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Personal property appraisals in Illinois for donations, estate tax, divorce, and probate, prepared in accordance with USPAP and IRS requirements. AppraiseItNow appraises antiques, jewelry, fine art, collectibles, and household contents across Illinois, including Chicago, Springfield, and Rockford.
DEFENSIBLE, USPAP-COMPLIANT PERSONAL PROPERTY APPRAISAL REPORTS — QUALIFIED FOR THE IRS, ILLINOIS 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.
Personal Property Appraiser
ISA Accredited Member with 30 years in the trade, from running estate sales and an auction gallery to appraising luxury apparel, furniture, artwork, antiques, and business assets, primarily for IRS tax filings.
Machinery & Equipment Appraiser
Third-generation auctioneer and CAGA Certified Appraiser with more than 20 years valuing machinery, equipment, vehicles, business assets, and estates for banks, attorneys, and trustees across the Carolinas.
Personal Property Appraiser
ISA Accredited Member specializing in Asian art, with a Master's from SOAS and a Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art. Ashley chairs the ISA's Antiques, Furnishings, and Decorative Arts committee and appraises for charitable donation, insurance, and equitable distribution.
Client Success Manager
Manages each engagement from the first enquiry to the delivered report, and keeps you posted at every step along the way.
International Society of AppraisersAccredited Member
Certified Appraisers Guild of AmericaCertified Appraiser
The Appraisal FoundationAuthorized by Congress as the source of appraisal standardsAppraiseItNow appraises household contents, antiques, jewelry, coins, and collections in Illinois for charitable donations, estate settlement, divorce, and insurance claims. Nearly all of it is done remotely, and an appraiser comes out when the volume or the value of a collection makes that worth doing.
Charitable gifts
A gift is valued as it stood when it was handed over, from photographs, purchase records, and what comparable pieces actually sold for, with the donor's Form 8283 in view. Groups that moved together are valued together, because a fitted kitchen or a room of matched furniture rarely sells as a set of unrelated parts. Artwork is handled on our Illinois art appraisal page.
Estates and probate
Furniture, rugs, china, jewelry, and the boxes nobody opened, valued by category where the volume calls for it and piece by piece where the value sits. Volume is the real difficulty in an estate. The work lies in deciding quickly what deserves individual attention and what can honestly be grouped, then defending both choices to whoever reads the schedule.
Divorce and insurance
Where property is being divided or a claim is being argued, the report has to survive a reader looking for a reason to disagree, so each conclusion carries the sales that support it. A division and a claim usually want the same underlying evidence, so the file gets built once and the standard of value is chosen to match the use it is going to.
Three Illinois donations, a line each. Names, figures, and the room by room lists stay in the file. None of the three was a single object. Each was a household deciding what it no longer needed and wanting the deduction to hold.
Charitable donation
Cabinets, counters, appliances, vanities, and light fixtures, valued as one gift before the rooms were stripped out.
Charitable donation
A household's worth of furniture, home gym gear, and clothing, valued together for the donor's noncash deduction.
Noncash charitable gift
Sewn stage costumes handed to an arts program, valued from the garments themselves rather than from what the materials cost.
Three Illinois rules shape what a household's property is worth on paper: what the state puts on the tax roll, what it takes when the goods are sold, and what an estate filing has to carry with it.
Estate filings
Appraisals attached
what an Illinois Form 700 travels with
The Illinois estate tax is administered by the Attorney General, and the instruction fact sheet tells the estate representative to prepare and submit Illinois Form 700 together with a federal Form 706 including all schedules, appraisals, wills, trusts, and attachments. Where an estate is not federally taxable and files no Form 706, the same information may be presented in another format so long as nothing necessary is left out.
Property tax
Real property only
what Illinois puts on the tax roll
The Department of Revenue's guide to the property tax cycle is blunt about it: only real property is taxed in Illinois. Personal property is everything that is not real property, with furniture and automobiles among the examples it gives, and individuals stopped paying a personal property tax after the 1977 tax year, 1976 in Cook County. Nothing on a household's furniture, art, or jewelry is assessed anywhere in the state, which is why an estate, a donation, or a divorce starts with no public number at all.
Selling the goods
Not taxable
an isolated or occasional sale
The Department of Revenue's sales and use tax matrix lists a garage or yard sale as non taxable: generally these are isolated or occasional sales, and persons not engaged in the business of selling tangible personal property do not incur tax liability. Sell habitually and that changes, which is the line between clearing out a house and running a shop.
What Illinois clients say we are known for
Across 23 published Illinois appraisal reviews, every one from a client who paid AppraiseItNow for an appraisal, the three things they raise most often are that they would hire us again, how much research is visible in the report, and how quickly we answer.
AppraiseItNow Inc. is the best company I was lucky to find by accident. I was looking for someone to appraise cabinets for a donation to charity. I asked for multiple referrals, called multiple appraisal services, etc., and no one could help me. I found AppraiseItNow and from the moment I started working with them, they were wonderful! Joe guided me on what I needed to send him, what needed to be done and stayed in touch with me the entire time. Their customer service is OUTSTANDING and a welcome surprise in today’s world where good customer service is an anomaly! They returned an appraisal in a timely manner, it was clear, concise, cost-effective and exactly what I needed. They followed up with me multiple times to ensure that I received it and everything was OK. My CPA is also thrilled to have them as an accredited appraisal service he can use for other clients. I rarely leave reviews, but I could not pass giving them 5 stars and I’d give 10 if possible! THANK YOU JOE AND ALL AT APPRAISEITNOW!!👊🏼
Personal Property Appraisal for Charitable Donation
I used AppraiseItNow for the first time last month and I was extremely pleased with the results. I needed an appraisal done for insurance purposes and the level of detail about each of my antique furniture pieces was thorough and very helpful in my being able to get the highest amount possible from my insurance company for the antique items that were damaged. I could see that they spent time making sure that the information she included was correct and current for my antique furniture items in the current market. The team responded to my emails timely to answer any questions I had. I would highly recommend Appraise It Now to get a thorough and professional appraisal done on antique items. I do intend to use them again for other antique furniture and jewelry that I have. Job well done! 😃🤗
Antique Furniture Appraisal for Insurance Claim
It is a pleasure to work with Joe and his team. They communicate every step along the way and made the process simple for us to have more than 35 firearms appraised. It was all done in a timely manner and the final report is easy to understand. I highly recommend their services.
Gun Appraisal for Probate
I was skeptical at first, but the company exceeded all of my expectations. The team responded quickly to every question, and the service was excellent. They’re now my go to source for my collection. I’ve used them twice already, and I plan to use them several more times.
Firearms Appraisal for Personal Use
Joe made the process to have my piece of furniture appraised extremely easy, efficient and quick. My experience was great and I'd recommend AppraiseItNow to anyone looking for an appraisal.
Furniture Appraisal for Insurance Coverage
I asked AppraiseItNow to value a piece of sports memorabilia for purposes of a charitable donation. The item is rarely sold. Their research unearthed an important recent sale of a similar item, which I had not found previously, and which the first appraiser I used had not found either. AppraiseItNow was a good deal more expensive than the first service, but they crafted a detailed report in which I have much more confidence. They also helped me make sure the correct tax forms are used. Thank you!
Sports Memorabilia Appraisal for Charitable Donation
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:
No. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation licenses real estate appraisers, but there is no parallel license for personal property or antiques appraisers. Credibility instead comes from recognized methodology and professional standards, which is what courts, the IRS, and insurers actually scrutinize.
No. Listings often sit unsold, so completed auction results, which show what bidders actually paid, are the evidence appraisers rely on. For Illinois estates and donations we prioritize documented completed transactions and adjust them for differences in condition, rarity, and provenance.
Generally no. Original patina, surfaces, and period-consistent wear are key authenticity and value indicators, and aggressive cleaning or modern refinishing can materially reduce desirability and price. Have pieces appraised as found and let the report document condition honestly.
A signed qualified appraisal once the claimed value of an item or a group of similar items exceeds $5,000, with Section B of Form 8283 attached to the return. Antiques are treated as noncash property under those rules, and higher-value donations trigger additional substantiation. The appraisal has to value the pieces as of the donation date, which is why a vague fair-value letter does not survive examination.
Because authenticity, condition, rarity, provenance, and current demand drive the conclusion. Professional practice expects each of those to be addressed, supported by exact dimensions, materials, maker’s marks or signatures, production period, and any restorations noted. Those attributes decide which sales genuinely compare, and misidentification of a maker or period can move value dramatically in either direction.
