The standards essay is machinery and equipment appraisals: OLV, FMV, and FLV. Asset value versus earnings value is the floor test. Analyzing the machine list is the buyer extract. This URL is the teaching estimator.
What do the three standards actually mean?
Orderly liquidation value (OLV). The appraiser’s opinion of what the iron would bring in an orderly sale over a reasonable marketing period. Practice talk often uses about 6–12 months. Confirm the written definition in the report. Lenders often want this premise because they have to sell the machines if the note fails.
Fair market value in continued use (FMV). Value assuming the assets remain in place as part of a going concern. Software seats, probing cycles, and pallet pools affect this number more than they affect an auction flyer. A control upgrade that exists only as a quote is not installed.
Forced liquidation value (FLV). Auction or distressed sale on a short clock. The wrong instrument on a healthy shop — unless the shop is not healthy. Paying for FMV in continued use on a shutdown clock is wasted money.
This estimator’s only arithmetic is a comparison you already own: if you have an appraiser’s OLV total and a clean net-working-capital figure, compare that sum to earnings value from the size-band cell. If the floor wins, stop arguing a turn. The spec will not supply machine prices to complete that sentence.
What staging checklist replaces a fake price list?
| Input the spec accepts | Why it exists | What this page will not do |
|---|---|---|
| Premise requested (OLV / FMV in use / FLV) | Engagement letter must name it | Guess the premise from “appraise the machines” |
| Intended user (lender / buyer / seller) | Wrong user → rewritten report | Sign as the appraiser |
| In-use versus removed | Installation and software change FMV | Invent a removal cost |
| Effective date | Stale reports get discounted | Refresh an 18-month-old PDF |
| Serial-level list complete? | Walk against insurance schedules wastes the day | Fill serials from a brochure |
| Leased / customer-owned marked out? | Landlord cranes and bailment are not yours | Add them to a total |
| Spares marked? | Spare cells are not production | Price a spare from a blog |
| User-entered appraisal totals (optional) | Floor test only if a report exists | Invent the totals |
CNC equipment values and useful life is practice color. Useful life in a CIM should match the appraisal, not MACRS and not a blog. How equipment age and capex affect value is the earnings-side sibling.
How does the floor meet the earnings cell?
Manufacturing business valuation still wants the size band first. Main Street manufacturing in BizBuySell’s 2021–2025 set cleared at 2.75x median SDE on about $268k of earnings (Source: BizBuySell / Iconic). On that room, an honest OLV can already exceed the earnings story — common on old-equipment job shops. Stanford’s 2024–25 search median of about $16 million at ~6.2x EBITDA on a ~25% margin company is not a job-shop print and not an M&E quote (Source: Stanford GSB).
SBA 7(a) still caps at $5 million with a 10% injection (Source: SBA). Lenders who need a liquidation number cannot use a continued-use number. Going-concern buyers who need remaining life cannot use a forced-sale number written for a sheriff. Write the premise before the walk.
Form 8594 on an applicable asset deal will still need a CPA to park Class V personal property (Source: IRS). The appraisal premise and the allocation story should not contradict each other. This page will not pick your Class V dollars.
What environmental and calendar facts sit next to the iron?
Pits, sumps, and paint lines sit on the property stack as well as the iron stack. Do not ask the M&E appraiser to waive a Phase I. All Appropriate Inquiries / ASTM remains the environmental start when history is wet (Source: EPA). Do not ask the Phase I author to value a press.
BizBuySell’s 2025 manufacturing median close ran 223 days (Source: BizBuySell). A report dated eighteen months ago will be discounted on that calendar. Budget the update. Desktop opinions, walk-through opinions, and auction flyers are not interchangeable. Ask which one you are buying.
ISM’s August 2026 PMI of 54.6 and Fed utilization of 76.0% in July 2026 are climate (Source: ISM; Fed G.17). They do not set a VMC price.
Census CBP 2023 counted 284,452 plants, 68.4% under 20 employees (Source: Census CBP). Most of those files have enough iron that the floor test is worth commissioning — and not enough process to justify inventing asking prices on a website.
Appraisal versus broker opinion remains the boundary. Jason Taken can help stage the list. He will not write the number.
A USPAP report names the premise. This estimator names the vocabulary. If a lender asked for orderly liquidation, do not hand them a continued-use brochure and call it close enough.
Educational information only. Not an appraisal. No machine prices are published here. The conversion path is a confidential intro call.