Equipment Appraisal Blog | Understanding Machinery Appraisals

An accredited independent machinery & equipment appraisal needs to rely on several variables, utilizing components of both the sales comparison and cost approach to fully flesh out a balanced estimate of value. Researching and reviewing a reasonable amount of market sources that provide useful information is paramount to effectively working through an appraisal; however, it is common that all the pieces of data won’t consistently line up or even make logical sense in some cases.

An appraiser must understand that these market sources, while very useful, might not be entirely reliable and may even have a level of bias associated with them given the business and industry they operate in. A vital role of an accredited appraiser is to sift through the information they uncover and determine how best to put the pieces together to arrive at a conclusion of value.

This is where the level of experience an appraiser has comes into play. Determining which sources appear most consistent and reasonable, as well as making some commonsense decisions on how the particular assets being valued should trade in a secondary market throughout their useful lives will shed light on the situation.

There may be times when the equipment to appraise is very uncommon, with virtually no secondary market information available to research. In other cases, the appraiser will have dozens of sources available to them, each one marketing similar machinery for sale with a wide array of differing price points. Each situation will present challenges regarding how best to work through it and arrive at a reasonable assessment.

The purpose of the appraisal and the premise of value being estimated will also create different approaches that need to be thought through while completing the analysis. How an appraiser adjusts to each situation is based on their experience and overall understanding of the bigger transactional picture they are involved in.

The conclusion of value is ultimately the appraiser’s determination and theirs alone. The sources they rely upon are not responsible nor are they the ones being compensated to provide an independent estimate.

An opinion is always going to have some degree of subjectivity behind it, regardless of how much data supports it, and that’s okay. The more knowledge and experience an appraiser has backed up by a reasonable amount of supporting data, the better the final outcome will be.

Have you ever driven by an abandoned facility or work site and seen equipment that looks like it has been sitting there for months or even years, neglected and exposed to the elements? You can tell just from a casual view that the machinery is in dire need of major repair work or is otherwise headed to the junkyard.

This may be an extreme and broad example of how the value of equipment can be greatly affected by lack of maintenance, however, from an appraiser’s perspective, the history of an asset’s operation and care is a critical component to supporting value.

Most accredited and certified appraisers are not mechanics or technicians, and therefore cannot independently assess the cost of bringing equipment back into good operable condition. Therefore, an assumption is typically made stating that the associated values assume normal conditions exist, or they receive details from the owner or a qualified third party stating otherwise.

Even when a general visual inspection is part of the valuation effort, it is assumed that normal operating conditions exist, and effective maintenance history has been completed over the life of the assets unless the appraiser is told otherwise. If it is evident during the inspection that the assets have been out of service for an extended period and need repair work, the appraiser can apply a reasonable penalty to account for this, however, without support of the specific circumstances, the adjustment will be very broad in nature.

The fact is that in any situation, the appraised value is heavily predicated on the assumption that a potential buyer will be able to operate the equipment with minimal to no reinvestment once ownership changes hands. If the appraiser knows this is not a correct assumption, then they must determine a way to account for this that can be supported by their experience or ideally with a qualified assessment of repair costs.

Poor maintenance practices and long-term lack of use will eventually lead to a shortened life and significant repair costs for virtually all types of equipment, vehicles, and even certain personal property. If you own these types of assets and you know they will be out of service for an extended period, it is important to store them in a protected environment and keep the components running once a week or so to maintain them properly. This way, when it comes time to use them again or sell them on the open market, you can rest assured they will function reliably for you or your buyer.

One of the most common documents an equipment appraiser will receive from their clients during the early stage of the valuation process is an asset depreciation report, which tracks all the capitalized machinery, FF&E, real property, and improvements that a company has invested in and acquired over time. This document can be useful in the valuation process; however, it is generally not reliable on its own.

The capitalized depreciation record will usually be categorized and itemized by type of asset and includes the date of acquisition, dollar amount, and a brief description of the item. There will also be columns for accounting information so the company can internally track depreciation while providing a helpful tool for property tax and balance sheet purposes.

From an appraisal perspective, the original acquisition dates and associated investment amounts are the most beneficial pieces of information, however, with the descriptions typically abbreviated, it will be difficult to rely on the document to create an accurate itemized listing for the purposes of researching values. These documents can also be incomplete or include equipment that has long been disposed of. This is because companies will expense a portion of their equipment purchases while not having a consistent process in place for updating the report for accuracy.

It is important the appraiser and client review this listing together with the goal of expanding the descriptions while adding items that are not on the list and excluding those that should be removed.

For example, old computer equipment might have been sold or scrapped years ago for newer models but remain on the list, or there may be $10,000 worth of hand tools that were expensed over the years and never capitalized and depreciated.

The goal in any M&E appraisal is to create a refined list that is reasonably accurate and complete so the valuation process will be supportable. The primary focus can be on the larger, more valuable equipment while potentially grouping smaller asset types like office equipment and support tools so the process doesn’t get too bogged down and time-consuming.

In summary, when you provide an asset depreciation schedule as part of the data requested by the appraiser, anticipate the need to get more involved to afford them a better understanding of the detail behind it so they can develop a more accurate listing that represents your company’s machinery and equipment.

Simply put, the better the data provided, the better the result will be with the valuation. Discuss this topic with your appraiser proactively to ensure a timely and effective process.

Machinery & Equipment (M&E) valuation relies in large part on understanding the new and used trade markets and developing an analysis that reasonably reflects what the particular assets being appraised would be worth in those markets. Another important component of an M&E appraisal is looking internally at the business that is or was directly involved with the most recent purchase and operation history of the equipment to understand the facts behind this.

The additional perspective an appraiser receives by learning this history is critical to making potential adjustments to the market information they research. This history provides in-depth specifics for the machinery actually being valued that can’t be disputed. Every piece of equipment is unique in its own way. There may be somewhat different specifications between the assets being valued and what is available as a comparison in the market. Materially different hours or mileage may become a factor to consider as well as any recent upgrades or refurbishments completed.

Knowing the original purchase price of the machinery, even if it was acquired several years ago, will assist in reasonably verifying that the replacement cost estimates you determine are accurate. Appraisers cannot blindly assume all the independent market information they uncover is 100% bulletproof, as sources can be limited in their ability to provide all the right answers. This is perhaps the biggest challenge in the equipment industry. Unlike business valuation, where databases and historical financial data are almost always available, or real estate, which has a tendency to provide a wide array of published comparable property resale data, the machinery markets can behave in very inconsistent ways.

You will commonly see the same makes and models of equipment, with virtually identical specifications and usage, listing and selling for vastly different prices. The auction marketplace, which reflects billions of dollars of used equipment sales annually, experiences varying levels of demand, any of which may play a part in developing values for many types of assets. With the recent growth in online auctions across these markets, these disparities can be even more pronounced.

In summary, the historical data you can provide to an appraiser that complements their independent research and analysis will be very helpful in ultimately determining a reasonable and supportable value for your M&E.

The next set of blog posts over the coming weeks will discuss the various elements of machinery and equipment appraisals and their potential influence on the overall valuation analysis. This week’s focus is on normal useful life.

Normal useful life is essentially the estimation of how long equipment will last from the time it is new until it needs replacement or a significant rebuild/refurbishment to extend its service. This is typically measured as a specific number, or within a range of years, such as 10 or 8-12 years.

Determining useful life can assist the appraiser when valuing equipment that is still in its initial usage life cycle and provides a broad perspective of the remaining (residual) value, as a percentage of its original or replacement cost. Appraisers can effectively develop depreciation value curves with useful life as a timeline framework while researching and implementing used market data to create points along the curve for estimating fair market and liquidation values, as well as end-of-life salvage value.

Normal useful life should be viewed as a broad-based component of the overall appraisal effort, which provides a reasonable sanity check to the market data and other cost approach variables that go into the analysis. For example, if you have estimated normal useful life at 10 years, and your other research shows that 5-year-old equipment is being marketed for 40-50% of new cost, which could reveal a consistent pattern from both of these perspectives. If, however, the market data for 5-year-old equipment is 60-70% of new pricing, then your useful life assessment may be too low.

Keep in mind normal useful life is merely a benchmark and represents a single life cycle. Appraisers will often see much older equipment available in the used marketplace that has been refurbished or rebuilt during its life which essentially extends or resets the life cycle for these aged assets. The concepts of “effective age” and remaining useful life, come into play when valuing these older machines. For example, a machine originally manufactured 20 years ago with a 10-year initial normal life may “effectively” be much younger and have a number of years of life remaining, given the refurbishment effort.

It's important to estimate normal useful life and remaining life for both newer and older vintage machinery and equipment as part of an appraiser’s overall analysis. Factoring in the market data and other cost approach factors you develop will create a well-researched and supportable valuation.