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Boat appraisals in Illinois for donations, insurance, estate tax, and divorce, prepared in accordance with USPAP and IRS requirements. AppraiseItNow appraises sailboats, motorboats, pontoons, personal watercraft, and yachts across Illinois, including Chicago, Springfield, and Rockford.
DEFENSIBLE, USPAP-COMPLIANT BOAT APPRAISAL REPORTS — QUALIFIED FOR THE IRS, ILLINOIS 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.
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 pontoons, runabouts, cabin cruisers, sailboats and personal watercraft in Illinois for charitable donations, insurance claims, probate inventories and divorce settlements.
Charitable gifts
A donated vessel is worth what it was worth in the condition the charity received it, not what a clean example brings. We build that figure from completed sales of comparable hulls and write out the reasoning the donor’s noncash contribution filing rests on.
Insurance claims
When a carrier’s number trails what the same hull sells for around the Chain O Lakes, we rebuild the value from sales in that market, with a repower, added electronics and recent canvas counted rather than dropped.
Estates and divorce
Probate and dissolution both ask what a boat was worth on a day that has passed. We work from the market as it stood on that date, name the date in the report, and keep the opinion tied to it.
One hull can carry three defensible figures at the same time. The assignment decides which of them a report develops, and mixing them is how a valuation falls apart under questioning.
Fair market value
The standard behind donation filings, probate inventories and most divorce work. It rests on what comparable boats actually changed hands for, not on the asking prices still showing at a broker’s dock.
Replacement value
Insurance scheduling asks what a comparable hull, engine and electronics package would cost to buy today. That figure normally sits above the one a donation or probate report develops, which is the point of scheduling.
Actual cash value
A claim after a fire, a sinking or a trailering accident turns on what the boat was worth in the moment before the loss, with age and wear taken out. It is the narrowest of the three and the one most often disputed.
Two Illinois rules decide when a boat has to be valued after it changes hands, and which transfers escape the tax altogether.
Private transfers
30 days
from the acquisition date to file Form RUT-75 with the Illinois Department of Revenue
A watercraft bought or received from anyone who is not in the business of selling watercraft at retail is reported on Form RUT-75, due no later than 30 days from the acquisition date or the date the boat is brought into Illinois, whichever is later. Where there is no stated selling price, as with a gift or a transfer inside a family, the tax is imposed on the fair market value of the watercraft on that date. The Department of Natural Resources will not issue the registration until proof of payment or of exemption is in hand.
Donations and estates
No use tax
where an Illinois boat goes to an exempt organization, or to a surviving spouse as a beneficiary
A watercraft acquired by a governmental agency, or by a society, association, foundation or institution organized and operated exclusively for charitable, religious or educational purposes that holds an active exemption number from the Illinois Department of Revenue, is exempt. So is a watercraft passing as a gift to a beneficiary in an estate where that beneficiary is the surviving spouse. Neither exemption answers the value question: the donor’s deduction and the estate’s inventory still run on a supported figure.
What clients say we are known for
Across 80+ published AppraiseItNow reviews the picture is consistent: every one is from a client who paid us for an appraisal, and 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.
I love the online appraisal format to give me a good idea of what my boat is worth without showing the boat. The appraisal fee is more than reasonable, and I love your professional service!
Boat Appraisal for Charitable Donation
We recently used AppraiseItNow for one of our clients and couldn’t be happier with the experience. The customer service was excellent, and Joe was quick to respond to all of our questions. He provided everything we needed promptly and made the process smooth from start to finish. Thank you!
Boat Appraisal for Insurance Coverage
AppraiseItNow delivered a fair, well-supported appraisal that met all required standards. Their team was professional, responsive, and fast throughout the process. I would gladly use them again.
Boat Appraisal for Charitable Donation
AppraiseItNow helped us appraise a very unique set of propulsion boats. Service was top notch and provided incredible value for the cost!
Boat Appraisal for Loan Collateral
AppraiseItNow was excellent to work with. They delivered exactly what I needed and were incredibly responsive throughout the process. I’d definitely recommend them!
Boat Appraisal for Insurance Claim
Very straightforward and efficient way to gain a quality certified boat appraisal. I will suggest AppraiseItNow to all my boating friends!
Boat Appraisal for Loan Collateral
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:
Because J.D. Power, the ABOS Marine Blue Book, and SoldBoats data each use different methods and inputs, and they can yield materially different numbers for the same vessel. We cross-check multiple guides against actual closed sales so an Illinois boat is neither underinsured nor overpriced on the strength of one report.
No. Illinois probate law lets the representative appraise goods and chattels personally or employ one or more competent, disinterested appraisers, and the state has no license category for personal property appraisers. What matters is defensible methodology, since probate inventories and appraisals can be used as evidence in court but are not conclusive if better evidence appears.
Illinois follows equitable distribution, and marital assets are generally valued as of the date of dissolution or another date the court finds equitable, rather than a fixed statutory date. A boat appraisal tied to the correct effective date keeps the division defensible for both sides.
It has to be scheduled and appraised fast. Under 735 ILCS 5/12-1002 the debtor must file a sworn schedule of all personal property of every kind within 10 days after service of the notice, and property left off the schedule is not exempt. The court then summons three householders to appraise the listed property and fix a fair valuation on each article, so an unlisted or unvalued boat is simply exposed.
No. Under 65 ILCS 5/11-76-4.1 a municipality disposing of surplus property must establish value through a written certified appraisal and may not accept a price below 80 percent of that appraised value, even when it otherwise judges an offer to be in its best interest. Retired patrol and fire boats therefore need a documented value before the disposal can proceed.
