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HeavyWorth offers a variety of solutions to streamline the equipment appraisal process. These solutions are frequently provided in various combinations but all essentially fit into two buckets — software and services. Our software and mobile apps make it easy to capture information and organize it into reports to present to clients or for archival purposes. Our services are an efficient way to assign trusted values to equipment. Some of our clients employ a mixture of both our software and our services, while some only use one or the other.

I've mentioned before that I operate a small farm when I'm not working for HeavyWorth. I recently installed a new electronic fertilizer flow monitoring system on an old planter. The value of this new fertilizer system is equal to a substantial percentage of what I recently paid for the old planter. I have no real need to assign a value to this planter any time soon, but I started thinking about how the value of an asset can be changed in ways that aren't related to specs, usage or age.

At HeavyWorth, we work with a lot of evaluators. In conversations both with the users of our software  platform as well as our own evaluators one thing is clear — they all require a minimum amount of information to assign a value to a piece of equipment.

When valuing used construction equipment, ag equipment or fleet assets for trade-in, estate planning, financial or other reasons, it's crucial that the appraisal is for the actual asset and not a hypothetical asset that has a matching set of specs and usage. 

The HeavyWorth platform streamlines the valuation process, making it easier to assign accurate values to used equipment by organizing all the information in one place. We've examined how HeavyWorth saves time and improves accuracy for dealerships when they first value possible trade-ins, but today let's see how HeavyWorth's ability to catalog and store information can help with subsequent valuations of the same equipment for not only dealerships but other industries.

A good equipment evaluator will consider all aspects of an asset when establishing a value, including how clean it is and how well it's been cared for. A little work ahead of time can make a big difference in getting the best valuation for used equipment. Listen to Bill Albaugh's thoughts on whether or not equipment should be prepared by the owner before an evaluation is performed.

Prospective buyers of used heavy equipment frequently arm themselves with as much data as they can find before starting a discussion about price with a salesperson. They find other public listings both to try to decide for themselves what an asset is worth as well as to use to try to convince a salesperson to reduce the asking price. We asked Bill Albaugh how frequently dealers actually sell the equipment on their lots for the retail prices they listed.

Modern equipment is more than iron and hydraulics and wear points and wires. Precision equipment is frequently integrated at the factory as well as added on or upgraded to make equipment that's already in the field or on the site more useful. We asked Bill Albaugh about how modern technology impacts trade-in values for used equipment.

For professional evaluators reviewing common assets, assigning values can often be straightforward and even routine. However, even the most experienced evaluators can be faced with putting values on equipment that's specialized or not commonly used in the dealership's footprint. We asked Bill Albaugh how he handles highly specialized or uncommon equipment.

Values derived from specifications and data alone are easy to generate. However, any good evaluator knows how much an accurate valuation depends on an asset's condition — which can't tell from just the year, make and model. We asked Bill Albaugh if pictures are necessary when performing an accurate equipment valuation.