Yes or no????

[Jon99]

First off, I am a new guy with 2 yards...

Today I had a guy approach me and offered to sell me his three accounts for $1500.. The first account is an auto body shop with a one acre yard (he charges $50), the second account is another business next door (same size lot) to the body shop and the guys house ($90)


The third account is a construction company, mowing their models and newly built homes that are for sale plus their lots (normally 5-10).. Right now he is mowing 12 yards weekly at $28 a yard plus 6 lots once a month for $25 per... I have seen 4 of the houses, all easy 30 minute yards with little trimming..

I told him that I was not interested in paying $1500 up front, but would consider paying him 20% of all revenue from those three accounts with a max payment from me of $1500...

Opinions???

[dforbes]

your offer seems more than fair to me. I would not pay the $1500 up front either. how did he react to your offer?
Dennis

[awm]

i think u offerd him a good deal for him an u. realestate companies are notorious
for not putting any more money into a house than they just have to. all of the maintenance money is subtracted from
their profit. i assume developers would be the same.good luck.

[Cut 2 Please]

That sounds like the most resonable idea of buying out another LCO that I have heard. Makes a lot of sense to me.

[Jon99]

He sounded very interested on the phone, just a little nervous about making sure I paid him the correct amount... I am sure we will write up a little contract and I need to be very upfront and assure him that I am not out to screw him....

[dforbes]

Make sure you put a no compete in the contract. Good luck with your venture. It sounds good
Dennis

[Bob Minney]

Sounds like a fair deal to me-show him copies of the statements.
Plus I would only pay him after money is collected for work, not on what is billed.

[Floridalandcare]

I think you made the right choice , theres not guarentee the customers will keep you.

[TurfGuyTX]

Be prepared for those commercial accounts to require insurance. I've done alot of work for homebuilders. The money and work can be good, or some are hard to get paid from. Lots of paper work too. BTW, I thought your offer is fair. What is his reason for selling? Good luck.

[Brickman]

Every thing mentioned here is a good idea. I would find out WHY he is selling. Make him sign a non compete agreement. I didnt' when I just sold me biz, but the guy that bought my biz is a friend, we have known each other for a long time.

Also look into insurance.

I think that $1500 is a good price, providing the customers stay with YOU.
Advertizing to get that amount of work is costly.

Make sure that the real estate and developers pay on time, not when ever they get around to it. They can pay in their own sweet time, and trust me YOU are not the highest priority.

[LAWNGODFATHER]

http://www.lawnsite.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33405

Read this thread I posted in.

[GarPA]

I have only limited experience in working with realators and developers....but the few I have worked with have not been a great experience....if you think Homeowners dont highly regard our services just wait til you work for these guys.
They look at grass as a complete PITA....therefore they may not give a hoot about you or your biz...as mentioned above, there is no guarantee they will keep you...so like others said, pay the seller a slice of each pymt you receive...if they drop you, they would have likley dropped the seller too...therefore you dont owe him a dime..be careful

[Jon99]

The guy is selling out because this is a side job for him and he is tired of working 50 hours a week and then working 12 hours a day on one of his days off.......We are supposed to meet tommorrow and he is going to drive me around, show me each of the properties and then introduce me to the three people that own each of the business..

[Brickman]

I can assure you that not all realators are rude. There are a few in Cheyenne that will treat a LCO with respect. After all this isn't that big of a town. Only about 50,000 people.
There was one, # 1 Properties, the owners of that biz were great to work for. Most of their agents were great to work for. Altho the only person that wrote me a bad check, and that I had to take to a collection agency works there.

[MJStrain]

The only extra thought I have that no one has mentioned is there needs to be a stipulation in your contract with this guy that he cannot approach these customers and for the lack of a better term steal them back. This should cover at least five years.

[Brickman]

MJ that is called a non compete agreement.

[Sean Adams]

Breaking down clients for sale one at a time to see if they are profitable is a sound way to approach this. What he charges may not be what you would need to charge. Ask how long it takes him, how many people help him (I know he is solo, but you never know), what exactly he does....Mow and leave or is he particular and detailed as he performs the service.