A desktop valuation on a used excavator costs around £250 and takes the better part of a day. The lender sends a questionnaire, the borrower digs out paperwork and snaps a few photos, a valuer reviews it against whatever curves they have, and a number comes back. By then the deal has cooled.
We kept asking a simple question: what actually needs to happen in those 24 hours, and how much of it is waiting rather than working?
An underwriter doesn’t want an inspection report. They want a number they can lend against — and ideally three of them: what the machine fetches retail, what it’s most likely worth, and what it returns in a forced sale. Inspection apps stop at the photo. The valuation is the part that matters.
The borrower or dealer photographs the machine and serial plate. The model does the rest — before anyone leaves the yard.
Guided capture walks the user through the shots that matter: serial plate, left front, right back, the hour meter. Vision models read the make, model and year, pull the serial off the plate and the hours off the meter, and grade condition from wear, glass, tyres and undercarriage. That grade adjusts the value against live auction and retail comparables.
Speed is worthless to a lender if the number won’t hold up. Every figure links back to the comparables and condition evidence behind it, with a confidence score that tells you when to trust it and when to send it for review. The whole thing drops into the credit file as an auditable record.
That’s the difference between a clever demo and something an underwriter will actually put their name against.
If you run a book of used equipment and want to see it work on your own machines, book a demo — bring three assets and we’ll value them live.
See ExactVal produce a three-tier valuation on your own assets, comparables and all.