bidding an association contract

[bobbylongjohn]

I am hoping someone could help with the bidding of an association. approx. 20 acres, 175 homes, weed and feed included with mowing and trimming, as well as hedges. Looking for a per home price. What do you bid for your area?
Do you have a minimum per home or do you look at time to do the job, I am thinking two man crew 2 days does that sound about right? Spraying about $2200.00 per application?
Thanks for your help
Bobby

[Precision]

BobbyLongjohn,
This is a response to a guy looking to do a small association. Just scale it up. This is based on the Florida mowing season and all but the numbers should be like a formula. I figure out my expense then divide by the number of homes, not work out a by home then multiply. In my real world example below it was 14 acres and we had a separate crew that came in and did ornamental trimming and bed spraying 4 man crew 8 hours per 6-8 weeks (32 man hours). Good luck.

I am in Brevard and I get from $75 for a mow and blow up to $130 for trim and weeding on 1/4 acre lots.

The thing about your situation is proximity doesn't help nearly as much if you can't do them all like one lawn. When I worked for someone else, we did a community where you started at one end and made a pass between the road and sidewalk of all the houses then turned around and did a pass on the other side of the sidewalk. Continued this way until all was done. That made it much faster (no turning). If you are mowing each as a separate house, you gotta charge a lot more. It was something like 110 houses and it took 30-35 man hours per week. 5 man crew +/- 6 hours.

Bottom line is you gotta charge what you need to make a profit.

30 minutes per unit x 25 units = 750 minutes or 12.5 hours
So you are looking at a day and a half plus drive time. So call it 14 hours

14 hours x 42 weeks (average for Florida) EOW in winter = 588 hours annually

Annual hours x hourly (costs)rate you have to figure out your costs.

annual hours x your hourly rate you have to set your own worth

Add them together and you have a bid.

So lets say:
your cost of equipment (amortization)
gas, oil, blades, string,
Truck, trailer, tires, tune ups,
maintenance, billing, office supplies
say that all costs $20 per hour

Lets say you want to make $30 per hour

So now you have 588hours x $50 = $29400 per year

$29400 / 25 yards = $1176 per yard per year

$1176 / 42 mowes = $28 per cut

These numbers have nothing to do with reality. But, it shows you how I would bid the job. The thing is you have to figure out the time saved by doing them all versus doing each one at a time.

I guess this should be obvious, but edge them all, then mow them all, then trim them all. In what ever order you like. Saves lots of time. Set up a pattern to minimize walking. Figuring this out and billing accordingly is what will make you profitable.


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Precision Lawncare