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Boat appraisals in Kentucky for donations, insurance, estate tax, and divorce, prepared in accordance with USPAP and IRS requirements. AppraiseItNow appraises pontoon boats, bass boats, sailboats, personal watercraft, and houseboats across Kentucky, including Louisville, Lexington, and Bowling Green.
DEFENSIBLE, USPAP-COMPLIANT BOAT APPRAISAL REPORTS — QUALIFIED FOR THE IRS, KENTUCKY COURTS, LENDERS, INSURERS, AND MORE.
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Owner & CEO
Joe founded AppraiseItNow to make a certified, USPAP-compliant appraisal as simple to order as anything else online. A former Bain & Company strategy consultant, Joe leads the entire team and specializes in strategy, growth, and the firm's tech capabilities.
Vehicle Appraiser
CAGA Certified Appraiser since 2014, covering vehicles, boats, equipment, fine art, and collectibles. A classic-car restoration background informs her vehicle work, with reports prepared for insurance, divorce, and charitable contributions.
Client Success Manager
Manages each engagement from the first enquiry to the delivered report, and keeps you posted at every step along the way.
Certified Appraisers Guild of AmericaCertified Appraiser
The Appraisal FoundationAuthorized by Congress as the source of appraisal standardsAppraiseItNow appraises boats in Kentucky for estate and inheritance tax filings, insurance claims and coverage disputes, divorce, charitable gifts, and lender files. The figure comes from closed sales of comparable hulls rather than from asking prices, and the report names the sales behind it. Fresh water is the first thing that gets looked at here. A hull that has spent its life on Cumberland, Kentucky Lake or Barkley carries none of the salt damage a coastal boat of the same age would, and the resale market pays for that difference.
Houseboats
Hull and power are only part of it. Generators, air conditioning, the roof, the condition of the interior and whether a slip comes with the sale all move the figure, and the comparables have to match on those points too.
Bass boats and runabouts
A repowered rig with records behind it can outrun a newer boat with a tired engine. Hours, service history, electronics and the trailer underneath are priced in, because that is how buyers price them.
Sailboats and cruisers
On a cruising boat the survey items are the value items: rig age, sail inventory, blistering, soft decking and what the bilge shows. Where those are unknown, the report says so instead of assuming the best case.
Each of them is asking a different question of the same hull. An executor needs the value on a day that has already passed. An insured needs what the boat was worth immediately before the damage. A seller or a secured lender needs what a sale would realistically bring now. All three figures can be supportable at once, and the report states which question it answers before it reports anything.
Estates and inheritance
Boat values move with the season in this state, so a sale months after a death is evidence rather than an answer. The report is dated to the day the estate actually has to report.
Claims and lender files
A claim looks backward to the condition the boat was in before the damage. A secured lender looks forward to what a disposition would realize. Both are defensible; they are simply not the same number.
Three Kentucky statutes decide who values a boat and what happens when nobody pays for its upkeep. One of them sits in the inheritance tax chapter. The other two sit in the lien chapter, and both of those end at a sale.
Estates
Court appointed
is how the appraiser of a Kentucky estate is named once anyone with an interest asks for one
KRS 140.170 puts the appointment in the District Court's hands. On the request of the personal representative or any interested party the court "shall appoint some competent person as appraiser of the estate," and that appraiser gives notice to everyone with an interest before valuing the property. The report is filed with the court, a copy goes to the Department of Revenue, and the statute allows the department to change the value for inheritance tax purposes after its own investigation. The fee comes out of the estate on the court's certification, and the appraiser may take nothing from the representative, an heir, or anyone else liable for the tax. A boat is ordinary estate property for this purpose, and it is often the item on the inventory whose value is least obvious to everyone involved.
Repair liens
30 days
of unpaid repair charges is all it takes before a Kentucky boat can be advertised for sale
KRS 376.280 lets a boat "remaining in the possession of a person who has made repairs, performed labor or furnished accessories or supplies" be sold for those charges once they have been owing for more than thirty days. The sale is advertised under KRS Chapter 424, and notice goes by certified or registered mail to the owner and to anyone else known to hold an interest in the boat, at least ten days before it is held. The section carries its own definition of a boat: any watercraft not enumerated in KRS 376.360(1), together with sloops forty feet or less in overall length. What the hull is genuinely worth is what decides whether a sale like that clears the bill or leaves a balance behind it.
Marina liens
A court order
is what it takes to move a boat out of a Kentucky marina once the lien notice has gone out
KRS 376.272 lets a marina holding a possessory lien enforce it by civil action in the county where the boat is located, after certified mail notice to every known owner and to secured parties "discernible through reasonable effort," which reaches a lienholder noted on the certificate of title, one perfected by financing statement, and the mortgagee of a federally documented vessel. The notice runs once a week for two consecutive weeks as well, it has to describe the make, model, length and hull identification number of the boat and any outboard hanging on it, and once it has gone out the owner "may not remove the boat from the marina without a court order." On judgment the court orders a sale, the buyer takes title free of liens, and the liens follow the proceeds in the order they held before.
What clients say we are known for
Across 100+ published AppraiseItNow reviews the picture is consistent: every one is from a client who paid us for an appraisal, and the three things they raise most often are that they would hire us again, how quickly we answer, and how much research is visible in the report.
I needed an appraisal for Probate Court so I could get the boat and motor title in my name. The AppraiseItNow team was great: quick turnaround, outstanding service. I would definitely use them again.
Boat Appraisal for Probate
I love the online appraisal format to give me a good idea of what my boat is worth without showing the boat. The appraisal fee is more than reasonable, and I love your professional service!
Boat Appraisal for Charitable Donation
We recently used AppraiseItNow for one of our clients and couldn’t be happier with the experience. The customer service was excellent, and Joe was quick to respond to all of our questions. He provided everything we needed promptly and made the process smooth from start to finish. Thank you!
Boat Appraisal for Insurance Coverage
AppraiseItNow delivered a fair, well-supported appraisal that met all required standards. Their team was professional, responsive, and fast throughout the process. I would gladly use them again.
Boat Appraisal for Charitable Donation
AppraiseItNow helped us appraise a very unique set of propulsion boats. Service was top notch and provided incredible value for the cost!
Boat Appraisal for Loan Collateral
AppraiseItNow was excellent to work with. They delivered exactly what I needed and were incredibly responsive throughout the process. I’d definitely recommend them!
Boat Appraisal for Insurance Claim
Given the USPAP-compliant nature of AppraiseItNow’s appraisal reports, we prepare our deliverables for major legal, tax, and financial reporting purposes for individual and commercial clients.
Popular uses of our appraisal reports include:
Documented recent sales of vessels with similar make, model, year, condition, equipment, and engine hours, drawn from broker databases, auction records, and sold-boat data rather than asking prices. Each comparable is adjusted for differences in propulsion, upgrades, and condition before values are reconciled.
No. Kentucky's assessment guidance excludes registered boats, along with registered motor vehicles, from the annual tangible personal property return, since they are handled through separate titling and registration systems. Boat appraisals in Kentucky typically serve insurance, estate, divorce, and sale purposes instead.
No. Commercial and charter vessels support an income approach, where expected revenue, operating expenses, and a capitalization rate drive present value, while recreational boats are valued through comparable sales. The assignment determines the method, and the report documents which was applied and why.
The county where the boat is physically located, not the county where the owner lives. Kentucky ties taxable situs for tangible personal property to physical location, so a vessel kept year-round at a marina or storage yard belongs to that county’s tax base rather than the owner’s home county.
Yes. Under 103 KAR 28:090, a secured party’s sale of a repossessed boat to enforce a security agreement is treated as a taxable sale of tangible personal property unless a specific exemption applies. Because Kentucky’s UCC Article 9 in KRS Chapter 355 also requires a commercially reasonable disposition, lenders in these sales typically want a documented fair value on file.
