Malden, MA Sandra Heath, MAI, head of appraisal at United Bank of Hartford, Conn., and Anthony Saragosa, MAI, an appraiser at Shuka Associates in Beverly, Mass., were awarded the Appraisal Institute’s MAI membership designation, which is held by appraisers who are experienced in the valuation and evaluation of commercial, industrial, residential and other types of properties, and who advise clients on real estate investment decisions. On January 29, they was presented with their MAI certificate by Bud Clarke, MAI, 2018 resident of the Massachusetts and Rhode Island Chapter of the Appraisal Institute.

Heath has been a commercial appraiser since 1986, when she began her career as a researcher with Arnold Grant Associates in Hartford, and soon progressed to a senior appraiser role, then head of their multi-family department. In 2005, she moved to the Boston area and continued doing commercial fee appraisal work, including appraisals of high-end residential properties for LandVest, Boston. 

In 2010, she left the fee appraisal world and became a review appraiser; first for HUD's apartment division in Providence, R.I., then with Rockland Trust Company and then with Needham Bank, both in the Boston area. She recently took the position of head of appraisal at United Bank, which is headquartered in Hartford, with offices in West Springfield and Worcester, Mass. where she currently work. She currently lives in Duxbury, Mass. with her husband and two college-aged sons.

Saragosa has appraised real estate since 2003 and is a certified general licensed appraiser in Massachusetts. He is a graduate of both Wentworth Institute of Technology and the University of Massachusetts with two engineering degrees. He is experienced in the appraisal of religious, funeral home, veterinary clinic, apartment, mixed use, office, retail, restaurant and office properties.

The MAI designation is received upon the successful completion of a graduate-level curriculum, which includes a comprehensive exam, a written demonstration appraisal report and attaining 4,500 hours of qualifying experience requirements. Also, designees must abide by both the appraisal profession’s Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) and the Appraisal Institute’s Standards of Professional Practice and Code of Ethics.

MAIs are recognized experts in appraising properties of all kinds and form a business network encompassing markets nationwide and around the world. Currently, about 8,200 real estate appraisal professionals hold the MAI designation, with another 2,700 practitioners seeking it.

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The Appraisal Institute is a global professional association of professional real estate appraisers, with nearly 21,000 professionals in almost 60 countries throughout the world. Its mission is to advance professionalism and ethics, global standards, methodologies, and practices through the professional development of property economics worldwide. Organized in 1932, the Appraisal Institute advocates equal opportunity and nondiscrimination in the appraisal profession and conducts its activities in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws. Individuals of the Appraisal Institute benefit from an array of professional education and advocacy programs, and may hold the prestigious MAI, SRPA, SRA, AI-GRS and AI-RRS designations.