Tampa Equipment Appraisal
A certified valuation of Tampa heavy equipment, from port cranes to farm tractors. Starting at $295.
- USPAP-compliant
- CMEA, NEBB Institute
- Rated 5.0 on Google
Tampa equipment appraisal is a certified report on what a Hillsborough County business’s heavy equipment is worth on a stated date, whether that is an excavator, a crane, a row of semi trucks or a farm tractor. It is prepared by a Certified Machinery and Equipment Appraiser (CMEA). A bank orders one before it lends against a fleet, a trustee or an attorney for a case in the Tampa Division, and an owner when equipment is sold, bought out or insured.
A Tampa equipment appraiser reads Hernando County differently from the other two counties, because its bankruptcies go to Tampa and its district court cases to Ocala.
- Every excavator, crane, truck and tractor in a Hillsborough County fleet is valued on its own line.
- A desktop appraisal is done from records and photos, so a machine on a Tampa job site keeps working while the report is written.
- An on-site appraisal is arranged when a Tampa lender, a court or an insurer needs the machines seen.
- A lone forklift is enough, and a fleet parked across Hillsborough, Pasco and Hernando counties fits in one report.
- The CMEA who studies the market for your machines also writes the report, and he is the one a Tampa reviewer hears from when the value is questioned.
How does a Tampa appraisal get started?
Four questions on the form
About how many machines, and what kind. Desktop or on-site, and the city they are in. When the report is needed. Then a name and an email address. Nothing is uploaded.
A fixed fee by email
The quote reaches your inbox the same day. It gives one fixed fee, the scope and a delivery date for the report.
Records in, report out
After you accept, send the serial numbers or VINs, the hours or miles and your photos. The report identifies and values each machine as far as those records support.
What should Tampa lenders and owners know before ordering?
- Values in the report
- Fair market value is the figure a buyer and a seller arrive at when both can take their time. Orderly liquidation value is lower: what the equipment fetches when it has to be sold inside a set number of weeks or months. Your lender, attorney or CPA names the one to report.
- Fee
- Starting at $295. What raises it is the size of the list, a trip to see the equipment, or a date that leaves little time. The equipment’s value never does.
- Turnaround
- Same day quotes go out by email, each with the date the report will be finished. Rush delivery is open to a single machine or a handful.
- Appraisal standard
- The report meets the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP), the national rulebook a bank reviewer or a judge measures appraisals against.
- SBA loans
- The Small Business Administration (SBA) serves Hillsborough and Pasco counties through the Tampa virtual office of its South Florida district. Hernando County belongs to the North Florida District Office, through Orlando. Your lender says whether the machines must be seen in person. SBA South Florida District Office
- County tax on equipment
- Under Florida law the machines a business owns are tangible personal property, meaning business assets that can be moved, and counties tax them. The Hillsborough County Property Appraiser assesses equipment kept in the county, and Pasco and Hernando counties each have an office of their own. Hillsborough County Property Appraiser
What is worth asking equipment appraisers about a Tampa file?
- Do they tell a dealer’s asking price from a sale?
- Ring Power sells Cat machines from Riverview, and Dobbs Equipment sells John Deere construction equipment, new and used, from Lutz. A dealer’s sticker is what the dealer hopes to get, and a comparable sale is what a buyer paid. Ask which one each price in the report is.
- Do they know what a Plant City auction price means?
- Tampa Liquidation Center holds an auction in Plant City every Saturday and handles bankruptcy and government surplus liquidations. A seller there has to sell, so those prices say more about a rushed sale than about fair market value.
- Do they ask where each machine sat during Helene and Milton?
- Hurricane Helene pushed storm surge into Tampa Bay, and Hurricane Milton sent the Hillsborough River to record crests. Flood water in an engine or a wiring harness can leave damage after a machine runs again, so photos and service records dated before the storms belong in the file.
What equipment is appraised in Tampa?
A Tampa appraisal covers excavators and the other construction machinery on local job sites, cranes, semi trucks and trailers, farm tractors, and the forklifts in the distribution centers along the Interstate 4 corridor that Port Tampa Bay anchors.
An excavator follows its hours, the wear in its tracks and the attachments that sell with it. A crane is priced on its capacity, boom length and inspection history. A forklift follows capacity, mast height and hours. A truck follows miles and how it was specified, and a tractor follows hours and the implements sold with it.
- Excavators
- Cranes
- Semi trucks and trailers
- Forklifts
- Tractors and farm equipment
What affects the value of equipment in Hillsborough County?
Port cranes, machines on road jobs, highway trucks and farm tractors are each valued on different things.
Port cranes
Port Tampa Bay’s container terminal, in partnership with Ports America, has post-Panamax cranes, made for ships too wide for the original Panama Canal locks, and the on-dock cold-storage terminal has mobile harbor cranes. A dockside crane has few possible buyers, so its capacity, reach and age carry the value.
Machines on the interstate rebuilds
Two Interstate 275 interchanges are being rebuilt in Tampa, downtown at Interstate 4 and in Westshore at State Road 60, and the downtown job runs heavy machinery day and night. A machine on both shifts gains hours quickly, so a dated meter reading tells more about it than its model year.
Semi trucks
Rush Truck Centers sells Peterbilt trucks on East Adamo Drive in Tampa. A highway tractor is priced on miles, engine and axle setup together with model year, so the odometer reading and the specification sheet both go in the file.
Farm tractors
Tampa Liquidation Center in Plant City lists farm equipment among the liquidations it handles. Hours and horsepower set a tractor’s price, and an implement is valued apart from the tractor that pulls it, so the equipment list names each one.
How much do miles and model year change what a semi truck is worth?
These four lines come from one desktop report that estimated fair market value for a contractor’s state qualification filing. The report calls each one a truck tractor, its term for a semi truck. It is a desktop report, so the miles are the figures listed for each truck.
| Machine | Miles | Fair market value |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 Mack CXU 613 | 521,489 | $53,000 |
| 2014 Mack CXU 613 | 467,520 | $53,000 |
| 2017 Mack CXU 613 | 38,738 | $105,000 |
| 2017 Mack CXU 613 | 51,690 | $105,000 |
The two 2014 tractors are 53,969 miles apart and carry the same value. The two 2017 tractors are 12,952 miles apart and also match each other, at $52,000 above the older pair.
Who uses equipment appraisals in Hillsborough County?
Lenders. Before a bank or an SBA lender closes a loan secured by equipment, the property pledged against the loan, it wants an independent value.
Trustees and bankruptcy counsel. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida places Hillsborough, Pasco and Hernando counties in its Tampa Division, where a trustee or a secured lender may call for orderly liquidation value.
Attorneys in civil and family cases. The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida hears Hillsborough and Pasco cases in its Tampa Division. A split between business partners, a divorce or an estate in Hillsborough County is heard in the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, a state court circuit that covers that county alone.
Owners. The Hillsborough County Property Appraiser sets the county’s figure for business equipment. An appraisal hands the owner an independent figure to compare with it, and that report also works when the equipment is sold, bought out or insured.
Where these rules come from
- Hillsborough County Property Appraiser: tangible personal property
- Pasco County Property Appraiser: tangible personal property
- Hernando County Property Appraiser: tangible personal property
- SBA South Florida District Office
- SBA North Florida District Office
- U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida: divisions
- U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Middle District of Florida: counties by division
- Florida Statutes 26.021: the judicial circuits
What records does a Tampa appraisal need?
None of this is needed for the quote. It is what the appraisal is built on after you accept.
| Equipment | What to send | What it does to the value |
|---|---|---|
| Excavators and other construction machines | The hours, the condition of the tracks or tires, and every bucket or attachment that sells with the machine. | Two machines of one model are priced apart by hours and wear. |
| Cranes | The rated capacity, the boom length, the hours and the latest inspection record. | Capacity and reach set one crane apart from another of its type, and a current inspection record backs up the condition. |
| Semi trucks and trailers | The VIN, the odometer reading, the engine and axle setup, and the service records. | Miles and specification place a tractor among others of its model year. |
| Tractors and farm equipment | The hours, the horsepower and every implement that sells with the tractor. | An implement left off the list is left out of the value. |
- A list of the equipment (your accountant’s fixed-asset schedule will do) showing which county holds each machine.
- Any lease or rental agreement, which shows the machines that are not yours.
- The request from the lender, attorney, CPA or insurer, which names the kind of value wanted.
Which cities and towns in the Tampa area are covered?
Hillsborough, Pasco and Hernando counties, including:
Cities and towns
- Tampa
- Plant City
- Temple Terrace
- Brandon
- Riverview
- Gibsonton
- Apollo Beach
- Ruskin
- Sun City Center
- Wimauma
- Balm
- Valrico
- Bloomingdale
- Fish Hawk
- Seffner
- Dover
- Mango
- Thonotosassa
- Palm River-Clair Mel
- Progress Village
- East Lake-Orient Park
- Lutz
- Carrollwood
- Citrus Park
- Westchase
- Town ’n’ Country
- Egypt Lake-Leto
- Lake Magdalene
- Northdale
- Keystone
- Cheval
- Pebble Creek
- Dade City
- Zephyrhills
- Wesley Chapel
- Land O’ Lakes
- Odessa
- Trinity
- New Port Richey
- Port Richey
- Holiday
- Hudson
- Bayonet Point
- Shady Hills
- San Antonio
- St. Leo
- Lacoochee
- Trilby
- Brooksville
- Spring Hill
- Weeki Wachee
- Hernando Beach
- Ridge Manor
- Masaryktown
- Brookridge
- Timber Pines
- Aripeka
- Nobleton
Counties
- Hillsborough County
- Pasco County
- Hernando County
Questions about equipment appraisal in Tampa
We lease equipment to contractors across Hillsborough County. Who does the county assess, and can the fleet be appraised together?
The Hillsborough County Property Appraiser usually assesses the leasing company. The whole fleet can go in one report, with each unit valued separately.
One of my machines is broken and another has sat idle. Can they still be appraised?
Yes. Condition is part of the value, so the report describes a broken machine’s damage and an idle machine’s working order, to the extent your photos and repair estimates show them.
Can a truck crane be valued as two lines, the truck and the crane?
Yes, when the records identify both. The carrier is priced on its miles and the crane on its capacity, boom length and hours. The Hernando County Property Appraiser names rubber-tired cranes among the equipment mounted on licensed vehicles that it taxes.
Part of my fleet is in Tampa and part is in Pasco County. Is that one appraisal?
Yes, one report. The two counties have separate property appraisers, so the equipment list says which county each machine is kept in.
Can a crane on a Port Tampa Bay terminal be appraised without a site visit?
Yes, as a desktop appraisal from its capacity, hours, inspection records and photos. Port Tampa Bay runs its container terminal in partnership with Ports America, so include the title or lease that shows who owns the crane.
Get a quote for Tampa equipment
Excavators, cranes, trucks and tractors anywhere in Hillsborough, Pasco or Hernando County. Answer the four questions and a fixed fee arrives by email.