Los Angeles machinery and equipment appraisals.
Lukes & Lukes is an independent machinery and equipment appraisal firm that covers greater Los Angeles the way a lender needs it covered, without the Los Angeles price tag. We do not run a local office here, and in a market this expensive that works in your favor. Our all-in quote, travel included, frequently comes in under what a Los Angeles or Orange County appraiser would charge for the very same USPAP-compliant, defensible report.
Why bring in an out-of-market firm
LA rates are the problem. Out of market is the advantage.
Appraisal fees in greater Los Angeles sit near the top of the national scale, for the same reason everything in the basin does: the cost of doing business here is steep.
When the assets behind a loan, an estate or a dispute are parked in Vernon, Long Beach, Anaheim or out in the Inland Empire, there is no reason to pay a coastal-California rate to get a number that holds. We build the fee on Midwest overhead and quote it all in, travel included, and it routinely lands beneath a local bid for an identical report.
When the size of the job earns the flight, we come out and inspect the equipment ourselves. When it does not, we deploy a certified machinery and equipment appraiser already working the Los Angeles market to run the inspection, and we author and sign the report to USPAP. Either path gives you one standard, one report format, and a value that stands up in credit committee and under examiner scrutiny.
What Los Angeles runs on
- Aerospace and precision machining: the machine shops, tooling houses and aerospace suppliers that feed the region's aviation and defense base.
- Food and beverage processing: the packing houses, commissaries, bakeries and bottling lines concentrated in Vernon, the City of Industry and the San Fernando Valley.
- Apparel and textile production: the cut-and-sew shops, dye houses and finishing plants that still anchor the LA garment trade.
- Plastics and injection molding: the molders, extruders and packaging producers spread across the basin and Orange County.
- Logistics and material handling: the racking, conveyors and lift fleets moving freight through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and the Inland Empire warehouses.
- Automotive: dealership service departments, collision centers and fleets across the metro.
- Healthcare and imaging: the hospitals, imaging centers, surgical suites and labs serving the region's dense healthcare economy.
Garment, aerospace and the harbor
The nation's busiest port complex, and the plants behind it.
Los Angeles County is one of the largest manufacturing centers in the country by employment. Apparel manufacturing is concentrated in the county at about eight times the national rate, and the aerospace vehicles and defense cluster employed more than 57,000 people in 2022. Motion picture and sound recording runs at more than eleven times the national concentration. The Port of Los Angeles has been the busiest container port in the Western Hemisphere for 26 consecutive years, and together with the Port of Long Beach it handled about 31 percent of U.S. containerized international waterborne trade in 2025.
Each of those sectors produces its own equipment file. Aerospace machine shops run multi-axis machining centers, coordinate measuring machines and tooling whose value depends on precision, control generation and maintenance records. Garment producers run cutting tables, industrial sewing lines and finishing equipment, low in unit value and high in count. Production companies hold camera, lighting and grip packages, valued unit by unit against current secondary-market evidence. Harbor and Inland Empire warehouses add lift fleets, yard equipment and racking.
We value precision machining equipment, apparel and production equipment and material handling fleets in one report, on the fair market value, orderly liquidation value or forced liquidation value premise the assignment requires. See how CNC and metalworking equipment is valued.
How we cover Los Angeles
The basin, the coast, the Valley and the Inland Empire.
We inspect on site across the City and County of Los Angeles, down through Long Beach and the harbor, into Anaheim and the rest of Orange County, up over the San Fernando Valley, and east into the Inland Empire through Ontario, Riverside and San Bernardino.
When the calendar or the fee calls for it, a certified machinery and equipment appraiser already working the region handles the physical inspection while we prepare and sign the report. For a single asset or a well-documented equipment list, a desktop appraisal can close the file with no site visit at all.
Which value applies
The right premise for the situation.
The same equipment carries different numbers depending on why you need the appraisal. We determine and defend the premise your situation requires.
Common questions
Answers, up front.
You are not based in Los Angeles. Why is that better?
Because a Los Angeles appraisal fee carries Los Angeles overhead. We are an independent nationwide firm that prices on Midwest overhead and quotes all in, with travel included. For the same USPAP-compliant report, our number often comes in under a local Los Angeles bid.
Who inspects the equipment in the Los Angeles basin?
When a job justifies the trip, we fly in and inspect it ourselves. When it does not, we deploy a certified machinery and equipment appraiser already on the ground in greater LA to perform the inspection, and we prepare and sign the USPAP-compliant report. You get one appraiser of record and one standard either way.
Will Los Angeles lenders and the SBA accept your reports?
Yes. Reports are USPAP-compliant, prepared by a NEBB-certified Machinery & Equipment Appraiser (CMEA), and built to withstand lender, SBA, IRS, audit and legal review anywhere in the country.
Can you cover collateral outside the basin too?
Yes. The firm works nationwide. A Los Angeles lender or attorney with equipment in several states can keep one appraiser, one standard and one report format across the whole portfolio.
Do you charge separately for travel to Los Angeles?
No. One all-in fee with travel included. A Los Angeles assignment usually means several sites across the basin in a single visit, and the traffic between them is our problem. The invoice carries no mileage, airfare or per diem line.
Can you appraise aerospace machining equipment in Los Angeles?
Yes. We value multi-axis machining centers, CNC lathes, coordinate measuring machines, tooling and support equipment for aerospace and defense suppliers. Each unit is identified by make, model, serial number and control, and valued on the premise the assignment requires.
More markets
We also serve San Diego, San Francisco Bay Area and Dallas-Fort Worth, and the rest of the country from our Minnesota base. See all markets we serve.
Ready when you are