11 Aug Oils Ain’t Oils

By Michael Stout

In the 80’s we had the mechanic Sol, who worked for ‘the gangster’ on our TV explaining to him that not all oils are the same and why Castrol GTX was the best oil.

The same can be said for farm depreciation reports completed by two different companies.

It is all in the detail.

When you look at the finished product (the report), there are two parts to it. The inspection component (gathering data about the infrastructure assets) and the Quantity Surveyor (QS) component (where the QS takes the collected data and applies a value to each asset for the report).

As Sol did, lets delve in to see what the difference is.

Let’s look at the inspection side first. Inspector A may already be doing a valuation on your farm, they capture the usual photos of all the main sheds and yards. Quick, easy and they can do the report cheap for you. Then there’s inspector B, not only do they take a note of the outside of the sheds, but in their report, they are breaking down the structure, the type of floor, type of lighting, how many lights and does it have 3 phase. In the shearing shed they even note the grating, wool bins, wool table etc. Inspector B is also keen to look at the different type of fencing, the pump sheds & that old hay shed out the back. In the end, inspector B has captured the whole property in detail, including the kitchen sink.

Our inspectors then hand their reports over to their QS’s. Now the QS for inspector A lives in the city, does a few farms a year and quickly puts a value on the assets and completes the report.

Inspector B, hands over his report to his QS, who’s family is off the land and as he specialises in rural depreciation reports, he does 1000’s of these a year. He has put together an extensive database of values for every type of rural infrastructure, no matter the age. Due to the detailed report that inspector B has been able to provide, QS B is comfortable to apply the maximum value to each asset that reflect the age on condition of that asset.

So what’s does this difference amount to then? In one instance last year it was worth $350,000 extra to a client. Sol was right, ‘Oils ain’t Olis’.

Please contact Michael to find out how to get the good oil.

Michael Stout

P: 0427 692 418

E: [email protected]