Update:
We’ve been talking to a lot of farmers lately, and 82% of them said that the biggest pain point with buying and selling equipment is determining what it’s actually worth. So we built an easy way to do that. Instead of wasting time poking around the internet looking for relevant results or wasting time with the equipment value “experts” on social media, tell us a little about the equipment you’re evaluating, and we’ll help you! Not only that, we’ll do it using real-time data, too, so you can rely on the numbers. The best part is that it’s free to use!
Learn more about TZ’s Equipment Lists here, and start one today!
It’s a good idea to look up recently sold assets that closely resemble the machine that you’re looking to value. You can do this by looking at auction results for similar machines sold. Know that this can be influenced by your location, the agriculture market, and condition of your machine. How well was the auction publicized, and how many quality bidders were present?
Don’t simply look at “tractors for sale,” but look at what they actually sold for. Asking prices can be misleading as compared to what people are actually paying for them. You can do this on sites like Ebay. It’s a good start to see what a fair price is at tractor auctions.
You can look at websites like Craigslist to get a good idea at how asking prices are varying by location, but you need to keep in mind that these are asking prices, not what they actually sold for. You can take this information and balance it out with the values you see they are selling for.
Consider how common your tractor is. If there are a lot going to sale then there isn’t as much of a unique value for a seller to pay a higher price. However, if it’s common you have more data to compare your tractor against. The number of hours and the condition of your tractor will also affect the price.
You can check your tractor’s value in a Blue Book, but it’s important that it was recently published with recent price results, as they can change drastically over time.
You can also consider getting a professional appraisal, from an individual licensed in appraising personal property and experience in valuing farm equipment.
If you believe you have a rare tractor, you can research how many were manufactured and during that time period by consulting sites like TractorData.com and collectors’ books.
By consulting the serial number, you can determine how early in the line it was produced. For example, if you have the first machine of that type ever made, it can greatly influence the price. If it was in the first year that that machine was ever made, that can make the tractor more valuable as well.
Other things to consider are what types of accessories and configurations the tractor has.