Lakeland and Winter Haven Equipment Appraisal
Certified heavy equipment valuation for Polk County contractors, growers and fleets. Starting at $295.
- USPAP-compliant
- CMEA, NEBB Institute
- Rated 5.0 on Google
Lakeland and Winter Haven equipment appraisal is a certified value for each machine a Polk County business owns, from bulldozers and excavators to dump trucks, semi trucks and grove tractors. One Certified Machinery and Equipment Appraiser (CMEA) examines the equipment or its records, then researches the market and writes the report, and the result is the kind of value a lender, a trustee or a court asks to see.
A Lakeland and Winter Haven equipment appraiser can measure a machine against the sales at the Ritchie Bros. yard in Davenport, in Polk County. The work is picking the sales that match your machine.
- Every machine gets its own value, identified by the serial number you supply.
- A desktop appraisal needs no site visit, so a fleet split between a mine site, a Lakeland yard and a grove is valued from records and photos.
- If a lender, court or insurer requires someone to see the machines, an on-site inspection can be added.
- One skid steer or a fleet of more than a hundred machines goes in a single report.
- Every report is written to USPAP, which is what lenders and courts look for.
How do I get equipment appraised in Lakeland or Winter Haven?
Answer four questions
How many machines and what they are, whether the work is desktop or on-site and which town they are in, when you need the report, and where to send the quote. Nothing has to be uploaded.
Read the quote
The quote comes back by email with a fixed fee, what the work covers and when the report will be ready.
Receive the certified report
Once you accept, send the serial numbers, hour readings and photos you have. The report identifies each machine, describes its condition and gives its value, to the extent the records and photos you send support it.
What do Polk County owners and lenders need to know first?
- Values in the report
- Fair market value is the price a willing buyer and a willing seller would reach with time to find each other. Orderly liquidation value is the price when the equipment has to be sold by a deadline. The report states the one your lender, attorney or CPA asked for.
- Fee
- Starting at $295. The count of machines, an inspection on site and a rushed date each raise it, and the value of the equipment never does.
- Turnaround
- Same day quotes arrive by email, and each one states the report date. A single machine or a small group can be rushed.
- Appraisal standard
- The report follows the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, known as USPAP, and states its purpose and the date its value applies to.
- SBA loans
- Polk County comes under the South Florida District Office of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). Whether someone must see the machines in person is the lender’s call. SBA South Florida District Office
- County tax on equipment
- A Florida business gives the county a list of its equipment each year, with what it paid and the year it bought each item, and the county taxes it. Florida calls that equipment tangible personal property, and in Polk County the list goes to the Polk County Property Appraiser. Polk County Property Appraiser: tangible personal property forms
What should I ask an appraiser before I hire one in Polk County?
- Do they know the Orlando auction yard is in Polk County?
- Ritchie Bros. bills its auctions as Orlando, but the yard is in Davenport, in Polk County. An appraiser who knows that treats those results as local sales and reads an auction price as one piece of evidence, since everything there sells as is.
- Will they show the sales behind the value?
- Ask which comparable sales were used, where each machine sold and how each was adjusted for hours and condition. A bank reviewer or the other side’s attorney will ask the same thing.
- Will I know the delivery date before I hire them?
- Lenders and judges set the dates, and the report has to fit them. Ask for the report date in writing before any work starts.
From clients
I really like the work you did last time for us.
What equipment do you appraise in Lakeland and Winter Haven?
A Polk County appraisal covers earthmoving machinery, trucks and farm equipment, from a single machine to everything a business owns.
On a bulldozer or an excavator the value turns on hours, undercarriage wear and attachments. On a loader it is tires or tracks and the bucket or grapple that comes with it. Trucks and trailers follow miles and service records, cranes and forklifts their capacity and inspection records, and a grove tractor the implements that sell with it.
- Bulldozers
- Excavators
- Wheel loaders
- Skid steers and compact track loaders
- Dump trucks
- Semi trucks and trailers
- Cranes
- Forklifts
- Tractors and farm equipment, including grove sprayers
What affects the value of equipment in Polk County?
Polk County’s mines, highways, freight lines and groves use different machinery, and each kind is priced differently.
Mine-support fleets
Phosphate is mined in southwest Polk County, and the mines run heavy mobile equipment, with contractors brought in as needed. Hours and undercarriage wear can put a wide gap between two machines of one model, so those details belong in what you send.
Contractor fleets along Interstate 4
The Interstate 4 interchange at State Road 33 in Lakeland is under construction, the kind of job road and site contractors take. Their fleets mix owned, financed and rented machines, so the equipment list starts with which units the business owns.
Trucks and trailers
The Intermodal Logistics Center in Winter Haven is served by CSX rail and by Interstate 4, State Road 60 and U.S. 27. Road tractors that haul freight add miles fast, so a tractor’s price follows miles, engine hours and service records more than model year.
Grove equipment
Polk County has more citrus acreage than any other Florida county, and its acreage fell more than any other county’s in the latest count. Utility tractors change hands often and leave a record of prices. Tree pruners and grove sprayers are rarer, so the exact make, model and implements decide which sales apply.
How much do model year and hours change what an articulated dump truck is worth?
An articulated dump truck is an off-road dump truck that bends in the middle. These four come from one desktop report written for a lender, with fair market value as of the end of 2015, so the values are that date’s and not today’s. The hours are the ones supplied for that report.
| Machine | Hours | Fair market value |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 Terex TA30 | 9,860 | $35,000 |
| 2003 Terex TA30 | 10,503 | $35,000 |
| 2005 Terex TA30 | 7,581 | $60,000 |
| 2005 Terex TA30 | 7,423 | $60,000 |
The two 2003 trucks are 643 hours apart and carry one value, and the two 2005 trucks are 158 hours apart and carry one value. Each 2005 truck is two model years newer, shows more than 2,000 fewer hours and is valued $25,000 higher than either 2003 truck.
Who uses equipment appraisals in Polk County?
Bank and SBA lenders. A bank or SBA lender that takes used equipment as collateral, the equipment pledged for the loan, asks for a certified appraisal before closing.
Bankruptcy trustees and attorneys. Polk County bankruptcies are heard in the Tampa Division of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida, and a trustee there usually wants liquidation value.
Civil attorneys. A lawsuit over Polk County equipment in federal court is heard in Tampa, in the Middle District of Florida. A divorce, an estate or a partnership dispute goes to the Tenth Judicial Circuit, which covers Polk, Hardee and Highlands counties.
Business owners. An appraisal gives an owner a figure to set against the Polk County Property Appraiser’s when the county’s is too high, and it supports a sale, a buyout or insurance coverage.
Where these rules come from
- Polk County Property Appraiser: tangible personal property forms and brochure
- U.S. Small Business Administration, South Florida District Office
- U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida: the five divisions and their counties
- U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Middle District of Florida: counties by division
- Florida Department of Revenue: tangible personal property returns
- Florida Statutes 26.021: the counties in each judicial circuit
What records and photos does a Polk County appraisal need?
A quote needs none of this. The appraisal rests on it once the work begins.
| Kind of equipment | What to send | What it does to the value |
|---|---|---|
| Bulldozers, excavators and loaders on mine and site work | A photo of the hour meter, photos of the undercarriage or tires, and the date and hours of any undercarriage or engine rebuild. | The meter gives the hours, and a rebuild record shows how much of the wear underneath was reset. |
| Road and site contractor fleets | A note beside each unit saying owned, financed, leased or rented, the lease or rental agreement for any that are not owned, and the attachments kept with each machine. | Rented and leased units can be listed apart from the ones the business owns, and an attachment is valued with the machine it is listed under. |
| Semi trucks and trailers | The odometer reading, engine hours where the truck shows them and the service records. For a trailer, its type, deck length and number of axles. | Miles and engine hours show how hard a truck has worked and the service records show how it was kept, while a trailer is matched to others by type, deck length and axles. |
| Grove tractors, sprayers and pruners | The hours on each tractor, and every implement written down by make and model. | A sprayer or pruner that is missing from the list is missing from the total, because each implement is valued separately. |
- A list of the equipment, or the depreciation schedule your accountant keeps.
- For every machine: its make, model, year and serial number, and its hours or miles.
- The name of the lender, attorney, CPA or insurer who will read the report, and the kind of value they asked for.
Which cities and towns in Polk County do you serve?
All of Polk County, including:
Cities and towns
- Lakeland
- Winter Haven
- Bartow
- Haines City
- Davenport
- Auburndale
- Lake Wales
- Mulberry
- Fort Meade
- Frostproof
- Lake Alfred
- Dundee
- Eagle Lake
- Polk City
- Lake Hamilton
- Highland Park
- Hillcrest Heights
- Bradley Junction
- Four Corners
- Highland City
- Homeland
- Kathleen
- Loughman
- Poinciana
- Alturas
- Babson Park
- Wahneta
- Waverly
Counties
- Polk County
Questions about equipment appraisal in Lakeland and Winter Haven
Is a Ritchie Bros. auction price the same as my equipment’s value?
No. An auction price is what one machine brought on one day, and everything at the Ritchie Bros. yard in Davenport sells as is, where is, meaning the buyer takes each machine in whatever condition it is in. Fair market value is a separate figure, and the report is labeled with the one it states.
Is the county’s figure for my equipment the same as an appraised value?
No. The county’s figure is for tax and starts from the cost and year you report. An appraisal is an opinion of what one specific machine is worth on a stated date, given its hours, condition and comparable sales. When the two are far apart, an appraisal is the evidence for challenging the county’s figure.
I run a contractor fleet at the phosphate mines. What goes in the appraisal?
The machines you own: bulldozers, excavators, loaders, dump trucks and their attachments, each identified by serial number.
We are taking out citrus acreage. Can the grove tractors and sprayers be appraised?
Yes. A sale with months to find a buyer calls for fair market value, and a wind-down on a deadline usually calls for orderly liquidation value.
My equipment is at several sites around Polk County. Does that change anything?
Not for a desktop appraisal: name the towns when the form asks where the equipment is. For an on-site inspection, the number of sites is part of the fee.
Request a quote for your Lakeland or Winter Haven equipment
Earthmoving fleets, trucks and trailers, cranes and grove equipment across Polk County, valued for banks, courts, buyers and owners. Four questions, and your quote arrives by email.