Whats better money?

[Limeade]

Commercial, or Residential lawns, now I don't mean huge ones that I need a tractor for , but a small business like a gas station, or a house?

[Runner]

If you're talking small areas. it is generally my experience that residentials are better. They don't have people coming in all day everyday saying they'll cut it for $1.39.
Also, the homeowners generally care a little more about their place, so they are wiling to pay a bit more.

[bigjeeping]

Commercial, or Residential lawns, now I don't mean huge ones that I need a tractor for , but a small business like a gas station, or a house?

I don't mow any commerical, but doing just residential I never make less than $60/hour (worst case senerio)

Usually I'm at 80-90/hour

[AL Inc]

I started as a residential maintenance business, and at one point about 6 years ago, tried to go the commercial route, advertised heavily. It didn't work out for me, the competition was unreal and the prices ridiculously low. As Runner said, homeowners are more quality oriented, while commercial is all based on price. Now, I have a handful of small commercial properties, which are all owned by my residential clients, and that's it.

[djlawn]

I don't know about 15% of my business is commercial. The residential customers are more loyal overall. However I have some commercial customers that I have had for 5-7 years and they don't even question anything I charge. Do a quality job, and they will pay for it. However a big company like Verizon, Walmart, etc, they are all about the $. Low bid will get it in that situation ( no loyalty). Also they have these ridiculous contracts. I won't do the really big commercial places. My commercial stuff is all 12 acres or less (no big corporations).

[arborist-28]

I think it really depends on the alot of variable really... for me commercial business has always been good business and has generated residential work .. c

[Andersonlawnscape]

If you are looking for some big commercial work, some of the more up scaled neghiborhoods will pay a little more and not just go with the low bid. Whats nice about that is they usually want the whole package. And alot of them will pay it. Just drive around and try to find some nice neghiborhoods that have alot of common ground.

[Kelly's Landscaping]

Ummm I have 160 residential and only 5 commercial they are not as easy to get they typically do not pay as well and some of them have insane requirements for you to make sure you never make a dime off them and they can sue you but not the other way around. The commercials I have are owner operators no tenants and no and I mean never will they be management companies. What I do like about the few I do have is they allow me to cut late and I mean late like after 8 pm so my days can be very productive the other sweet feature is you can hit them early I will not start a mower on a home owners lawn before 8:30 I will not think twice about starting one on commercial as early as 6 am if I was inclined to ever wake up 2 hours earlier. I have bid on more then 30 commercials this year I have 5 most are just money losers in my area.

[DLS1]

I don't mow any commerical, but doing just residential I never make less than $60/hour (worst case senerio)

Usually I'm at 80-90/hour

Wow that is good for a 19 year old or for any age. How do you do it?

I thought only BobbyGedd got this much per hour.

[ArizPestWeed]

I hated res. work .
They bothered me to often .
The commercial jobs , they kept to themselves , it was non personal .
Doing homes ,
" hey , can you please pick up these few leaves or do that or this ."

Geeeez , that gets old .

Commercial , no problem

[GarPA]

You will hear both points of view here...and both are valid. For me, I'll take small to medium sized commercial hands down. Unless you have a real tight relationship with the property mgr on LARGE commercial, keeping them can be a problem particulary if you are bidding it every year. I wont even bid large commercial. Too many manhours to committ to only to lose it next year and have to fill that large gap in the schedule.

.........+'s of small/med commercial:
..can be serviced when it fits YOUR schedule
..YOU can control how much fert is used(no TruBurn N to fight with)
..mine let me do whatever is needed with no need for long winded conversations about a $50 add on task that needs done
..no 15 minute converstaions about this and that every time you show up with granny or her geezerhusbandwithtoomuchtimeonhishandswhoHATESYOUyoubecausehecant mowhisowngrassanymore'causehehasonefootinthegrave
..the personal relationship with a commercial property owner can be every bit as strong as with a homeowner and we usually get the owners residence when we get the commercial account
..they understand the need to raise prices as they know what it costs to run a business..rarely have mine whined about a fee increase

..........-'s
..in my experience, banks, builders,gas stations and realators, dont make the best commerical clients...the word "cheap" applies in general to these
..dealing with a "property mgr" does not make for as soild a relationship as dealing with the owner of the property. Property mgrs are always trying to look good to their boss by staying under budget for a given year
..most of our commerical properties do not need fall cleanup work so because we are 70/30 commercial, we have to seek out one time customers for fall cleanups. Most residentials need at least some leaf work

Personally, I think a mix of both res/comm is the way to go..just my opinion from my experiences. In general I find that there is too much hand-holding with residential given the relatively small weekly service call fee.

[bigjeeping]

Wow that is good for a 19 year old or for any age. How do you do it?

I thought only BobbyGedd got this much per hour.


Here's the link to my post explaining my business.. alot of people think it's BS that a 19yr old got 60 accounts his first year of mowing... but feel free to swing by ann arbor and I show you my game!

http://www.lawnsite.com/showthread.php?t=115371

[DLS1]

geezerhusbandwithtoomuchtimeonhishandswhoHATESYOUyoubecausehecant mowhisowngrassanymore'causehehasonefootinthegrave


Good spelling bee word but i can't find it in my Websters. :D

[GarPA]

Good spelling bee word but i can't find it in my Websters. :D

I did get a little carried away with that one!!....but I kept seeing the vision of a geezer pointing to 3 strands of grass that the mower missed... :dizzy:

[Lost Pine]

Ummm I have 160 residential and only 5 commercial they are not as easy to get they typically do not pay as well and some of them have insane requirements for you to make sure you never make a dime off them and they can sue you but not the other way around. The commercials I have are owner operators no tenants and no and I mean never will they be management companies. What I do like about the few I do have is they allow me to cut late and I mean late like after 8 pm so my days can be very productive the other sweet feature is you can hit them early I will not start a mower on a home owners lawn before 8:30 I will not think twice about starting one on commercial as early as 6 am if I was inclined to ever wake up 2 hours earlier. I have bid on more then 30 commercials this year I have 5 most are just money losers in my area.

Hey Kelly's if I may ask.....How many years did it take you to get 160 residentials ..?? Just curious ..........

[Kelly's Landscaping]

Hey Kelly's if I may ask.....How many years did it take you to get 160 residentials ..?? Just curious ..........

Started on my own May 2003 I plan on hitting 225 accounts next year which will be year 4

[Joe721]

bigjeeping you said in your thread you make $23.45 per hour.