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Equipment appraisals in California for donations, lending, M&A, and financial reporting, prepared in accordance with USPAP and IRS requirements. AppraiseItNow appraises manufacturing equipment, construction machinery, agricultural equipment, medical devices, and industrial tools across California, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego.
We were very satisfied with the results
…they responded to me within a day and were both professional and patient
…I am looking forward to utilizing AppraiseItNow for many years to come
DEFENSIBLE, USPAP-COMPLIANT MACHINERY & EQUIPMENT APPRAISAL REPORTS — QUALIFIED FOR THE IRS, CALIFORNIA COURTS, LENDERS, INSURERS, AND MORE.
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Owner & CEO
Joe founded AppraiseItNow to make a certified, USPAP-compliant appraisal as simple to order as anything else online. A former Bain & Company strategy consultant, Joe leads the entire team and specializes in strategy, growth, and the firm's tech capabilities.
Machinery & Equipment Appraiser
Third-generation auctioneer and CAGA Certified Appraiser with more than 20 years valuing machinery, equipment, vehicles, business assets, and estates for banks, attorneys, and trustees across the Carolinas.
Vehicle Appraiser
CAGA Certified Appraiser since 2014, covering vehicles, boats, equipment, fine art, and collectibles. A classic-car restoration background informs her vehicle work, with reports prepared for insurance, divorce, and charitable contributions.
Client Success Manager
Manages each engagement from the first enquiry to the delivered report, and keeps you posted at every step along the way.
Certified Appraisers Guild of AmericaCertified Appraiser
The Appraisal FoundationAuthorized by Congress as the source of appraisal standardsAppraiseItNow appraises machinery and equipment in California for charitable gifts, lending, mergers and acquisitions, financial reporting, and insolvency, from one machine to a plant list running to hundreds of lines.
Donated equipment
Surplus and unused machines are valued against what like units bring secondhand, not against a catalog page. Our appraisers complete and sign the appraiser's section of IRS Form 8283 for the return the donor files. Condition is described as the machine stands, because storage marks, missing tooling, and an out of date control system are exactly what a buyer of used equipment argues about.
Lending, sales, and insolvency
A lender, a buyer, or a trustee wants the figure a specific line of machines would bring, so dealer inventories, auction results, and the cost of getting a machine out of the building all sit behind it. Rooms full of one kind of asset are valued the same way in our California fitness equipment appraisals. Where a plant is staying put, the same list is valued again on the premise the assignment calls for, since a machine bolted into a working line and the same machine on a truck are not worth the same money.
Three assignments told only as far as their own records go, with the owners and the figures left where they belong.
Charitable donation
Convection ovens, ranges, a counter grill, a fryer, a meat slicer, prep tables, racks, and a reach-in freezer, valued together as one donated kitchen.
Charitable donation
Unused units bought at a government surplus auction and given to a charity, valued as of the day the gift was made and in the condition storage left them.
Charitable donation
A lightly used cutter donated to a workshop, priced against the secondhand machines its recipient could have bought instead.
Three California rules put a figure on equipment for reasons that have nothing to do with selling it.
Assessment appeals
July 2 to September 15
the annual window for filing an owner's own opinion of full value against a California assessor's figure
No reduction is made in an assessment on the local roll in California unless the party affected, or an agent, files a verified written application with the county appeals board showing the facts claimed to require the reduction and the applicant's own opinion of the full value of the property. The application goes in between July 2 and September 15, and one mailed and postmarked on or before September 15 counts as filed in time.
Two things stretch that. In a county whose assessor does not provide value notices by August 1, the last day moves to November 30. An owner who did not receive the notice at least fifteen calendar days before the deadline has sixty days from receiving it, or from the mailing of the tax bill, whichever comes first. Either way the application asks for a figure, and the figure is the part an appraisal supplies.
Creditor claims
$8,725
the tools of the trade exemption as the California statute states it, before the adjustment the Judicial Council publishes every three years
Tools, implements, instruments, materials, uniforms, furnishings, books, equipment, one commercial motor vehicle, and one vessel are exempt from execution in California to the extent that the aggregate equity in them does not exceed $8,725, where they are reasonably necessary to and actually used in the trade, business, or profession by which the judgment debtor earns a living. A spouse in a trade of their own has the same figure, a couple working in the same trade takes twice that amount instead, and a commercial motor vehicle is capped separately at $4,850.
The figures in the statute are not the figures a live claim uses. The Judicial Council adjusts the exemptions in that article every three years on April 1 for the change in the California consumer price index, rounds each to the nearest twenty five dollars, and publishes the current list. What is measured either way is aggregate equity, machine by machine.
Cranes and hoists
Three tons
the rated capacity above which a California crane needs current certification before anyone may use it
Cranes and derricks used in lifting service in California above three tons rated capacity may not be used until the employer has established that the equipment holds current certification: tests and examinations every year by a licensed certificating agency, plus a proof load test before a new crane is first used and every four years after that. Certificates for both intervals have to be kept for each machine.
Equipment left out of service for six months or more beyond the due date of a certification inspection needs an examination equivalent to an initial certification, proof load test included, before it re-enters service. A buyer prices that in, which is why a lapsed certificate shows up in the value of an otherwise sound machine.
What California clients say we are known for
Across 17 published California appraisal reviews, every one from a client who paid AppraiseItNow for an appraisal, the three things they raise most often are that they would hire us again, how quickly we answer, and how much research is visible in the report.
We were very satisfied with the results - fast and efficient communication, understanding our company's needs, on-time delivery of the report, as well as reasonable price point. Highly recommend.
Machinery & Equipment Appraisal for Charitable Donation
I highly recommend the AppraiseItNow team. They were responsive and timely from start to finish, and the whole process was seamless. The final report was super detailed and gave me all the information I needed. I am so glad I hired them and would recommend them to anyone needing an appraisal!
Technology Equipment Appraisal for Divorce
After researching several companies, I contacted AppraiseItNow for a personal medical equipment appraisal - they responded to me within a day and were both professional and patient throughout the process!
Medical Equipment Appraisal for Charitable Donation
I recommend AppraiseItNow Inc. highly. I needed an appraisal of fair market value for geologic laboratory equipment for charitable donations to three universities. The unique items and limited secondary market complicated the valuation. They provided a sound, verifiable estimate and the 8283 forms that I was able to use in my tax filings. I would use them again.
Lab Equipment Appraisal for Charitable Donation
AppraiseItNow did an outstanding job appraising my 1998 Bobcat Skid Steer and circa 2010 Yuchai Crawler Dozer. We could not locate a serial number on the dozer, and there were no online sales available, but they were still able to develop an accurate appraisal using known specifications for my dozer compared to other comparable make and model dozers. They diligently researched both equipment items and provided well-documented reports.
Machinery & Equipment Appraisal
I needed an IRS-qualified appraisal for an unusual and costly piece of medical equipment. AppraiseItNow was able to provide me exactly what I needed on a timely basis. The personnel at the company are very friendly and helpful. I would definitely use them again.
Medical Equipment Appraisal for Charitable Donation
Given the USPAP-compliant nature of AppraiseItNow’s appraisal reports, we prepare our deliverables for major legal, tax, and financial reporting purposes for individual and commercial clients.
Popular uses of our appraisal reports include:
Fair market value assumes a willing buyer and seller with reasonable exposure time, orderly liquidation value assumes a shortened but reasonable sale period, and forced liquidation value assumes a quick sale, often at auction. Lenders, workout specialists, and courts in California frequently request a specific premise, and the same machine can carry very different numbers under each one.
No. Accounting book value and tax depreciation are based on historical cost and standardized lives, not current market conditions, so they routinely diverge from what machinery would actually sell for. Condition, obsolescence, and secondary-market demand drive real value, which is why a market-based appraisal often surprises owners in both directions.
Owners of taxable personal property with an aggregate cost of $100,000 or more in a county must file a signed property statement with the assessor each year, due April 1 with a penalty after May 7. Assessors reappraise business equipment annually at market value, so accurate cost and asset records matter.
Because regulation limits who can add them to a fleet. The off-road diesel rule requires in-use fleets to report equipment in the DOORS system, where each engine receives an identification number that must be labeled on the machine, and it barred fleets from adding Tier 0 engines beginning in 2014, Tier 1 engines for large and medium fleets from 2014, and Tier 2 engines for those fleets from 2018. Shut-out machines often leave the state at a discount despite sound condition.
From standardized tables, not your books. Revenue and Taxation Code 401.5 directs the Board of Equalization to publish uniform cost and valuation data, and Assessors’ Handbook 581 supplies age-based index and percent-good factors that counties apply to reported historical cost. Depreciation is therefore uniform statewide by category and age, which is exactly why the assessed figure and a market appraisal of the same machine often diverge.