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Automobile appraisals in Louisiana for donations, insurance claims, estate tax, and divorce, prepared in accordance with USPAP and IRS requirements. AppraiseItNow appraises classic cars, collector vehicles, daily drivers, commercial vehicles, and motorcycles across Louisiana, including New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Shreveport.
DEFENSIBLE, USPAP-COMPLIANT AUTO APPRAISAL REPORTS — QUALIFIED FOR THE IRS, LOUISIANA 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 passenger cars, work pickups, motorcycles, campers, utility and horse trailers, box trucks, and mobile homes held on a vehicle title in Louisiana for successions, divorce, insurance claims, lending, charitable gifts, and bankruptcy schedules. The title, the photographs, and the repair record carry most of the work, and an appraiser goes out to the vehicle when its condition is what is actually in dispute.
Successions
A succession wants fair market value as of the date of death, written backwards from sales that closed around then rather than from today's asking prices. Heirs rarely hold the maintenance history, so the conclusion usually rests on the title, the registration, and photographs taken well after the fact, and the report says so plainly.
Insurance claims
A guide returns one number for a model and a mileage band. It cannot see a replaced transmission, a worn interior, a lift kit, or the fact that one parish pays more for a diesel than the national market does. Actual cash value gets rebuilt from sales that actually closed nearby, with those differences priced instead of smoothed away.
Lending and bankruptcy
A vehicle listed on a bankruptcy schedule or pledged against a loan gets read by somebody with a reason to push back. The report shows the sales behind the figure and says which standard of value it developed, so the basis is visible rather than asserted.
Louisiana vehicles carry histories no model average shows: flood exposure, hail, storm repairs, and the brands that follow a title for the rest of its life. Which of those a vehicle has been through narrows the pool of usable comparables before anything else about it does.
Brands on the title
Salvage moves through auction here in volume, so comparables get screened for structural repair, flood, and corrosion before any of them reach a conclusion. A rebuilt vehicle is not worthless, and it is not the same asset as one that never went under.
Hail and flood
Hail can run up an estimate without touching anything mechanical, and Louisiana treats that case differently from a wreck. What the damage actually is, rather than what the repair estimate totals, decides where the vehicle lands.
Three Louisiana rules attach a number or a deadline to a vehicle: where damage turns it into a total loss, how fast a salvage title has to follow the settlement, and which vehicles the state is willing to call antique.
Total loss
75%
of market value, where Louisiana puts the total loss line
Louisiana defines a total loss as a motor vehicle that has sustained damages equivalent to seventy-five percent or more of its market value, and it names the yardstick: the most current National Automobile Dealers Association Handbook. There is a carve out that matters to anyone holding a hail estimate. A vehicle with cosmetic hail damage reaching that same share, through repairs to windshields, windows and rear glass, exterior paint and paint materials, and body damage such as dents, is not deemed a total loss and is not salvaged. It is issued a title branded to show it took hail damage instead.
Salvage title
30 days
from settlement of the claim to the salvage title application
Once an insurance settlement declares a vehicle a total loss, the insurer, its authorized agent, or the owner has thirty days from settlement of the property damage claim to send the properly endorsed certificate of title to the office of motor vehicles along with an application for a salvage title. Where the insurer cannot get the title out of the owner or the lienholder inside that window, it may submit the application signed under penalty of perjury instead. The clock runs from the settlement, which is a reason to have the valuation question settled before the claim closes rather than after.
Antique vehicles
35 years or older
the age a Louisiana antique plate asks for
The title chapter calls a vehicle antique at twenty-five years old or older. The plate is a different threshold: antique plates for motor vehicles, including pickups and heavier trucks, and for motorcycles go to vehicles thirty-five years old or older, on a notarized affidavit that the vehicle has not been and will not be materially altered from the original manufacturer's specifications, and used mainly for exhibitions, club activities, parades, or necessary testing, maintenance and storage. The same section keeps a collector plate for a special interest vehicle twenty-five years old or older that hobbyists preserve for its historic interest. None of these plates says anything about value; they say something about age and use.
What Louisiana clients say we are known for
Across 22 published Louisiana appraisal reviews, every one from a client who paid AppraiseItNow for an appraisal, the three things they raise most often are how quickly we answer, how much research is visible in the report, and that they would hire us again.
My daughter had purchased a very collectible 2003 Mustang Cobra terminator just 3 months before her accident with 50,000 miles on it, for 30,000 dollars. We were experiencing some very heavy rains and she hydroplaned and smashed into a guard rail and totaled her car. The insurance company offered her $18,000, but we told them that was an insult to this car. We kept going round and round with them but they were not budging. Finally we googled an independent appraiser and found AppraiseItNow! Their appraised value was 26,462. They negotiated with the insurance for us and we ended up with 25,900. They were awesome and helped us get much closer to the appropriate value of the Cobra. Absolutely worth the price we paid. Highly recommended!
Car Appraisal for Insurance Claim
My wife and I purchased a property that included a double-wide mobile home, which we decided to donate to a local charitable organization that provides housing for low-income families. This type of donation required a formal appraisal to qualify for an IRS tax deduction, so we reached out to Appraise It Now. From the start, they were able to clearly answer all of our questions about both the appraisal process and the tax deduction requirements. We provided photos and additional details, and within 10 days we received a thorough, well-prepared report that included all the necessary IRS forms. I’m giving Appraise It Now a five-star review because communication was excellent throughout the entire process. Everyone I spoke with was helpful, friendly, and professional, and emails were always answered quickly. We were completely satisfied with the experience. Thank you!
Mobile Home Appraisal for Charitable Donation
These guys were phenomenal. Joe was very responsive and gave clear instructions on how to submit my information for the appraisal, which he completed in a very quick timeframe. The appraisal itself was extremely detailed and included a thorough explanation of how they arrived at the value. It came with extensive documentation, and it’s clear they did a significant amount of research. They were also very responsive through text and email and always available to answer any questions. I had them appraise my fifth-wheel RV for resale, and I highly recommend their services. I will definitely use them again.
Recreational Vehicle Appraisal for Insurance Coverage
They appraised an older trailer for me that required a bonded title. They were great with communication and it only took about 2 weeks to get a very nice detailed appraisal report, which finding comps for older trailers is not straight forward. Highly recommend!
Trailer Appraisal for Title Bond
Friendly, speedy service with fair value.
Auto Appraisal for Probate
We were amazed at their professionalism in working with us and the quality of the final appraisal report. And all for thousands less than other appraisers.
Tractor 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:
By triangulating three kinds of evidence: a baseline from a commercial truck guide such as the NADA Commercial Truck Guide or Informa Price Digests, current listings for the same year, make, model, and spec, and recent auction results. We then adjust for mileage, condition, engine and transmission, axle configuration, and emissions equipment.
The VIN, engine and transmission details, axle configuration, emissions equipment, current mileage, maintenance records, and documentation of any modifications or rebuilds. Substantiated service history and upgrades can move the appraised value meaningfully, while undocumented claims cannot be credited.
Generally yes. Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure article 2332 requires seized property to be appraised before a sheriff's sale under a writ of fieri facias, unless the debtor validly waived appraisal in the security agreement and the judgment limits recovery to the collateral. An independent valuation protects both sides of that process.
No. The same tractor can carry materially different retail, private-party, trade-in, auction, and actual cash values, and the correct standard depends on the assignment. Our reports state which standard applies and why, so the number holds up with the lender, insurer, or court receiving it.
