About the Sixth Edition to the “Yellow Book.” In this sixth edition, the Uniform Appraisal Standards for Federal Land Acquisitions have been updated to reflect developments in appraisal methodology and theory, case law, and other federal requirements since the fifth edition was published in 2000. These Standards have also been restructured for clarity, convenience, and consistency with professional appraisal standards, as appropriate.

The four-part structure is designed to follow the appraisal process, from development, to reporting, to review, while the final section explains the legal foundations for the appraisal development, reporting, and review requirements, and provides practical examples of how the underlying law applies to actual valuation problems in federal acquisitions. This sixth edition is also broadly consistent with the structure of the current Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) and federal regulations implementing the Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970 (Uniform Act or URA).

The sixth edition’s structure reflects the evolution of USPAP (which did not exist in early editions of these Standards) as the congressionally authorized minimum standards for the appraisal profession. It also continues the fifth edition’s focus on the practical effects of federal valuation requirements on appraisals in federal acquisitions.8 Broadly speaking, this sixth edition incorporates previous editions as follows:

Section 1: Appraisal Development addresses the appraisal process and the scope of work appropriate
for appraisals in federal acquisitions, integrating appraisal development topics from the fifth
edition’s Parts A, B, C, and D with USPAP’s Scope of Work Rule (created since the fifth edition);

Section 2: Appraisal Reporting incorporates the contents of the fifth edition’s Part A, Data Documentation and Appraisal Reporting Standards;

Section 3: Appraisal Review incorporates the contents of the fifth edition’s Part C, Standards for the Review of Appraisals; and

Section 4: Legal Foundations integrates and updates the topics in the fifth edition’s Part B, Legal Basis for Appraisal Standards for Federal Land Acquisitions, and several legal topics previously in Part D as miscellaneous. Of particular note, the fifth edition’s lengthy Part D-9, Comparable Sales Requiring Extraordinary Verification and Treatment, is now addressed in Section 1.5.2.4, and the legal foundations for these heightened requirements are explained in Section 4.4.2.4. A verification checklist is also included in the Appendix.

8 Recognizing that the vast majority of federal acquisitions are accomplished by voluntary means, the fifth edition placed technical appraisal requirements up front. Previous editions led off with discussion of federal law on valuation issues, primarily focusing on eminent domain litigation. To reduce confusion, topics in this sixth edition are organized by number, unlike the lettered subparts in earlier editions. A detailed cross-reference table is included in the Appendix.