that grants the Board its rulemaking authority, and it is where a seal mandate would have been delegated if one existed. It is not there. N.J.S.A. 45:14F-21, the certification requirements section that is the statutory analogue of the report marking rule, speaks only to titles and licensure and never to a seal.
The one character that turns this answer upside down
New Jersey has a trap in its own citation scheme, and it catches vendors constantly. N.J.A.C. 13:40, without the A, is the State Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors, and that chapter does require a seal on documents. N.J.A.C. 13:40A, with the A, is the Real Estate Appraiser Board, and it requires none.
One dropped letter turns a state that prescribes nothing into a state with a seal rule. If you have read a page telling you New Jersey appraisers must seal reports, check which chapter it cites. An engineer or land surveyor seal rule is a different credential under a different board, and it does not reach an appraiser. It also should never be used as a template for appraiser artwork, because copying an engineering seal legend onto an appraiser’s block claims something you do not hold.
What 13:40A-7.2 requires
The rule is titled disclosure of title and certificate or license number, and it reads: “An appraiser shall include on all appraisal reports, at the place wherever the appraiser’s signature appears, the appraiser’s designation and state license or certification number. The appraiser shall use only the designations permitted pursuant to N.J.A.C. 13:40A-7.3.”
So three things travel together on the page: the signature, a designation, and the number the state issued you. Note that it says license or certification number, which tracks New Jersey’s two credential families, and that the number belongs to you rather than to your firm.
Wherever the signature appears, not once per report
The placement language is the part people misread. It is not “on the first page” and not “in the certification”. It is at the place wherever the appraiser’s signature appears. In a report where you sign the letter of transmittal, the certification page and an addendum, the rule reaches all three.
That repetition is the practical case for a device. A block you can put down in the same form in three places, reading identically each time, removes the failure mode where the certification page carries the number and the transmittal letter does not. Set the block so it sits naturally under a signature line wherever one occurs.
Only the permitted designations
The second sentence of 13:40A-7.2 sends you to N.J.A.C. 13:40A-7.3, which governs the use of designations and abbreviations. That is the rule that decides what you may call yourself on the report, and by extension what may be lettered on a die.
Take your wording from that rule rather than from habit, from a national association title, or from a template a client sent you. The safe method before ordering is to write out the exact designation you intend to have cut, check it against 13:40A-7.3, and only then send it to a manufacturer. We will cut what you give us; we cannot tell you which designation you hold.
The wall display duty is a different duty
N.J.S.A. 45:14F-22 requires an appraiser to conspicuously display the license or certificate at the place of business. It comes up in searches for New Jersey appraiser requirements and it looks adjacent, but it is a premises duty about the paper credential on a wall. It says nothing about marking a report and it creates no device.
Keeping those two apart matters when you are deciding what to buy. The display duty is satisfied by the certificate the Board issued you. The report marking duty is satisfied by the designation and number beside your signature, however you produce them.
USPAP carries the rest
New Jersey’s standards subchapter is unusually short. N.J.A.C. 13:40A-6.1(a) provides that the appraiser ensures that all appraisals at a minimum conform to the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, and that is the whole of subchapter 6.
Everything about report content, certification language and how a signature functions therefore comes to you through USPAP rather than through a New Jersey rule. That is also why the chapter has nothing to say about electronic signatures or an electronic seal: it delegates the territory. What USPAP does not do is create a New Jersey appraiser seal, because the Board never made one.
What was checked, and the one limit
Being plain about coverage matters on a page like this. The administrative rules are confirmed: the Division of Consumer Affairs’ own consolidated chapter PDF was read in two passes, front and tail, so the end of the chapter could not be lost to truncation, and the whole of it is clean of both words. The rule text of 13:40A-7.2 is identical to the text published when the rule was adopted in the New Jersey Register in 2002, so it has not drifted.
The limit is on the statute. Four sections of N.J.S.A. 45:14F were read individually, including the two most capable of carrying a seal mandate, but a chapter wide word search of the statute was not possible because the state’s own statute file refused automated retrieval. A statutory seal duty the Board never implemented in its own rules would be an odd thing to find, so this does not change the answer, but you are entitled to know which part is exhaustive and which is not.
Embosser, ink stamp or a digital image
Nothing is prescribed, so pick by how your reports travel. An embosser leaves a raised impression that reads beautifully on a paper original and poorly in a scan, which is awkward for a block whose job is to be read by whoever receives the copy. It suits a paper certification page you retain.
An ink stamp is the workhorse for anything wet signed and it reproduces in every photocopy and scan. A digital seal image is what belongs in a PDF you assemble yourself, and it can be placed at each signature point in a long report without re scanning anything. Appraisers who deliver both ways usually keep an ink device and an image drawn from the same artwork so the two never disagree.
Laying out the block and ordering it
No dimensions are set, so size for reading. A three line block works well here: the name you sign with, the permitted designation, and the license or certification number. Keep the number and the designation at the same weight, since the rule names both, and leave enough clear space above the block that it does not collide with a signature line.
To order, send the name you sign with, the exact designation you have checked against 13:40A-7.3, and your state license or certification number copied from the credential itself. From the appraiser range, the Real Estate Appraiser Self Inking Rubber Stamp of Seal is $39.95, the Regular Rubber Stamp of Seal is $34.95, and the MaxLight Pre Inked Rubber Stamp of Seal is $46.95. For PDF delivery the eSeal Electronic Image Stamp of Seal is $20.00. Browse the real estate appraiser stamps and seals collection, or contact us with your wording.
Care, and what dates a New Jersey block
Re ink a self inking stamp when the impression starts to gray rather than when a digit drops out. Keep pre inked stamps capped and out of direct sun. An embosser needs little more than keeping grit off the die faces.
Renewal does not age a New Jersey block, because no expiration date is called for. What ages it is a change in designation, which is the likeliest event in an appraiser’s career here, or a change in the number or in the name you sign with. Any of the three makes the die inaccurate rather than merely tired, and an inaccurate designation is the one 13:40A-7.2 and 13:40A-7.3 actually care about. This page is a research summary and not legal advice.
- Real Estate Appraiser Stamps and Seals
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- New York Appraiser Seal: Number Under the Title
Frequently asked questions
Does New Jersey require a real estate appraiser to have a seal?
No. N.J.A.C. 13:40A was read in full, 13:40A-1.1 through 13:40A-9.12, and contains no occurrence of “seal” or “stamp”. N.J.A.C. 13:40A-7.2 asks for your designation and state license or certification number wherever your signature appears.
I read that New Jersey appraisers must seal reports. Where does that come from?
Almost always from a citation slip. N.J.A.C. 13:40, without the A, is the State Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors, and that chapter does require a seal. Appraisers are 13:40A. Check which chapter the page cites.
Where on the report does the designation and number go?
At the place wherever your signature appears. That is the rule’s own phrasing, so in a report you sign in more than one place, the block belongs at each of them rather than once at the front.
Which designation am I allowed to put on the stamp?
Only one permitted under N.J.A.C. 13:40A-7.3, which governs the use of designations and abbreviations. Check your intended wording against that rule before ordering, because the die is cut to whatever you send.
Is there a required size or shape?
No. Because the chapter requires no seal or stamp at all, no diameter, dimensions or shape are prescribed. Size the block so the designation and number are legible on the copy the client receives.
Does New Jersey address electronic seals or digital signatures?
No provision on the point was found in N.J.A.C. 13:40A. Subchapter 6 requires appraisals to conform at minimum to USPAP, so USPAP’s own signature and certification provisions govern an electronically transmitted report.
Does the license display rule mean I need something on my reports?
No. N.J.S.A. 45:14F-22 requires the license or certificate to be conspicuously displayed at your place of business. That is a wall duty satisfied by the paper credential, and it is separate from the report marking rule at 13:40A-7.2.
How current is the chapter that was checked?
The Division of Consumer Affairs’ consolidated chapter text is dated 1 July 2019 and covers 13:40A-1.1 through 13:40A-9.12. The wording of 13:40A-7.2 matches the text published on adoption in the New Jersey Register in 2002, so the rule is unchanged across that span.
