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Boat appraisals in New York for donations, insurance, estate tax, and divorce, prepared in accordance with USPAP and IRS requirements. AppraiseItNow appraises sailboats, motorboats, yachts, personal watercraft, and fishing boats across New York, including New York City, Buffalo, and Albany.
DEFENSIBLE, USPAP-COMPLIANT BOAT APPRAISAL REPORTS — QUALIFIED FOR THE IRS, NEW YORK 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 New York for charitable donations, insurance scheduling and claims, estate filings and the division of property in a divorce. Where a vessel is kept, what it is rigged to do and who would be bidding for it in that market shape the figure as much as the hull does.
Donations
A gift of a vessel to a charity is reported at what it would have sold for at the time of the donation, supported by closed sales of like boats and by what the owner can document about engines, systems and recent work.
Insurance
Placing coverage asks what the boat would cost to replace. A settlement after damage or a loss asks for actual cash value at the moment it happened. The report states which of the two it answered.
Estates and divorce
In an estate or a dissolution, the boat is frequently the one item with no obvious number attached to it. One supported value, with the sales behind it named, closes that argument faster than two brokers' opinions.
Where it is kept
A boat hauled out from October to May, one left in salt water through the year and one trailered between them wear at different rates, and the buyers for each sit in different places. Where a vessel lives belongs in the comparison rather than in the background.
Two finished New York files, one line apiece: the city, why a value was needed and the standard applied. The images are stand ins for the type of boat, not photographs of anyone's vessel.
Divorce
A Marlago center console with twin outboards, valued at fair market value for the division of property, from the rigging and condition its owner documented for us.
Personal use
A Jeanneau outboard cruiser valued for its owner, with the model, equipment and condition confirmed from what the owner supplied before any comparable sale was applied.
A vessel meets New York law at three points: when a court fixes the date it is valued as of, when the yard that kept it claims a lien, and when its owner gives it away.
Divorce
Commencement to trial
The window a New York court picks a valuation date from
As soon as practicable after a matrimonial action has been commenced, the court sets the date or dates the parties are to use for the valuation of each asset, and that date may be anytime from the date of commencement of the action to the date of trial. For a boat the choice is not academic: a full season of use, a repower, a hard grounding or a winter on the hard can sit between the two ends of that window. Fixing the date before an appraisal is written saves having it written twice.
Yard liens
30 days
How long a New York yard may release a boat and keep its priority
A New York bailee that keeps a place for the storage, maintenance or repair of motor boats, and that tows, stores, keeps or repairs a vessel at the owner's request or with the owner's consent, holds a lien on it for the sum due, whether or not a lender already holds a security interest in it. Where the yard gave a written estimate, the lien may not be in an amount in excess of that estimate. And if the yard allows the boat out of its actual possession later than thirty days after the lien accrued, the lien becomes void as against security interests executed before it arose. Once the bill approaches what the vessel is worth, owner, yard and lender all need the same thing: a figure someone else can check.
Donations
50%
The share of a gift the largest New York returns may deduct
New York cuts back the charitable contribution deduction a high income taxpayer may claim on the state return. For taxable years beginning in 2025 and after, a taxpayer whose New York adjusted gross income is over $1,000,000 may deduct fifty percent of the charitable contribution deduction otherwise allowed, and a taxpayer over $10,000,000 may deduct twenty five percent, a rule running through taxable years ending before 2030. A donated vessel is still reported at its value, but the state benefit is not the federal one, which is worth knowing before the title is signed over.
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 asking prices are not evidence of value. For standard production boats, a defensible open-market opinion rests on recently closed sales of similar vessels from sold-boat databases, broker records, and auction results, adjusted for engine hours, condition, and equipment. Listings that sit unsold prove only what the boat did not bring.
No. New York has no personal property tax, so vessels are not assessed annually the way they are in many states. Boat valuations in New York are instead driven by estates, where the state's estate tax values property at fair market value above its threshold, plus sales, insurance placement, and litigation.
Yes, when records back it up. Notable provenance, race results, rarity, and high-quality restoration work can add measurable value, while poor repairs subtract it. We credit these factors only against documentation, invoices, logs, and photographs, because unsupported history claims do not survive scrutiny from buyers or insurers.
Yes. The taxable receipt for a vessel is capped at $230,000, so any portion of the price above that amount is exempt from state and local sales and use tax, and the cap covers the vessel together with an outboard motor and trailer sold with it. The Tax Department set out the rule in memorandum TSB-M-15(2)S, and it creates a visible pricing breakpoint in the large boat market.
Only vessels of model year 1987 or newer that are at least 14 feet long and registered in New York. For those, the DMV title rather than the registration is the primary proof of ownership. Shorter or older boats and Coast Guard documented vessels get no state title, so probate and lending files lean on registration records, bills of sale, and the hull identification number.
