MachineryLink

Tractor Zoom has added a new price prediction feature to its online auction service. The "What's It Worth?" tool uses Tractor Zoom's large database of equipment auction data -- equipment hours, condition, age, make, model and size category -- to predict the sales prices of 40 makes and models of equipment put up for auction.

Equipment listings featuring the What's It Worth? tool display a low and high price point for a particular piece of equipment. Within that range, the Tractor Zoom tool also predicts sales prices. The tool also allows visitors to provide their feedback on what tractors or other equipment is worth by voting "lower" or "higher" than the featured predicted price. Visitors can also sign up to be notified after the auction is over to view the final sale price.

Although the auction market is highly volatile today (low-hour tractor prices, for example, are up 35% year over year), Tractor Zoom said its price prediction model is accurate to within 15% of the actual sales price. The company expects the accuracy to improve over time, aiming for about 10% plus or minus. It plans, too, to expand its prediction model to additional pieces of equipment.

Tractor Zoom, based at Urbandale, Iowa, is an online marketplace that connects farmers looking to purchase farm equipment with auctioneers and dealers with available inventory. Established in 2017, it has now partnered with more than 1,500 auctioneer and dealer locations nationwide. With Tractor Zoom, farmers browse, filter and compare dealer and auction listings side-by-side to find the equipment that best meets their needs.

"The biggest pain point for farmers when buying equipment, according to our research, is understanding what equipment is worth. This new feature will put them one-step closer to answering that question," Tractor Zoom founder and CEO Kyle McMahon said in a release.

"We get asked all the time, 'What do you think it's going to sell for?'" T.J. Masker, senior product manager for Tractor Zoom, told DTN/Progressive Farmer. "This tool is used to identify what the market's doing. You're going to start to uncover exactly where the markets are hot for certain types of equipment. We have four years of auction data, which powers this."

Masker said predicting the price has benefit for the buyer but also for the seller.

"This is a huge benefit to the seller," he said. "People are engaging at a much higher rate with this feature, which is leading to more bidders. I can show you with a high level of confidence that it's almost two times the (normal) engagement level. This is very much of a net positive for the seller. As a seller, you want more eyeballs."

For more information on Tractor Zoom or to view the What's It Worth? tool, visit www.tractorzoom.com.

Dan Miller can be reached at dan.miller@dtn.com

Follow him on Twitter @DMillerPF

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