- What This Cheat Sheet Covers (and What It Doesn't)
- Credential Snapshot: Who Runs It and What It Is
- Eligibility Numbers to Memorize
- Fees at a Glance
- The Six Required Course Headings
- Exam Format: What Is and Isn't Verified
- The Demonstration Review Report: The 75/100 Rule
- Retakes and the A360 Rule
- Keeping the Accreditation: Maintenance Numbers
- Details That Conflict: Verify Before You Rely on Them
- Sequencing Your Prep by Domain
- Frequently Asked Questions
- RPRA here means Real Property Review Appraiser, an accreditation from the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers (ASFMRA).
- Fees: $600 application, $350 examination, $350 per retake; courses and ASFMRA membership cost extra.
- Required coursework must be finished at least 30 days before you test.
- The demonstration review report must meet every mandatory rubric item and score at least 75/100.
What This Cheat Sheet Covers (and What It Doesn't)
This page condenses the verified, load-bearing facts about the Real Property Review Appraiser (RPRA) accreditation into something you can scan in a few minutes. It is built from ASFMRA's own RPRA Requirement Checklist (revised February 2024), the RPRA Application (revised February 2024), the RPRA Grading Worksheet (April 2024) and the live credential page. Information was last verified on October 14, 2026.
Just as important is what this sheet will not do. It will not invent a written-exam question count, a numerical written-exam cut score, a pass rate or a salary figure, because none of those has been verified for this credential. Where ASFMRA's own documents conflict, we flag the conflict rather than pick a winner. If you want deeper treatment of any area, the RPRA study guide and the complete guide to all six RPRA content areas go further.
Credential Snapshot: Who Runs It and What It Is
The RPRA is administered by the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers. It is an accreditation for appraisers who review the work of other appraisers, with a rural-property emphasis built into its experience requirements. If you are still orienting yourself on terminology, What Is RPRA? and What Does RPRA Stand For? cover the basics.
| Item | Verified Fact |
|---|---|
| Awarding body | American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers (ASFMRA) |
| Credential name | Real Property Review Appraiser (RPRA) |
| Exam type | Proctored written comprehensive accrediting examination |
| Question styles | Multiple-choice questions and case-study problems |
| Separate work product | Narrative demonstration review report |
| Membership | ASFMRA membership is a prerequisite |
Eligibility Numbers to Memorize
For U.S. applicants, the experience and licensure thresholds are specific. Treat these as the gatekeeping figures, and read the full treatment in RPRA requirements: eligibility, prerequisites and how to qualify.
- Licensure: Certified General Appraiser status.
- Total experience: five years of appraisal or review experience.
- Review recency: that experience must include one appraisal-review year within the last five years.
- Rural experience: at least 600 of 1,600 hours during each of three years in the past five.
- Coursework timing: required courses must be successfully completed at least 30 days before testing.
- References: five references, including an RPRA or ARA and at least two clients or their employees.
- Application components: work-product review plus a separate narrative demonstration review report.
Fees at a Glance
The fee structure is straightforward, but the add-ons are where budgets slip. Courses and membership are not included in the figures below. For a full cost walkthrough, see RPRA certification cost: complete pricing breakdown.
| Fee | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Application fee | $600 | Paid with the application |
| Examination fee | $350 | Comprehensive accrediting exam |
| Each examination retake | $350 | Per retake |
| Courses | Additional | Not included in the above |
| ASFMRA membership | Additional | A prerequisite, not a nonmember pricing tier |
That last row trips people up. Membership is a prerequisite for the accreditation path; it does not create a "member price" versus "nonmember price" on the exam fee.
The Six Required Course Headings
The Requirement Checklist lists six headings that make up the required-course preparation curriculum. These are unweighted preparation topics. They are not a published six-domain examination blueprint with percentages, and no weighting should be assumed. Each heading below lists the course options that satisfy it.
Domain 1: ASFMRA Best in Business Ethics
The ethics requirement is the one heading with no course-number alternatives in the checklist.
- Expect professional-conduct reasoning applied to appraisal and review scenarios.
- Ethics also recurs after you are accredited: maintenance requires Ethics every six years.
Domain 2: Integrated Approaches to Value (A360 or A304)
This heading ties together the valuation approaches, which is the knowledge a reviewer uses to judge whether another appraiser's conclusions hold together.
- Satisfied by A360 or A304.
- A360 has a special role: it must be retaken after two comprehensive-exam failures and before a third attempt.
Domain 3: Uniform Appraisal Standards for Federal Land Acquisitions (Yellow Book) Course
The federal-acquisition standards course. Reviewers working on government-related assignments need to recognize Yellow Book requirements and spot where a report departs from them.
- Know how federal acquisition standards differ in emphasis from general USPAP-based work.
- Practice identifying compliance gaps, since review is the core activity.
Domain 4: Eminent Domain (A430 or A250)
Condemnation and takings valuation concepts, satisfied by A430 or A250.
- Expect reasoning about partial takings and the framework within which just compensation is analyzed.
- Case-study problems are a natural fit for this subject matter.
Domain 5: Valuation of Conservation Easements and Other Partial Interests in Real Estate (A420 or A315)
Partial-interest valuation, satisfied by A420 or A315.
- Focus on how restrictions and fractional interests alter value relative to the whole.
- As a reviewer, practice checking whether the before-and-after logic in a report is supportable.
Domain 6: Foundations of Appraisal Review (A600)
The review discipline itself, satisfied by A600. This is the heading most directly tied to the credential's purpose.
- Know what a review is, what it evaluates and how conclusions about another appraiser's work are documented.
- This knowledge also underpins your demonstration review report.
Exam Format: What Is and Isn't Verified
ASFMRA administers a proctored written comprehensive accrediting examination containing multiple-choice questions and case-study problems. The October 1-2, 2026 administration verified for this site was held in person.
What has not been verified: a comprehensive-exam question count and a numerical written-exam cut score. Anyone quoting you a specific number of questions or a specific percentage needed to pass has not sourced it from the materials this sheet relies on. For a measured look at what is and isn't known, see RPRA passing score: exactly what you need to pass and what the pass-rate data shows, and for the practical side, how hard the RPRA exam is.
The practical implication of mixing multiple-choice items with case studies: knowing definitions is necessary but not sufficient. You will need to apply concepts to a fact pattern, which is also exactly what review work involves day to day.
The Demonstration Review Report: The 75/100 Rule
The demonstration review report is a separate narrative document submitted with the application, and it is graded against the RPRA Grading Worksheet (April 2024). Two conditions apply together:
- It must meet every mandatory rubric requirement.
- It must score at least 75/100.
Key Takeaway
The 75/100 threshold applies to the demonstration report only. It is not the written-exam passing score. Do not conflate the two, and do not assume that a strong written exam offsets a demonstration that misses a mandatory rubric item.
Because the mandatory requirements are pass/fail gates layered on top of the score, a report can total well above 75 and still fall short. Download the grading worksheet and self-score your draft against each mandatory item before you submit.
Retakes and the A360 Rule
Each examination retake costs $350. The more consequential rule is the sequencing one: after two comprehensive-exam failures, A360 must be retaken before you can attempt a third time. Budget for that possibility in both time and money, since it adds a course on top of the retake fee. Post-exam submission-round rules are published on the live credential page, so check it directly for the current process.
Keeping the Accreditation: Maintenance Numbers
Accreditation is not a one-time event. Maintenance requires Accredited membership and the following:
- 60 approved continuing-education hours per three-year cycle.
- Ethics every six years.
- A seven-hour National USPAP course every two years for appraisal members.
These recurring obligations matter when you weigh long-term value; see whether the RPRA certification is worth it and the RPRA salary guide for the earnings side of that calculation, and RPRA jobs for where the credential gets used.
Details That Conflict: Verify Before You Rely on Them
A good cheat sheet is honest about uncertainty. Three items in ASFMRA's own materials do not line up cleanly, and we deliberately do not resolve them here.
| Item | The Conflict | What to Do |
|---|---|---|
| Exam length | The checklist says approximately 12 hours; the October 2026 event lists 7:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. on each of two days. | Confirm the schedule for your specific administration. Neither event blocks nor A500/A600 course hours establish a universal active-testing limit. |
| Demonstration validity | The application and checklist use language of both two and three years. | No definitive expiration rule is assigned here. Ask ASFMRA before you plan a long gap between drafting and submission. |
| Written-exam scoring | No question count or numerical cut score is supplied. | Do not trust unsourced numbers. See the passing-score article for context. |
For scheduling specifics, RPRA exam dates: testing windows, deadlines and scheduling tracks the calendar side.
Sequencing Your Prep by Domain
Because the six headings are unweighted, sequence them by dependency rather than by assumed exam emphasis. This is the only generic-planning section on this page, and it is tied directly to the RPRA curriculum.
Foundations first: Domains 6 and 1
- Start with Foundations of Appraisal Review (A600), since every other topic is viewed through a reviewer's lens.
- Pair it with Best in Business Ethics while the review mindset is forming.
Valuation core: Domain 2
- Work through Integrated Approaches to Value (A360 or A304) to rebuild how the approaches reconcile.
- Treat this as your highest-leverage block, given A360's role after repeated failures.
Specialized subjects: Domains 4, 5 and 3
- Eminent Domain (A430 or A250) and partial interests (A420 or A315) share before-and-after valuation logic, so study them back to back.
- Finish with the Yellow Book course for federal acquisition standards.
Integration and application
- Do case-study style practice that crosses domains, since the exam pairs multiple-choice items with case-study problems.
- Self-score your demonstration draft against the grading worksheet's mandatory items.
Remember the hard constraint: required coursework must be completed at least 30 days before testing, so your timeline should end well before the exam date. To reinforce recall with realistic items, try the RPRA practice tests, and see RPRA training for course-side options.
Frequently Asked Questions
It stands for Real Property Review Appraiser, an accreditation offered by the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers (ASFMRA). Other credentials share the acronym, but none of their facts apply here. See What Is RPRA Certification? for background.
The application fee is $600, the examination fee is $350 and each retake is $350. Courses and ASFMRA membership are additional, and membership is a prerequisite rather than a separate nonmember price tier.
No. The 75/100 figure applies to the narrative demonstration review report, which must also meet every mandatory rubric requirement. No numerical written-exam cut score has been verified.
You must retake A360 before attempting the exam a third time. Each retake of the examination itself costs $350.
No. They are the unweighted required-course preparation curriculum from the Requirement Checklist, not an official six-domain examination count. Use them to guide coursework, and do not assume equal or fixed percentages on the written exam.
Keep this sheet alongside the ASFMRA source documents, recheck the live credential page before you commit to a date or fee, and use the practice test site to pressure-test your knowledge across all six headings.