Florida Equipment Appraisal

Pensacola Equipment Appraisal

Heavy equipment valuation for Pensacola-area contractors, lenders and attorneys. Starting at $295.

Roughly how many pieces of equipment?

Four quick questions. No obligation.

Info never shared.

How should the appraisal be done?

Desktop fits most files. On-site is for when a lender, court or insurer requires a physical inspection.

When do you need the finished report?
Where should the quote go?

An orange Hitachi EX300LC excavator sits on a pile of construction debris at Pensacola Beach, Florida, with palms and beachfront buildings behind it.
Image credit: Leif Skoogfors of FEMA via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Pensacola equipment appraisal is the certified value of each excavator, bulldozer, wheel loader, skid steer, dump truck and crane in Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton counties, given in a written report. It is prepared by a Certified Machinery and Equipment Appraiser (CMEA), from an inspection or from your records and photos. Contractors and their lenders need one before a loan closes, owners need one to sell or to settle a storm claim, and attorneys need one for a case in the federal court’s Pensacola Division.

The first thing to ask a Pensacola equipment appraiser is which county each machine is in. Four county offices assess equipment here, one for each county, while a single federal court division in Pensacola hears cases from all four.

  • Every machine gets its own line in the report, with its own fair market value and, when the lender or court asks for it, its own orderly liquidation value.
  • Machines in Century, Navarre and DeFuniak Springs can go in one desktop file, with no site visit.
  • Where a lender, a court or an insurer asks for the machines to be seen in person, an on-site inspection can be added to the quote.
  • One report can cover a single skid steer or a Panhandle contractor’s whole fleet.
  • The quote names the delivery date, so you know whether it meets a closing or a hearing before you accept.
A yellow Grove rough-terrain crane with its boom extended beside a brick building at Hurlburt Field, Florida, while a worker in a hard hat looks on.
A rough-terrain crane’s price turns on its rated capacity and boom length, the hours on its engine, the wear on its tires and whether its load test and inspection records are current.Image credit: U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Alysa Calvarese via DVIDS, public domain

What happens after I ask for an equipment appraisal in Pensacola?

  1. Fill in the short form

    It asks four things: how many machines and what kind, a desktop or an on-site appraisal and the town the equipment is in, the date you need the report by, and your name and email.

  2. Get a fixed fee by email

    Your quote arrives by email. It gives one fixed fee and names the day the report will be finished.

  3. Send the records, receive the report

    After you accept, send the equipment list, hour readings and photos. The appraiser researches the market for each machine and writes the report, delivered by the day in the quote.

What does an equipment appraisal in Pensacola cost and cover?

Values in the report
Fair market value is the amount a machine would bring at an ordinary sale when neither side is in a hurry. Orderly liquidation value is the lower price the machine brings when the sale has to be completed within a set period. A lender may ask for both.
Fee
Starting at $295. The fee rises with the number of machines, an inspection in person and a short deadline, and the quote fixes it before any work starts.
Turnaround
Same day quotes, sent by email. Each quote states the date the report will be delivered.
Appraisal standard
The report is written to the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP), the rules appraisers across the country work under. The CMEA who examines the equipment or its records also studies the market, writes the report and stands behind the figure it gives.
SBA loans
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) places all four counties, Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton, in its North Florida District. The district’s offices are in Jacksonville and Orlando, with none in Pensacola. SBA North Florida District Office
County tax on equipment
Florida counties tax a business’s equipment as tangible personal property, the term for anything movable that is not land or a building. Each county here has its own office for it: the Escambia County Property Appraiser, the Santa Rosa County Property Appraiser, the Okaloosa County Property Appraiser and the Walton County Property Appraiser. Escambia County Property Appraiser
A Volvo L120D wheel loader tips sand and debris into a Powerscreen screening plant on Pensacola Beach, Florida, with a second wheel loader beside the water and a bulldozer on the dune behind.
Hours, tire wear and the bucket that sells with it move a wheel loader’s price, and so does the kind of work it has done.Image credit: Mark Wolfe of FEMA via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Which questions are worth asking equipment appraisers in Pensacola?

Which sales will my machine be compared with?
Ritchie Bros. has one Florida auction site, listed as Orlando, and J.M. Wood Auction Co. holds heavy equipment auctions in Montgomery, Alabama. Ask which sales of machines like yours were compared with yours, and why each one fits.
Will every machine have its own value?
Each of the four counties has a property appraiser, and a Pensacola contractor can have a yard or a job in more than one. Ask for a value on each machine, not one total for the fleet, so the figures can be sorted by county.
Which time zone is the delivery date in?
The bankruptcy court’s Pensacola Division keeps Central time, while most of Florida runs on Eastern. A lender or attorney elsewhere in the state may be counting deadlines on that clock, so get the report date in writing and check which one yours runs on.

From clients

Thank you for the appraisal. Everything looks good.

Cathy T., Equipment Owner

Rated 5.0 on Google

What equipment is appraised in Pensacola and the western Panhandle?

Construction equipment, trucks, cranes and tractors are all appraised here, one machine or a whole fleet.

On excavators and bulldozers, hours and the wear left in the undercarriage carry the value. Wheel loaders and skid steers are judged on hours, tires or tracks and the attachments sold with them, trucks on miles and service history, and cranes on rated capacity and inspection records.

What affects the value of equipment in Pensacola?

Four things set this market apart, and each one changes what goes in the file.

How much do hours change what a skid steer is worth?

These three lines come from one report prepared for a lender after an inspection on site, with values as of 2018, so they are that date’s and not today’s. It gave each machine a fair market value and an orderly liquidation value.

Three skid steer loaders as one delivered report lists them
MachineHoursFair market valueOrderly liquidation value
2010 Caterpillar 272C skid steer loader4,600$28,000$15,000
2010 Caterpillar 272C skid steer loader4,473$28,500$15,500
2010 Caterpillar 272C skid steer loader3,321$29,000$16,000

All three are the same model and model year. The loader with 3,321 hours is listed $1,000 higher than the loader with 4,600 hours on both values. The loader with 4,473 hours is listed $500 higher than the 4,600-hour loader on both.

Who uses an equipment appraisal in the Pensacola area?

Lenders. A bank that lends against used machinery holds it as collateral, the property it can claim if the loan goes unpaid, and asks for an independent value before closing.

Trustees and bankruptcy counsel. Bankruptcy cases from Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton counties belong to the Pensacola Division of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Florida. A trustee or a lender there may ask for orderly liquidation value in place of fair market value.

Attorneys in civil suits. A federal lawsuit over equipment in Crestview, Destin or Milton goes to the Pensacola Division of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, the same division that takes Pensacola’s own cases.

Owners and contractors. The property appraiser of each county puts its own figure on the equipment kept there for tax. An independent appraisal gives the owner a second figure to put next to the county’s, and it supports a sale or an insurance claim after a storm.

Where these rules come from

What does a Pensacola appraisal need from me?

None of this is needed for a quote. It comes after you accept.

What to send, by kind of equipment
EquipmentWhat to sendWhat it does to the value
Excavators and bulldozersThe hour reading, photos of the tracks and undercarriage, and each bucket, hammer or blade that sells with the machine.The wear left in the tracks and the tools that go with the machine set it apart from another of the same model.
Skid steers and compact track loadersThe hour reading, photos of the tires or tracks, and whether the machine was a rental unit.Hours and tire or track wear set one unit apart from the next.
Dump trucks and semi trucksThe VIN, the odometer reading, the engine hours if the truck logs them, and any service records.Miles and a documented service history move a truck’s value.
CranesThe rated capacity, the boom length, and the latest load test and inspection records.Capacity and current inspection records both bear on what a crane sells for.

Which counties, cities and towns are covered from Pensacola to Destin?

Equipment anywhere in Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa or Walton County can be appraised, including in:

Cities and towns

  • Pensacola
  • Ferry Pass
  • Brent
  • Bellview
  • Ensley
  • Gonzalez
  • Myrtle Grove
  • Warrington
  • West Pensacola
  • Cantonment
  • Molino
  • Century
  • Pensacola Beach
  • Perdido Key
  • Milton
  • East Milton
  • Pace
  • Bagdad
  • Gulf Breeze
  • Tiger Point
  • Navarre
  • Navarre Beach
  • Jay
  • Crestview
  • Fort Walton Beach
  • Destin
  • Niceville
  • Mary Esther
  • Shalimar
  • DeFuniak Springs
  • Freeport
  • Valparaiso
  • Cinco Bayou
  • Laurel Hill
  • Eglin AFB
  • Hurlburt Field
  • Miramar Beach
  • Paxton
  • Goulding
  • Midway
  • Pea Ridge

Counties

  • Escambia County
  • Santa Rosa County
  • Okaloosa County
  • Walton County

Questions about equipment appraisal in Pensacola

My yard is in Pensacola and the job is in Navarre. Are those two different counties?

Yes. Pensacola is in Escambia County, and Navarre, Gulf Breeze, Milton and Pace are in Santa Rosa County, which has its own property appraiser. One appraisal can take in both.

Where is a bankruptcy heard when the equipment is in Fort Walton Beach, Destin or Crestview?

In Pensacola. The bankruptcy court’s Pensacola Division takes Okaloosa and Walton counties along with Escambia and Santa Rosa. The trustee, the attorneys or the lender holding the equipment decides which kind of value the case needs.

Does the SBA have an office in Pensacola?

No. The Jacksonville main office of its North Florida District covers all four counties. Your lender, not the SBA office, says which value the loan needs and whether the machines must be inspected.

The machines are on a job inside NAS Pensacola. Can they be appraised without a base visit?

Yes. Desktop appraisals use your equipment list, serial numbers, hour readings and photos, so nobody has to go through the gate. If a lender or the court requires an inspection in person, choose on-site in the form.

Request a quote for your Pensacola equipment

Name the machines and the town they are in, from Perdido Key to DeFuniak Springs, and a fixed-fee quote comes back by email.

Roughly how many pieces of equipment?

Four quick questions. No obligation.

Info never shared.

How should the appraisal be done?

Desktop fits most files. On-site is for when a lender, court or insurer requires a physical inspection.

When do you need the finished report?
Where should the quote go?