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 York State Department of State, Division of Licensing Services on 22 September 2026 · Updated 22 September 2026
New York requires no appraiser seal, and it is one of the few states that hangs the credential number off the title rather than off the signature. Executive Law Section 160-r(2) directs each State certified real estate appraiser to place the certificate number, and each licensed real estate appraiser to place the license number, “adjacent to or immediately below the title”. The titles are fixed and there are three of them: State Certified Residential Real Estate Appraiser, State Certified General Real Estate Appraiser and State Licensed Real Estate Appraiser.
That is the whole of the marking duty, and it explains what a New York appraiser stamp is for. The device carries a long title and a number locked to it, set the way the statute describes, so the pairing never comes apart between the transmittal letter and the certification page. Nothing in Article 6-E or in 19 NYCRR asks for a seal, and there is no New York appraiser seal design to match.
New York real estate appraiser seal requirements at a glance
| Requirement | New York rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Seal required | No. Article 6-E and 19 NYCRR Parts 1101 to 1107 were searched as one corpus on the Department of State’s own publication. The only seal in it belongs to an appraisal school. | N.Y. Exec. Law Article 6-E, Sections 160 to 160-bb, and 19 NYCRR Parts 1101-1107 (searched; no appraiser seal provision) |
| Required elements | One of three exact titles, State Certified Residential Real Estate Appraiser, State Certified General Real Estate Appraiser or State Licensed Real Estate Appraiser, with the certificate or license number adjacent to or immediately below it, plus the appraiser’s signature on the written report. | N.Y. Exec. Law Section 160-r(2) |
| Size and shape | None prescribed. The only sizing adjacent language in the statute is about placement, not dimensions: the number sits adjacent to or immediately below the title. | N.Y. Exec. Law Section 160-r(2) |
| 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 title and number block. | N.Y. Exec. Law Article 6-E, Sections 160 to 160-bb, and 19 NYCRR Parts 1101-1107 (searched; no appraiser seal provision) |
| Signature and date | The written report carries the appraiser’s signature. No dating direction and no signature placement rule appears in Article 6-E, so report dating runs through USPAP rather than through state rule. | N.Y. Exec. Law Section 160-r(2) |
| What must be sealed | Nothing has to be sealed. The title and number duty attaches when the title is used in an appraisal report or in a contract or other instrument used in conducting real property appraisal activities. | N.Y. Exec. Law Section 160-r(2) |
| Electronic seal | Not found. No provision addressing an electronic seal or a digital signature on a transmitted report appears in the Department of State’s published license law and regulations. | N.Y. Exec. Law Article 6-E, Sections 160 to 160-bb, and 19 NYCRR Parts 1101-1107 (searched; no appraiser seal provision) |
| Renewal and lapse | No expiration date is called for on a report, so a fixed block does not go stale at renewal. A move between the three titles, such as licensed to certified residential, is what makes a die wrong. | N.Y. Exec. Law Section 160-r(2) |
| Firm requirements | No firm marking rule was located. Section 160-r(2) is a duty on the individual certificate or license holder. | N.Y. Exec. Law Article 6-E, Sections 160 to 160-bb, and 19 NYCRR Parts 1101-1107 (searched; no appraiser seal provision) |
| Regulator | New York State Department of State, Division of Licensing Services. The State Board of Real Estate Appraisal advises the Department. | N.Y. Exec. Law Article 6-E; 19 NYCRR Parts 1102-1107 |
Does New York require an appraiser to have a seal?
No. The check here was unusually clean because the Department of State publishes the whole body of appraiser law in one document: Executive Law Article 6-E from Section 160 through Section 160-bb, together with 19 NYCRR Parts 1101 to 1107. Statute and rules could therefore be searched as a single corpus rather than separately, and the search returns one hit for the word seal in the entire body of appraiser law. That hit belongs to an appraisal school, not to an appraiser.
Section 160-r was also read subsection by subsection on the New York Senate’s own legislation site, all three of them, because a report marking rule with a seal tucked into the next subsection is precisely how another state hides one. New York does not. Subsection (1) is about the credential document, (2) is the title and number duty, and (3) is about duplicate credentials.
The three titles, exactly as the statute sets them
Section 160-r(2) does not describe a category of title; it names them. A State certified residential appraiser uses State Certified Residential Real Estate Appraiser. A State certified general appraiser uses State Certified General Real Estate Appraiser. A licensed appraiser uses State Licensed Real Estate Appraiser.
Those are long phrases and that is the point of having them cut once. The word State leads each one, and Real Estate Appraiser closes each one. Abbreviating the middle to fit a small die changes the title the statute names, so give the wording the room it needs rather than shortening it.
The number attaches to the title, not to the signature
This is where New York differs from most of its neighbors and where a stamp cut for another state goes wrong. New Hampshire puts the number adjacent to or immediately below the signature. North Dakota puts the permit number adjacent to the signature. New York puts the certificate or license number adjacent to or immediately below the title.
Practically, that means the title and the number are one unit. If you design a block with your name and signature on top and the credential floating somewhere below with the number on a separate line elsewhere, you have separated the two things the statute joins. Set them together, number directly under the title or immediately beside it, and the layout answers the rule by construction.
When the duty is triggered
The trigger is the use of the title, and the reach is wider than a report. Section 160-r(2) applies when the title is used “in an appraisal report or in a contract or other instrument used by the certificate or license holder in conducting real property appraisal activities”. An engagement contract that names you as a State Certified General Real Estate Appraiser is inside that description.
That is worth knowing before you decide how many impressions you need. Appraisers who sign engagement letters, transmittal letters and certification pages get more use out of a device than the word report alone suggests.
The one seal in New York appraiser law belongs to a school
19 NYCRR Section 1103.3(k) provides that a course completion certificate “must be signed by the education coordinator, or his or her designee, must be dated and must have affixed thereto the official raised embossed seal of the appraisal school”. That is the single occurrence of the word in the whole corpus, and it is a known source of confusion.
Read what it is. It is an appraisal school’s own device, applied by the school’s education coordinator, to the school’s own certificate of course completion. It never touches an appraisal report and it is not something an appraiser buys. If you run an approved education provider, that is a school seal and a different order entirely. If you are an appraiser, this rule is not about you.
Not even the credential itself carries a seal
Section 160-r(1) describes what the credential document bears: the signature of the executive secretary of the board and a number assigned by the department. No seal. That is a small detail with a useful implication, because in several states the board does emboss the wall credential and people reason backward from that to a report seal.
New York gives you nothing to reason from. The number on the credential is the number that goes under the title on your work, and that is the only way the state connects you to the page. Copy it from the credential document when you order rather than from an old template.
Has anything been repealed out of Article 6-E?
No, and the article’s own lettering shows it. Article 6-E runs Section 160, then 160-a through 160-z, then 160-aa and 160-bb: twenty nine sections in continuous sequence with no gaps and no repealed placeholders where a seal section might once have stood.
The same applies to the rules. 19 NYCRR Parts 1101 to 1107 contain no appraiser seal rule, and the Department of State’s combined license law and regulations page is the current publication of both. So this is a state that never had an appraiser seal rule rather than one that quietly lost it.
What to put on a New York appraiser stamp
Four elements cover it: the name you sign with, the exact title from Section 160-r(2), the certificate or license number set directly under or beside that title, and New York so an out of state reader is not guessing which state issued the number.
Leave off anything that would misdescribe the credential. A national association designation is not one of the three statutory titles and should not be positioned so it reads as one. If you want both on the page, give the statutory title and its number their own block and keep any other designation clearly separate from it.
Embosser, ink stamp or a digital image
Nothing is prescribed, so choose by delivery. An embosser makes a raised impression that reads well on a paper original and poorly in a scan, which is awkward for a block that exists to be read by whoever receives the copy. It suits a paper certification page you keep in the file.
An ink stamp reproduces in every photocopy and scan and is the usual answer for anything wet signed. A digital seal image belongs in a PDF you assemble yourself, and it can be placed at each signature point in a long report. Appraisers who deliver both ways keep one of each, drawn from the same artwork so the title and number never differ between them.
Laying out a long title, and ordering
State Certified Residential Real Estate Appraiser runs to forty nine characters, and it is the layout problem on this page. A rectangular block usually handles it better than a round die, because the title can run on one or two full width lines with the number immediately below it. If you want a round device, plan on the title curving through most of the perimeter and keep the interior for the name and number.
To order, send the name you sign with, the exact statutory title, and your certificate or license number copied from the credential. From the appraiser range, the Real Estate Appraiser Self Inking Rubber Stamp of Seal is $39.95 and the Regular Rubber Stamp of Seal is $34.95. The MaxLight Pre Inked Rubber Stamp of Seal at $46.95 holds fine lettering well, which matters with a title this long. 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 the change that dates a die
Re ink a self inking stamp when the impression starts to gray rather than when a digit fails. Keep pre inked stamps capped and away from heat. An embosser needs little beyond keeping grit off the die faces.
New York asks for no expiration date, so renewal alone does not age the block. What ages it is a move between the three titles, which is the common event in a New York appraiser’s career, or a change in the number or the name you sign with. A title change makes the die inaccurate rather than merely worn, and the statute names the title precisely enough that it is worth a new device. This page is a research summary and not legal advice.
- Real Estate Appraiser Stamps and Seals
- Real estate appraiser stamps and seals
- North Carolina Appraiser Seal: 1 Inch Minimum
- New Jersey Appraiser Seal: Designation and Number
Frequently asked questions
Does New York require a real estate appraiser to have a seal?
No. Executive Law Article 6-E and 19 NYCRR Parts 1101 to 1107 were searched together on the Department of State’s own combined publication, and no appraiser seal provision exists. Section 160-r(2) asks for your title and number instead.
What exactly does Section 160-r(2) require?
That a State certified appraiser place the certificate number, and a licensed appraiser place the license number, adjacent to or immediately below one of three titles: State Certified Residential Real Estate Appraiser, State Certified General Real Estate Appraiser or State Licensed Real Estate Appraiser.
Does the number go next to my signature?
Not in New York. The statute attaches the number to the title, not to the signature. That is a real difference from neighboring states, and it is the detail a stamp cut for another state usually gets wrong.
Can I shorten the title to fit a smaller stamp?
The statute names the titles in full, so shortening the wording changes the title it names. Give the phrase the space it needs, or move to a rectangular block where a long line fits comfortably.
What is the embossed seal I keep seeing in the New York rules?
An appraisal school’s. 19 NYCRR Section 1103.3(k) requires a course completion certificate to be signed by the education coordinator, dated, and to bear the official raised embossed seal of the appraisal school. It is a school’s device on a school’s certificate and never touches an appraisal report.
Is there a required size or shape?
No. No diameter, dimensions or shape appear anywhere in Article 6-E or in 19 NYCRR. The only placement language concerns where the number sits relative to the title.
Does New York address electronic seals or digital signatures?
No provision on the point appears in the Department of State’s published license law and regulations. USPAP governs signing and certification on an electronically transmitted report.
Was there ever a New York appraiser seal rule that got repealed?
No sign of one. Article 6-E runs Section 160 and then 160-a through 160-bb in continuous sequence, twenty nine sections with no gaps and no repealed placeholders, and 19 NYCRR Parts 1101 to 1107 contain no appraiser seal rule either.
