“I’VE BEEN appraising things my whole life,” Bob Zuskin, the recently retired jet appraiser tells CJI. “On the weekends from the time I was nine years old, I would go to my father’s pawn shop. I worked there through my adolescent years until the first year after I got out of college. Of course, being a pawnbroker is a lot different to being a corporate jet appraiser, but you still have to be able to come up with a number and substantiate it.”

One, if not the last, of a dying breed of appraisers, Zuskin retired in February after 26 years at Jet Perspectives, the aircraft appraisal company he founded back in 1999. Along the way he has valued hundreds of aircraft for some of the world’s most famous figures from CEOs to presidents and many in between (unfortunately much of which is hidden by NDAs).

Zuskin’s first foray into aviation came in 1979 when he joined DC-based brokerage firm US Aircraft Sales. Then, in 1983, he joined Boston JetSearch as vice president of market research and later went to AMR Aircraft Sales.

Through those experiences, particularly the time at Boston JetSearch – which is still in business – Zuskin says he was able to begin working on two skills that combine to form the art of substantiation. First, an understanding of how to weigh various market and technical issues and apply that to come up with a number. Second, building an encyclopedic knowledge of business aircraft – not just specs, but boots-on-the-ground operational knowledge.

With an ever-developing skillset in hand, in 1992, Zuskin joined Avitas Aviation as senior value analyst and manager of corporate aircraft consulting, and it was there he was able to begin formally conducting corporate aircraft appraisals. “There I was able to opine to numbers and most importantly besides offering a number – and I think this is what separates the good appraisers from the bad ones – develop the ability to substantiate those numbers,” he says. “Without it, you’ve got nothing.”

Zuskin has seen instances where an appraiser provides no market precedent for their value: “I’ve been in the business 45 years, you should trust my numbers”. Despite having 46 years’ experience himself, he says this is not how to do it.

“Real estate and aircraft appraisals are very similar. You have to look at what is on the marketplace, establish the asking price and more importantly what are the expectations. Often there can be a significant difference between an asking price and what the person will ultimately accept.”

A good appraiser also checks any aircraft that have recently sold in addition to those on the marketplace. Collectively those data points will shed light on the top and bottom ends of the market, and the aircraft will be somewhere on that spectrum. “That is the substantiation that I take,” says Zuskin.

But the maverick appraiser also attributes his ability for number conjuring to the great industry relationships, particularly with OEMs, he was able to form whilst at Boston JetSearch. Friendships that blossomed through his career. “People were generally willing to confide in me as to what the numbers were. I never quoted anyone verbatim, but I would use those numbers and cite them in reports.”

Although he seemed destined to be an aircraft appraiser, Zuskin did not set out on that path.

“Those who sell corporate aircraft are special kinds of people. I didn’t have the courage to step out and get paid maybe once a year. That is the world of corporate aircraft sales, you’ve got to suffer some hunger before you start producing regularly. I think salesman are born, not made. It is all about the art of the close.”

With an analytical brain and a decent ability to both write and substantiate a story, appraising became the natural choice. “Also, successful salespeople make a lot of money, but the best can never have enough. I’ve always been the guy who says: ‘If I hit the lottery for a couple million, I’m done’.

“So, I guess the bottom line of why I became an appraiser is that I love the industry, it was spectacularly interesting, I got to see the world on other people’s nickels and so getting into the business was a great way of keeping me around a bit longer.”

Zuskin credits his wife, his girlfriend in 1998, with giving him the courage to found Jet Perspectives. “She instilled in me the self-motivation that I needed. I think behind every successful man there's also a good woman and I would say that about my wife too. It was because of her that I said to hell with it and went off on my own.”