Lake of Ozarks LCO's

[bluemoon]

Anybody out there from the Lake of Ozarks area. I have given thought to relocating to that area.
About 4 yrs ago I was in the area and there was lots of new homes being built with soon to be yards that were going to need mowed. I have a friend that has a house down there, and he says houses are still being built like crazy. However he never sees any LCO's???
Work a few hours and fish many more. Sounds like a plan???
Convincing the wife will be a different story!!
Just curious if anybody down there?
Thanks
Bluemoon

[LCSR]

Hey Blue,

I would say you invest a little time amd money in researching the area. I'm a firm believer that you can do well in this industry if you provide good service at a resonable price.


The lakes are no different than any other part of the company. You will have competition from local companies and you might have to expand your services for the lakes region.

What part of Kansas are you in? Do you currently offer a complete service?


Mike

[IBGreen]

Are there more condos than anything around the lake itself? Just curious, because my father in law is always talking about "party cove" so much it makes me want to vomit. Ever heard of that place or is it an inside deal? Never been but seen pics.

[JB1]

Was there last Monday looks like a lot of opportunity for someone, never seen so many condo's around a lake before, lots of building going on and a beautiful area.

[bluemoon]

LCSR,
I agree about good service. Was just curious. I live in southcentral ks. , 80 miles straight west of Wichita. Its a small town of about 6500. I mainly mow, some aeration and overseeding. I have a buddy whom has a fertilization and chemical business, usually send chemicals and fertilizing his way.

IB Green,
I have heard of party cove, when I lived Kansas City, it was in the newspapers all the time. My buddy who lives down there, says it is wilder than one can imagine. Yes to the condos, however there are many new big homes built down there. In fact there are alot of people just go down for weekend. But they live in a $250,000 home with all the trimmings , just for the weekend.
It was good talking to you all.
Take Care and have a good winter.
Bluemoon

[Clay]

Bluemoon,

I used to spend weekends at Lake of the Ozarks growing up and still have family in the Springfield area.... It has always been a very busy lake and known as a party place...

As with any resort there will be lots of money flowing around which should be good for business, but also increase the cost of living... Be sure to check out property values for your home as well...

A lot of resort areas make for great maintenance areas because the homes are very often used as a second vacation home so you seldom even see anyone except for a few weekends a year... That makes for a nice relaxing property to work on...

It would also be a very beautiful place to live... I would say to for sure check it out closely and "Go For It" if you feel it's right... If not you will always wonder... "What If"....

Good Luck, Clay

[mowin at the lake]

I've moved down here 6 years ago and their was only 2 lawn companys in the phone book... Now their is about 20. Only about 3-4 are insured.
Most of the condo's have a property managment company that run them and they manitain the lawn care.
You will find out if you move down here that help is VERY hard to find help. We do aprox. 150 lawns weekly and went through 12 people last year.

There is aprox 25,000 people that live here year around.
Come summer time it goes to 2,500,000 vistors.

If you do decide to move and you have a good work ethic you will do ok.

Kane

[Randy J]

Hey Kane, are you on the east side of the Lake? My Mother-in-Law lives in Laurie, on the west side. Do you cover over there also?

Randy

[mowin at the lake]

we cover from camdenton to HH
I live by Y road

aprox 3 miles from party cove

[mowin at the lake]

we cover from camdenton to HH
I live by Y road

aprox 3 miles from party cove

[Randy J]

So you stay down along the south-east side of the lake? What is there for LCO's up the west side? I think the side you're on is the more prosperous side though.

Randy

[mowin at the lake]

There are a few up by laurie. The biggest problem i have down here is service for the equipment. The jd dealer was the only gig in town till last summer. Now we have a ferris dealer,but he don't have much in stock. I was waiting 3-4 days for parts @ JD.
We ended up going to Jefferson City (1 hour drive each way)
There is a nice TORO dealer up the there,with great service..

Kane

[digger1]

been goin' to the lake for about 30 years now to my folks summer home. seen lots of changes. used to be that most of the homes in the high dollar areas had gravel yards so they were maintenance free. some of the older and less expensive homes had grass but the owners mowed these themselves cuz they couldn't afford to pay someone and besides, the lots were so small you could hand mow them in 15 minutes or so.
good help is extremely hard to find to do any type of home repair or yardwork. people down there (the "locals") do not have any work ethics and only work when they need money.
check out some of the real estate mags at the lake and target the newer built homes that are in the 300's and up. many of these newer homes are going back to grass yards. some even have built in pools - go figure when the lake is only 20 feet from the pool! prime areas to target would be anything that Four Seasons Realty is selling in their areas of the lake since most of their new construction has homes in the $300,000 to $700,000 range.
price is secondary to people building these price range "vacation" homes. lots of good opportunity in the fall and spring for leaf removal also due to the amount of trees. many new areas require that as many trees possible are left on the lots. maybe talk with some of the larger real estate companies also since new home owners usually will ask their agent about recommendations when something needs to be done.
remember, most people that have these big expensive houses go to the lake to "relax" and want no part of any type of work when they get there.
market yourself or company properly and you should do very well since word of mouth advertising will be your best friend at the lake.
good luck with your endeavors.

[bluemoon]

digger1,
You are thinking what I am thinking. My buddy says what you say about the locals, that they only work when they need some money.
I think good service, and fair price and a guy should be able to make it.
Ditto's to everything you said.
Bluemoon

[GarPA]

My fatherinlaw had a couple of homes there and we used to visit b4 he sold them(I still can't believe how big some of the boats were on that lake....he had a 28 ft cruiser and we got tossed around like a top) ....one thing he said was that it was impossible to find reliable home service people.

I might suggest you try to broaden your services beyond landscape only tasks... he was always concerned about security when he wasn't there....after a bad winter or summer storm he would drive 2 horus each way just to check on his properties....he would have gladly paid someone to "manage" his 2 properties.....keep these kind of misc home services in mind...imagine how nice it would be to be paid to ride around in the winter and just "check on" things.....again I have no experience in this kind of vacation setting ....but I do know what he wanted and could not find....

[mowin at the lake]

The average boat on the lake is 33 foot. And party cove is packed with a few thousand (boats) every weekend.
We started off down here as a cleanning company and then branched into lawn care and snow removal. Last year we open a welding company. There is a LOT of dock repair,and custom built docks. I've seen a few 3 well docks that were over $100,000.

Its super busy in the summer but come winter time it quiet, most the resturants close from nov-feb

If you want to see what party cove is about, try //home.kc.rr.com/ozarks/partycove.htm

A lot of people are getting into boat detail
$10-15 a foot to wax
$2 a foot to wash off

Kane

[digger1]

Bluemoon:
GarPa has a good point about the winter months. Just as good 'quality' help is hard to find in the summer, same goes for the winter. My father has a terrible time with the guy he has "watching" the house over the winter (checking the heat in the house, dock, de-icers, etc.). Set yourself up as someone reliable to check on homes, docks, boats, etc. over the winter months. One winter our neighbor was too cheap (a doctor nonetheless) to pay someone to watch his house. A pipe broke in his basement and ran for 3-4 weeks. Another neighbor finally noticed water coming out the walkout sliding door. Needless to say, all the drywall caved in and had "major" remodeling.
I lived at the lake one winter and it was a killer. Spent lots of time removing snow from docks, checking on de-icers and even cutting ice from around docks because the de-icers could not keep up with the cold.
I think you could actually make a pretty good living year round at the lake if you apply yourself.
Good Luck! :D