Written by Acorn Sales Company, manufacturing stamps and seals since 1964 · Reviewed by Holly R, VP of Sales and Marketing at Acorn Sales, against South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation, Appraiser Certification Program on 22 September 2026 · Updated 22 September 2026
South Dakota is one of the quietest states in the country on this question. It prescribes no appraiser seal, no appraiser stamp, and no credential line either. SDCL chapter 36-21B, the Appraiser Certification chapter, was read in full through the Legislature’s own interface and contains neither the word seal nor the word stamp. All fifteen chapters of ARSD article 20:14 were enumerated and their section inventories checked, and no chapter, section title or section text prescribes a device. Most states that skip the seal still tell you to put your certificate number next to your title. South Dakota does not even do that.
So the marking on a South Dakota report comes from the standards, not from the state. ARSD 20:14:06:01 says an appraiser performing any appraisal practice assignment shall complete it in compliance with the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, and the signature and certification obligations ride in on that sentence. A stamp here is a convenience for producing the identifying lines you already choose to put under your signature. Nothing about it is fixed by South Dakota, which means nothing about it can be wrong in South Dakota’s eyes except a claim that is not true of you.
South Dakota real estate appraiser seal requirements at a glance
| Requirement | South Dakota rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Seal required | No. Neither the statute chapter nor any of the fifteen rule chapters prescribes a seal or a stamp. | SDCL ch. 36-21B and ARSD art. 20:14, all fifteen chapters: no seal or stamp provision |
| Required elements | None prescribed by South Dakota. No state rule names an element that must sit on an appraiser device or beside the signature on an appraisal report. | SDCL ch. 36-21B and ARSD art. 20:14, all fifteen chapters: no seal or stamp provision |
| Size and shape | None prescribed. There is no device to size, so no diameter, border or shape is fixed. | SDCL ch. 36-21B and ARSD art. 20:14, all fifteen chapters: no seal or stamp provision |
| Device allowed | Any, and none is expected. An ink stamp, an embosser, an electronic image or plain type all produce a result South Dakota says nothing about. | SDCL ch. 36-21B and ARSD art. 20:14, all fifteen chapters: no seal or stamp provision |
| Signature and date | Signature duties come from USPAP, adopted by reference: an appraiser shall complete any appraisal practice assignment in compliance with the Uniform Standards. The state adds no signature or date rule of its own for appraisal reports. | ARSD 20:14:06:01 |
| What must be sealed | No South Dakota document calls for an appraiser’s seal. The only state-imposed addition to the face of a report is the registration number of the appraisal management company, where one is involved. | ARSD 20:14:06:01.02 |
| Electronic seal | Not addressed. No provision on an electronic seal or a digital signature on a transmitted report appears in SDCL ch. 36-21B or in the appraisal standards chapter, ARSD 20:14:06. | SDCL ch. 36-21B and ARSD art. 20:14, all fifteen chapters: no seal or stamp provision |
| Renewal and lapse | No report marking is tied to renewal, because no report marking is prescribed. Nothing on a device goes stale at renewal by operation of a South Dakota rule. | SDCL ch. 36-21B and ARSD art. 20:14, all fifteen chapters: no seal or stamp provision |
| Firm requirements | Appraisal management companies register with the secretary under SDCL ch. 36-21D, and an appraiser working for one must make sure the company is properly registered and include the company’s registration number in the report. That is a number, not a seal, and it is the company’s. | ARSD 20:14:06:01.02; SDCL ch. 36-21D |
| Regulator | South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation, Appraiser Certification Program. | SDCL ch. 36-21B, Appraiser Certification; ARSD art. 20:14, Appraisers |
How little South Dakota says
The check here was a full read rather than a search for a heading. SDCL chapter 36-21B was pulled complete through the Legislature’s own statute interface and scanned for the two words that matter: zero occurrences of seal, zero of stamp. On the rules side, article 20:14 breaks into fifteen chapters, and all fifteen were enumerated with their section inventories: general provisions, administration, application procedure, transactions requiring qualified appraisers, qualifications, appraisal standards, records, appraiser independence, professional membership and competence, the fee schedule, complaints and discipline, nonresident certification and temporary practice, qualifying and continuing education, evaluation exemptions and standards, and the experience training program. No section title in any of them contains seal or stamp, and the sections that could plausibly have carried a marking duty were read in full.
That matters because a seal rule is exactly the kind of provision that hides one subsection past where a reader stops. North Carolina keeps its appraiser seal requirement in subsection (b) of a rule whose subsection (a) reads like a signature rule and looks like a complete answer. South Dakota has no such subsection anywhere.
USPAP does the work a seal rule would have done
ARSD 20:14:06:01 is one sentence: an appraiser performing any appraisal practice assignment shall complete the assignment in compliance with the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice. That sentence is doing a great deal of work. It is why a South Dakota appraisal report is signed, why it carries a certification, and why the certification says what it says. None of that is South Dakota text. It is the standards, adopted whole.
The practical consequence for a device is direct. Because the signing obligation comes from the standards rather than from a state rule with an element list, there is no South Dakota element list to satisfy and nothing to check a die against. An appraiser who wants the credential level and number under the signature is following good practice and the expectations of clients and lenders, not a South Dakota mandate.
The one number the rules do put on a report
There is exactly one thing ARSD article 20:14 adds to the face of a report, and it is not yours. ARSD 20:14:06:01.02 says an appraiser who performs an appraisal for an appraisal management company shall make sure the company is properly registered by the secretary under SDCL chapter 36-21D and include the company’s registration number in the appraisal report. The duty falls on the appraiser, the number belongs to the company, and it changes from client to client.
That is an argument against engraving it. A die is cut once and the company number is not a fixed fact about you, so it belongs in the report template where it can be edited, not on a stamp. Keep the die to the facts that stay the same: your name, your credential level, your certificate number if you want it there.
Evaluations are a different document with a different rule
South Dakota added chapter 20:14:14 at 47 SDR 71, effective 14 December 2020, covering evaluation exemptions and standards. ARSD 20:14:14:03 sets out eight items an evaluation must contain, and the last of them is name, contact information, and signature. That is worth knowing, and it is worth being precise about, because it is the nearest thing in South Dakota rules to a prescribed block.
Two limits keep it from reaching most appraisers. It is a signature requirement and not a seal requirement, and it governs evaluations, which are permitted only below the appraisal threshold under ARSD 20:14:04:05. An appraisal report is not an evaluation, and the eight item list does not travel to one. If you do prepare evaluations, a name and contact block is the part a stamp could carry, and even there the rule prescribes no device.
A chapter that is mostly repealed
ARSD chapter 20:14:06 reads oddly if you open it cold, because almost all of it is gone. Sections 20:14:06:02 through 20:14:06:14 are all repealed, leaving only 20:14:06:01 on compliance with the uniform standards, 20:14:06:01.01 on assignment conditions and 20:14:06:01.02 on the management company registration number. Those repealed sections were the state’s own pre-USPAP report content standards, superseded when South Dakota moved to adopting the standards by reference.
Worth saying clearly: none of the surviving text refers to a seal, and no section title in the repealed range did either. The repeal did not remove a seal rule, so nobody should read the gaps as evidence that South Dakota once required one.
What to engrave when nothing is prescribed
With no element list, the die should carry what is true and useful. Your name as the Appraiser Certification Program records it. Your credential level, spelled the way your certificate spells it. Your certificate number. South Dakota or SD if you want the state on the face, which is presentation rather than compliance.
The one real constraint is honesty. Do not letter a credential level above the one you hold, do not put the word Certified on a die if your credential does not carry it, and do not add a designation from a professional organization in a way that reads as a state grant. ARSD 20:14:02 includes a rule on the use of titles in advertising, and a device is a form of advertising when it goes onto an engagement letter.
Traps: seals that belong to other credentials
If you have seen a South Dakota seal specification, it was written for another credential under another chapter. The state prescribes seals for design professions in detail, and those specifications have nothing to do with appraisal reports. They sit in different chapters, under different boards, for credentials an appraiser does not hold, and copying one puts a false claim on your device.
Inside the appraiser rules, two items look like marking provisions and are not. ARSD 20:14:07 covers retention of records and inspection and copying, which is about your work file rather than the face of a report. ARSD 20:14:09 was read in full and prohibits excluding appraisers for non-membership in professional organizations while setting competence standards; it carries no seal, stamp or signature requirement.
Embosser, ink stamp or electronic image
Choose on delivery. If the report leaves as a PDF, an inked impression survives the scan and a raised one does not. The Self Inking Rubber Stamp of Seal at $39.95 covers most of this work, and the Slim Pre Inked Rubber Stamp of Seal at $46.95 is the compact alternative.
For a file-only workflow the eSeal Electronic Image Stamp of Seal at $20.00 drops the block straight into the document, and it is an image rather than a signing credential. Embossers are presentation in a state like this one: the Hybrid Seal Embosser at $42.95 and the Desk Seal Embosser at $44.95 make a raised mark on a paper original that no South Dakota rule asks for.
Sizing and layout
Nothing is prescribed, so size the die to the longest line on it. The credential level is almost always that line, and it is the one people shrink until it stops reading. Set the name largest, the credential level next, the number last and clear. If the block will sit inside a signature area on a form, measure that space before ordering rather than after.
A rectangle suits three or four lines of text better than a circle, since a circle spends its width on curves. Round dies look more like what people expect an appraiser seal to look like, which is a reason to choose one and not a rule to follow. Send the exact spelling from your certificate, because a die is cut from the order.
Ordering, and looking after it
Send your name, credential level and certificate number, tell us whether the impression is going onto paper or into a PDF, and we will set a proof before anything is cut.
Care is undramatic. Re-ink a self inking unit when the smallest lettering grays rather than pressing harder, keep a pre inked stamp capped, and keep a separate pad closed. An embosser wants its lock engaged and a shelf where it will not be knocked. What retires a die here is a change in your own facts, not wear. This page is a research summary and not legal advice.
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Frequently asked questions
Does South Dakota require a real estate appraiser to have a seal?
No. SDCL chapter 36-21B was read in full and contains neither seal nor stamp, and all fifteen chapters of ARSD article 20:14 were enumerated and checked with the same result. South Dakota prescribes no appraiser seal.
Does South Dakota make me put my certificate number on the report?
No state rule does. Unlike most states, South Dakota has no provision placing your credential level or certificate number next to your signature. Signature and certification obligations come from USPAP, adopted by reference at ARSD 20:14:06:01, rather than from a South Dakota element list.
What is the appraisal management company number, and does it go on my stamp?
ARSD 20:14:06:01.02 requires an appraiser working for an appraisal management company to make sure the company is registered with the secretary under SDCL chapter 36-21D and to include the company’s registration number in the report. It changes with the client, so it belongs in the report template and not on a die.
What about the eight items in the evaluation rule?
ARSD 20:14:14:03 lists eight items an evaluation must contain, ending with name, contact information, and signature. It is a signature rule rather than a seal rule, and it governs evaluations, which are permitted only below the appraisal threshold under ARSD 20:14:04:05. It does not reach an appraisal report.
Most of ARSD 20:14:06 looks repealed. Was there once a seal rule there?
No. Sections 20:14:06:02 through 20:14:06:14 are repealed, and they were the state’s own pre-USPAP report content standards, dropped when South Dakota adopted the uniform standards by reference. No section title in that range referred to a seal or a stamp.
What size should a South Dakota appraiser stamp be?
Whatever keeps the credential level readable. No diameter, dimension or shape is prescribed anywhere in the statute or the rules, so size is a legibility judgment rather than a compliance one.
Can I put a professional designation on the die?
Only in a way that does not read as a state credential. ARSD 20:14:02 includes a rule on the use of titles in advertising, and a device that goes onto engagement letters is advertising. Name the organization that granted a designation, and keep your state credential level worded exactly as your certificate words it.
