Miami Equipment Appraisal
Miami heavy equipment valuation for contractors, quarry fleets, growers and their lenders. Starting at $295.
- USPAP-compliant
- CMEA, NEBB Institute
- Rated 5.0 on Google
Miami equipment appraisal is a written value, as of one date, for each excavator, crane, bulldozer, wheel loader, forklift or farm tractor a Miami-Dade County business owns, prepared by a Certified Machinery and Equipment Appraiser (CMEA). Contractors and quarry operators order one to borrow or to sell, growers order one when equipment changes hands, and banks, trustees and attorneys ask for one before a loan closes or a case is heard in Miami.
A Miami equipment appraiser also has to say whether a value is for a buyer in Florida or one overseas, because machinery leaves PortMiami for Latin America and the Caribbean.
- Each machine gets a value of its own, whether it sits in a Medley yard or on a Brickell building site.
- Nobody has to visit the yard, quarry or terminal for a desktop appraisal, which is built on your records and photos.
- If the reader wants the machines seen, an inspection anywhere in Miami-Dade County goes into the quote.
- A single forklift qualifies, and so does a fleet spread across Miami-Dade County, from Medley to Homestead.
- Reports are written to USPAP, the appraisal standard a bank reviewer or a federal judge in Miami expects.
How do I order an appraisal in Miami?
Fill in four answers
The form asks for a rough machine count with a line of description, desktop or on-site with the city, your deadline, and an email address with your name. The form takes no files.
Get one fixed fee by email
The quote states a fixed fee, what is covered and the day the report is due. Check that day against your closing or hearing before you accept.
Send your records, receive the report
With the quote accepted, you pass along the equipment list, the hours and whatever photos exist. Each machine is then identified, its condition described and its value stated, to the depth those records support.
What should Miami-Dade owners and lenders know before ordering?
- Values in the report
- Fair market value is the price a machine brings when buyer and seller both have time and neither is pressed. Orderly liquidation value is the figure for a sale that must be finished in a limited time, long enough to look for a buyer. The report gives the one your bank, court or accountant asked for.
- Fee
- Starting at $295. A longer list, a visit to the equipment or a rushed date adds to it. The value of the equipment has no bearing on it.
- Turnaround
- Same day quotes, by email. One machine or a handful can be rushed.
- Appraisal standard
- USPAP stands for the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice. One CMEA does the whole job: the machines or their records, the market research, the written report, and the answers when someone questions the number.
- SBA loans
- The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) serves Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties from the Miami main office of its South Florida District Office. If the loan needs the machines seen in person, the lender says so, and that is the on-site choice on the form. SBA South Florida District Office
- County tax on equipment
- Florida taxes the machines, tools and furnishings a business owns, which it calls tangible personal property. Each year the owner reports them, with what each one cost, to the Property Appraiser of Miami-Dade County. Property Appraiser of Miami-Dade County
What should an appraiser be able to answer about Miami equipment?
- Does the value assume a buyer in Florida or a buyer overseas?
- Machinery is among PortMiami’s leading exports, and Kelly Tractor Co., which sells Caterpillar machines, keeps an export line at its Miami headquarters. A machine can be priced for the domestic market or for a buyer abroad, and the report should state which.
- Will they ask which side of the Broward County line each machine is on?
- Miami-Dade and Broward share an SBA office and a federal district, but each county has a property appraiser and a bankruptcy division of its own. A contractor with a yard in each needs a county beside every machine on the list.
- How do they treat hours a machine put on in rock?
- Limestone is quarried in the Lake Belt, in the county’s northwest. Ask how the appraiser tells quarry hours from road-job hours, and which photos of your buckets, cutting edges and tires would show the difference.
What equipment is appraised in Miami and Miami-Dade County?
A Miami-Dade appraisal can cover one machine or everything a business owns.
What moves the number differs by machine, and the table in the documents section lists what each kind is judged on.
- Excavators
- Bulldozers
- Wheel loaders
- Skid steers and compact track loaders
- Cranes
- Dump trucks
- Semi trucks and trailers
- Forklifts
- Tractors and farm equipment
What affects the value of equipment in Miami-Dade County?
The same model can be worth different amounts here, depending on the work it did.
Wheel loaders and dump trucks out of rock work
Titan America works its Pennsuco quarry at Medley, and Vulcan Materials runs a Miami Quarry of its own. Rock is hard on buckets, cutting edges, tires and pins, so a loader that worked in it is judged on those parts as well as its hours.
Cranes and excavators on building sites
A Brickell building site can put a crawler crane, a piling rig and excavators into one pit. A rented crane is not the contractor’s to pledge, so the equipment list should mark which units are owned.
Forklifts, trucks and trailers at the port
PortMiami’s terminal operators include Port of Miami Terminal Operating Company, Seaboard Marine and South Florida Container Terminal. A forklift, truck or trailer in one of those yards may be owned, leased or borrowed, so a title, lease or bill of sale settles whose it is before a lender takes it as collateral, the property pledged for a loan.
Farm tractors and sprayers
Most of what Miami-Dade farms sell is nursery and greenhouse stock. A tractor or sprayer set up for nursery rows is compared with sales of machines set up the same way, so every implement is named with its tractor.
What do the hours on an excavator do to its value?
All three excavators below are in a single collateral report written for a lender, a desktop appraisal at fair market value. The hours are the ones supplied for the report, not readings taken at the machines.
| Machine | Hours supplied | Fair market value | Note in the report |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 Komatsu PC360LC-10 | 5,725 | $180,000 | Photos not provided. |
| 2013 Komatsu PC360LC-10 | 5,425 | $182,000 | Photos not provided. |
| 2013 Komatsu PC360LC-10 | 3,863 | $200,000 | Assuming a manual pulverizer for this size of machine. Photos not provided. |
The second line shows 300 fewer hours than the first and a value $2,000 higher. The third shows 1,862 fewer hours than the first and a value $20,000 higher, and it is the only line whose note assumes an attachment, a pulverizer, a concrete-crushing tool for the end of the arm.
Who uses equipment appraisals in Miami-Dade County?
Lenders. A bank making an SBA or a conventional loan against used equipment asks for an independent valuation of that collateral before closing, and the SBA’s Miami office covers the county.
Trustees and bankruptcy counsel. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida puts Miami-Dade and Monroe counties in its Miami Division. A trustee there may want orderly liquidation value.
Attorneys in civil cases. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida tries a Miami-Dade case in Miami. A divorce, a probate matter or a fight between business partners is heard in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit, which is Miami-Dade County alone.
Owners. The Property Appraiser of Miami-Dade County also asks the owner to estimate what each item is worth now, and an appraisal gives that estimate a basis. A sale, a buyout or an insurance claim can rest on one too.
Where these rules come from
- Property Appraiser of Miami-Dade County, tangible personal property
- SBA South Florida District Office
- U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida, divisions
- U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Local Rule 3.1, where cases are tried
- Florida Statutes 26.021, judicial circuits
- U.S. Customs rule on exporting self-propelled equipment
What should I send for a Miami-Dade appraisal?
Nothing below is needed to get a quote. After you accept one, the report is built from these records.
| Kind of equipment | What to send | What it does to the value |
|---|---|---|
| Excavators and bulldozers | Hours, photos of the tracks, rollers and sprockets, and a list of buckets, hammers or other attachments. | Two machines of one model with similar hours still part ways on undercarriage wear and attachments. |
| Wheel loaders and dump trucks that worked in rock | Hours or miles, and photos of the bucket, cutting edge, tires and dump body. | Rock wear shows in those parts before it shows on the meter. |
| Cranes | Rated capacity, boom length, the load chart (the maker’s table of what the crane may lift) and the latest inspection record. | Capacity and a current inspection record decide what a buyer will pay. |
| Forklifts | Rated capacity, fuel type, mast height and hours, plus the battery and charger on an electric truck. | Two forklifts of one model differ in price on capacity, mast and power source. |
- The equipment list, or the depreciation schedule your accountant keeps, marked with the city where each machine is.
- Lease and rental agreements, for machines you rent as well as machines you rent out.
- Who the report is going to (a bank, an attorney, a CPA, an insurer) and which value that reader wants.
Which Miami-Dade cities and towns are covered?
Every city, town and census-designated place in Miami-Dade County is covered:
Cities and towns
- Miami
- Miami Beach
- Hialeah
- Hialeah Gardens
- Medley
- Doral
- Miami Springs
- Virginia Gardens
- Sweetwater
- Miami Lakes
- Miami Gardens
- Opa-locka
- North Miami
- North Miami Beach
- Aventura
- Sunny Isles Beach
- Golden Beach
- Bal Harbour
- Bay Harbor Islands
- Surfside
- Indian Creek
- Biscayne Park
- El Portal
- Miami Shores
- North Bay Village
- Key Biscayne
- Coral Gables
- West Miami
- South Miami
- Pinecrest
- Palmetto Bay
- Cutler Bay
- Homestead
- Florida City
- Kendall
- Kendall West
- Kendale Lakes
- The Hammocks
- The Crossings
- Three Lakes
- Country Walk
- Tamiami
- Westchester
- Westwood Lakes
- Olympia Heights
- Sunset
- Glenvar Heights
- Coral Terrace
- Fountainebleau
- Brownsville
- Gladeview
- West Little River
- Pinewood
- Westview
- Golden Glades
- Ives Estates
- Ojus
- Country Club
- Palm Springs North
- Fisher Island
- Richmond Heights
- Richmond West
- Palmetto Estates
- West Perrine
- South Miami Heights
- Goulds
- Princeton
- Naranja
- Leisure City
- Homestead Base
Counties
- Miami-Dade County
Questions about equipment appraisal in Miami
My fleet is split between Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Is that one appraisal?
Yes, one report can cover both. Mark the county beside each machine, since the two counties keep separate property appraisers and bankruptcy divisions and a reader may want the two groups kept apart.
I am selling a machine to a buyer in the Caribbean. What should the appraisal state?
Which market the value assumes, and as of what date. Apart from the appraisal, U.S. Customs wants proof of ownership before a self-propelled machine ships, the title where the machine has one, and, if a lender holds a lien on it (a recorded claim), the lender’s written permission to export.
Does Miami-Dade County tax the tractors and sprayers at a nursery?
Yes. The Property Appraiser of Miami-Dade County counts farm, grove and dairy equipment among the equipment an owner must report, tractors, mowers, pumps and sprayers included.
Which Miami office or court covers equipment in the Florida Keys?
Monroe County is in the bankruptcy court’s Miami Division and under the SBA’s Miami office. County tax on a machine in the Keys is a matter for Monroe County’s own property appraiser.
Can a crane on a Brickell building site be appraised without a visit?
Yes. A desktop appraisal works from the crane’s serial number, load chart, inspection records and photos, and on-site is for when the report’s reader requires it. Say in the line about what you need appraised whether the crane is owned or rented.
Get a quote for your Miami-Dade equipment
Excavators, cranes, loaders, forklifts, trucks and farm tractors anywhere from Medley to Florida City, valued for the bank, the court or the buyer who asked. Four questions bring a quote by email.