If you sent us a request between 28 July and 5 August, it did not reach us. A fault on our form stopped some messages from coming through. Please call (301) 820-7664 or fill the form again. We're sorry for the inconvenience.
Boat appraisals in Wisconsin for donations, insurance, estate tax, and divorce, prepared in accordance with USPAP and IRS requirements. AppraiseItNow appraises sailboats, motorboats, pontoons, fishing boats, and personal watercraft across Wisconsin, including Milwaukee, Madison, and Green Bay.
DEFENSIBLE, USPAP-COMPLIANT BOAT APPRAISAL REPORTS — QUALIFIED FOR THE IRS, WISCONSIN COURTS, LENDERS, INSURERS, AND MORE.
.jpeg)
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, fishing boats, sailboats, cabin cruisers, personal watercraft, and commercial hulls in Wisconsin for charitable donations, insurance claims, probate and estate filings, divorce, and lending. The selling season here is short and sharply defined, so a hull that moves quickly in June and sits untouched in February needs a value pinned to a stated day rather than to a list price.
Insurance claims
When a settlement sits under what the same boat brings on Wisconsin water, we rebuild what the hull was worth the moment before the damage from sold comparables, counting repowers, electronics and canvas instead of leaving them out.
Donations and estates
A donated boat is valued as it sat when the title moved, and a decedent's boat as of the date of death. Both figures come from sales of comparable hulls, and the report sets out which sales those were.
Hulls the price books miss
Older wooden launches, half finished restorations and Great Lakes fishing rigs fall outside the published guides. Those we value from sold comparables together with survey and yard records, which is the support an insurer or an executor asks to see.
The reason for the appraisal fixes the standard and the date fixes the market, so a Wisconsin report settles both before it reaches a number. A boat that changes hands in a Wisconsin winter is priced against a Wisconsin winter market, not against the prices posted the following spring.
Seasonal markets
We take comparables from the window the valuation date actually sits in and say which window that was, so nobody ends up arguing against a figure drawn from a different month of the year.
Lending and divorce
A lender wants to know what the boat would bring if it had to be sold, while a divorce file asks what it is worth to the party keeping it. The report names which of those two questions it answers.
Two Wisconsin rules decide what paperwork stands behind a boat's value: the length at which the state issues a certificate of title at all, and the narrow circle of people a registered boat can pass to without sales tax.
Titling
16 feet
where a Wisconsin title begins
Wisconsin exempts a boat less than sixteen feet in length from both the certificate of origin and the certificate of title requirements, so a small fishing boat or a personal watercraft may have nothing behind it but a registration and a bill of sale. Where a boat is titled, a certificate previously issued to that owner is prima facie evidence of ownership. The difference decides what an estate inventory, a divorce schedule or a claim file can lean on to establish who owns the hull being valued.
Transfers
Close family only
who a Wisconsin boat moves to tax free
A private sale is normally exempt from Wisconsin sales tax as an occasional sale, but a boat that is registered or titled here, or under federal law, is carved out of that exemption. It applies only where three things hold together: the boat goes to a child, spouse, parent, father-in-law, mother-in-law, daughter-in-law or son-in-law of the transferor, the boat was registered or titled in the transferor's name, and the transferor is not in the business of selling boats. A hull moving to a sibling, a friend, a trust or an outside buyer is a taxable transfer, which is why what it was worth on the day it moved belongs in writing.
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:
Income-producing vessels are valued on discounted future net operating income, while recreational boats rely on comparable sales evidence. For a Lake Michigan charter operation, documented revenue and expenses drive the analysis; for a family runabout, sold prices of similar hulls control. The two methods are not interchangeable.
Often its salvage or residual value: the value of usable parts minus disposal costs. When restoration would cost more than the finished boat could bring, appraisers legitimately shift from market comparables to a salvage-based analysis, which matters for Wisconsin insurance claims and estates holding derelict or storm-damaged vessels.
Not freely. Where an appraisal is required, Wisconsin has the court appoint one or more disinterested persons to appraise each inventoried item and certify its value, so the personal representative does not simply engage whomever it prefers. No appraisal is required for assets whose value is readily ascertainable without an appraiser's judgment, and a documented marine valuation is the kind of evidence that can establish value under that exception, subject to the court's own requirements.
No later than 6 months after appointment, unless the court sets a different deadline, with the vessel listed at its date-of-death value. Even when formal appraisal is waived because value is readily ascertainable, Wisconsin courts can demand supporting evidence, and interested persons or the Department of Revenue may force a formal appraisal. Solid comparable sales documentation keeps a boat's inventory value from being challenged later.
