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Boat appraisals in Missouri for donations, insurance, estate tax, and divorce, prepared in accordance with USPAP and IRS requirements. AppraiseItNow appraises fishing boats, pontoons, sailboats, personal watercraft, and motorboats across Missouri, including Kansas City, St. Louis, and Springfield.
DEFENSIBLE, USPAP-COMPLIANT BOAT APPRAISAL REPORTS — QUALIFIED FOR THE IRS, MISSOURI 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 boats in Missouri for charitable donations, insurance coverage and claims, probate inventories, and the division of property. Value splits along how a vessel is used: a trailered fishing boat, a slip kept cruiser and a houseboat somebody lives on trade in three different markets.
Hull and power
Missouri issues a certificate of ownership for an outboard motor in its own right, and the resale market prices the two apart as well. Engine hours, service history and whether the power suits the hull all move the combined figure.
Condition
Blistering, soft stringers, a wet transom and worn upholstery are findings. What each one costs is settled by sold comparable vessels of the same make, model and rig, never by a flat percentage off a guide.
Standards
A policy schedule asks what putting the owner back in the same vessel would cost through dealers who carry it. An inventory or a settlement asks what it would sell for. One file often needs both figures, stated separately.
The effective date is settled before any research starts. A date of death figure, a date of loss figure and a figure for a hearing can sit a season apart on one boat, because the selling season itself moves prices in Missouri.
Estates
Comparables are drawn from the market as it stood on the effective date. On a seasonal asset that is not the pool a current listing search would hand back, and an inventory filed on current listings invites exactly that question.
Donations
Fair market value for a deduction rests on completed sales of comparable boats, set out in the report so the number carried onto IRS Form 8283 can be traced back to the evidence behind it. Trailers and tow vehicles get valued in the Missouri vehicle report alongside it.
A vessel's county, its registration and its tax receipt are tied together in Missouri, and a federally documented boat steps outside the sales tax rules that cover every other hull on the water.
Where it is taxed
Where it is moored
Houseboats and cabin cruisers used for lodging
Tangible personal property sitting in one county is ordinarily assessed in the county where its owner resides. Houseboats, cabin cruisers and floating boat docks used for lodging are the exception: they are assessed where they are located. Property belonging to an estate is assessed where the probate division of the circuit court has jurisdiction. And no tangible personal property may be assessed in more than one county at the same time, so where a vessel is kept, and who owns it on January first, decide which assessor is entitled to a value at all.
Registration
Three years
A certificate of number, renewed on a paid tax receipt
A certificate of number runs for three years. Applying for one or renewing it, the owner submits a paid personal property tax receipt for the immediately preceding tax year, showing the vessel listed as personal property and all taxes paid, delinquent years included, or a certified statement from the county that none were due. The same proof is required to renew the registration of a vessel documented with the United States Coast Guard. An assessed figure nobody ever challenged is the figure that follows the boat through those renewals.
Documented vessels
By purchase price
The in lieu watercraft tax bracket
A vessel documented by the United States Coast Guard and operated on the waters of this state is not liable for state or local sales or use tax on the purchase. In its place Missouri imposes an in-lieu watercraft tax, set by a bracket table keyed to the purchase price of the watercraft and rising in steps, with a further increment added above the top bracket. Purchase price drives that number, not assessed value and not what the vessel is worth today, so the three figures can part company the week after a sale closes.
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:
Yes. Boats are named in Missouri's personal property statutes alongside vehicles, trailers, and RVs: owners declare what they held on January 1, and assessors assess at one-third of true value under section 137.115. Documented market evidence helps when the assessed figure exceeds what the vessel would actually sell for.
The J.D. Power (NADA) Marine guide, the ABOS Marine Blue Book, and sold-boat databases such as SoldBoats, reconciled against recent sales of comparable make, model, year, and engine hours. The guides can diverge materially for the same hull, so triangulation beats any single report.
Through a salvage or residual-value analysis: the sum of salvageable components less disposal or scrapping costs. Appraisers shift to this approach when restoration would cost more than the restored vessel would be worth, which keeps the conclusion honest for insurers, courts, and buyers.
Within 30 days after letters are granted, unless the court allows more time. Missouri probate requires an Inventory and Appraisement describing all of the decedent’s property with fair market values as of the date of death, and a vessel belongs on it at that date-of-death value with any encumbrances noted.
Generally the date of dissolution or trial rather than when the boat was purchased. Missouri divides marital property under equitable distribution, in proportions the court deems just, so a current market appraisal near the hearing carries more weight than an old purchase invoice or an insurance schedule.
