If you rebuilt after Helene or Milton, or you are buying a home that was, there is a change to the appraisal process worth understanding before it shows up in the middle of your transaction.
On November 2, 2026, every appraisal on a loan sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac has to be submitted under a new standard called UAD 3.6. The forms most of us have seen for the last twenty years, the 1004, the 1073, the 1025, are being retired and replaced with a single dynamic report.
Here is the part most people have missed: this is not starting in November. It has been in broad production since January 26, 2026. Lenders whose systems are ready have already been submitting appraisals in the new format all year. November 2 is the deadline when the old format stops being accepted, not the day the new one shows up.
Some appraisals in Pinellas County are already coming back this way.
What actually changes
The old appraisal form asked the appraiser to rate the overall condition and quality of a home on a single scale, with anything unusual explained in a free-form addendum at the back.
The new report is more granular.
Kitchen. Bathrooms. Roof. HVAC. Each one gets its own structured data fields and its own place in the report. What used to be a paragraph an appraiser typed at the end is now a set of specific questions with specific answers.
For appraisers, this is a workflow change. For anyone with a house that has been renovated, it means the appraiser is going to be asking for more detail than you may be used to providing.
What does not change
I want to be straight with you, because there is going to be a lot of noise about this over the next couple of months.
UAD 3.6 does not change how homes are valued. It is a reporting standard. Appraisers use the same approaches to value they used before. The sales comparison approach is still the sales comparison approach. Nobody's home is worth more or less on November 3 than it was on November 1 because of a form change.
Anyone telling you this will change your value is selling something.
What changes is how much documentation supports the report. And in this market, that is worth planning for.
Why this is worth attention in Pinellas County
Drive through Shore Acres, Snell Isle, Riviera Bay, Venetian Isles, or the beach communities and you are looking at thousands of homes that got taken down to the studs and rebuilt in the last two years.
The overwhelming majority of that work was done properly, by licensed contractors, permitted and inspected. The trades in this county did an enormous amount of good work under difficult conditions and they deserve credit for it.
What did not always keep up was the paperwork. Permit offices were buried. Contractors were stretched across more jobs than anyone had capacity for. Homeowners were living in rentals trying to make decisions fast. In that environment, files get thin. Permits get pulled and never formally closed. Invoices go missing. Work gets done well and documented poorly.
That was fine under the old form, where a renovated kitchen was largely a checkbox. Under component-level reporting, with an appraiser asking specifically about the kitchen, the baths, the roof, and the mechanical systems, a thin file means more questions and more back-and-forth.
That is the whole story. Not that values change. Not that anyone did anything wrong. Just that the documentation is going to get asked for, so it is better to have it ready than to go looking for it under deadline.
If you are selling in the next year
Worth pulling this together well before you list, not in the middle of a contract.
- Permits. Pull your permit history from the City of St. Petersburg or Pinellas County building department, depending on where you sit. Find out what is open and what is closed. An open permit from 2024 is usually a paperwork problem rather than a construction problem, but it is much easier to resolve on your own timeline than during a two week appraisal contingency.
- Receipts and invoices. Every contractor, every material order, every scope of work. If some of it is missing, write down what was done and when. Partial documentation beats none.
- Dates and specifics. Not "new roof." A 2025 architectural shingle roof, permitted, with the contractor's license number. Not "updated kitchen." Cabinets, counters, appliances, what was replaced and when.
- Flood and elevation documents. Elevation certificate, flood zone determination, any mitigation work, any FEMA correspondence. These already mattered here. They matter more now.
- Insurance claim records. If the work was done through a claim, that paperwork is your proof of scope, and it is often the most complete record you have.
The goal is simple. When the appraiser asks, you hand over a folder instead of starting a search.
If you are buying
Ask about permits early. Not because anything is wrong, but because it is much easier to sort out in week one than week five.
The question is not "was it renovated." It is "was the work permitted and closed out." Those have different answers and they surface at different points in the process. Asking early gives everyone time to produce records, close out an open permit, or get a straight answer from a contractor who is still reachable.
The FEMA 50 percent rule
There is also the FEMA 50 percent rule to understand if you are in a flood zone. If cumulative improvements exceed half the structure's value, the building has to be brought into compliance, which usually means elevation. That is not a hidden trap. It is a rule with a defined process, and knowing where a property sits relative to it before you are under contract makes the whole thing manageable.
Good documentation makes a rebuilt home easier to buy, easier to finance, and easier to insure. It is worth asking for on the front end.
If you are listing a post-storm rebuild
Worth saying directly to my colleagues in this market.
If you are taking a listing on a home that was rebuilt in the last two years, getting the documentation together at listing appointment instead of at appraisal is the difference between a clean close and a scramble. Permits, invoices, elevation certificate, claim records, all of it in the file before it goes live.
It also gives you something to market. A fully documented rebuild with closed permits and a licensed contractor behind it is a genuine selling point, and right now almost nobody is presenting it that way.
One timing note if you are closing this fall
If you are under contract with a closing in late October or early November, this is worth a direct conversation with your lender.
Appraisals submitted under the old format have to be in before November 2. Ask your loan officer which version they are ordering and whether their appraisal management company is fully transitioned. It is a five minute question that can prevent a delay at the worst possible moment.
What I can do about it
I hold a Florida Certified General Contractor license and spent three decades in interior renovations and building materials before I sold real estate. I have been in more houses in this county in mid-rebuild than I can count.
Send me your address. I will pull your permit history, tell you what is open, what is closed, and what documentation an appraiser is likely to ask about. No cost, no obligation, no pitch. Same goes if you are buying and want the permit picture on a property before you are under contract.
Agents, this offer is open to you too. If you are listing a rebuild and want to know what is in the file before you go live, send it over. Happy to help.
That is not an appraisal and it is not a home inspection. It is thirty years of knowing what a rebuild is supposed to look like, applied to a specific house.
Jesse Battle IV
Licensed Real Estate Sales Associate, Charles Rutenberg Realty Inc.
Florida Certified General Contractor, CGC1506583
St. Petersburg, Florida
Sources: Freddie Mac Single-Family, Uniform Appraisal Dataset (UAD) 3.6 FAQ; Fannie Mae, Available Now in Broad Production: UAD 3.6 and Forms Redesign, January 26, 2026. This article is general information about a change to appraisal reporting standards. It is not appraisal advice, legal advice, or a valuation of any specific property.