New to Mowing

[Noreast Landscape]

Hey guys, I am a medium sized landscape construction/excavation company in N.H. We have been doing mainly hardscape over the last 8 years.
Last fall I had the opportunity to bid n the maintenence for a 145 unit condo complex. Now being from the older school, I was hesitant on bidding it due to not stepping on the mow guys toes. My wife talked me into it, mainly to the economy here.Plus the hardscaping around here is being lowballed to the hilt and we are notgetting the jobs we used to do to the low prices. So I bid on this condo(the previous guy did it for 52k we bid it at 75k and got it for 2 years). So now for he question I have this contract and no equipment !! I get the first check for 17k on the first, Im not sure which way to go, do I buy new or used and do i buy walk behinds or ztr's,there's a mix between small and medium areas , Any suggestions would be very helpful!!!!

[CALandscapes]

Personally, I like to go with new equipment (for the warranty, dealer support, etc.)

Sounds to me like you might want to go a mixture of mowers; perhaps several ZTRs and several commercial 21's.

[ALarsh]

You were able to land the contract for $23k more than what it was going for last year with no experience?

[TheOctagon]

I'd personally get myself a couple walkers or badboys w/ 42" to 60" decks depending. If you plan on bagging i would definately go w/ the walker they have an amazing cut! They do cost more so thats why i added in Badboy too for their low prices for such a heavy duty mower plus they cut pretty nice too. Get a couple commercial grade push mowers and a couple trimmers and u will be set. I wouldnt mess around w/ used either. New w/ the warrenty is well worth the extra money.

[M&MLawn]

Wow impressive bid to land! Congrats. For this size I would go with new equipment and probably a 36, 48, and 60" Im a big fan of Exmark personally but to each his own. Head over to MB Tractor they have some sweet stuff. If you decide to subcontract at all let me know...I am on the Seacoast for about some of my accounts.

[grassmanvt]

If I were you I'd buy a bunch of my stuff so I can go buy new stuff. Ha, Ha. If you do want to look at my stuff I'll let you know when we get rid of more of this white crap, still a couple feet here.

[Noreast Landscape]

Yes, I landed it, I couln't believe it, I am a pretty good sales man. We really impressed the board at our sales meeting. Good luck i guess, we had a absolute terrible fall so this kinda took he bad tast out of our mouths.

[Noreast Landscape]

Thanks MandM we beat out CK also, i know who you are, see you in Hampton all the time I went to Granz in salem to look and got quotes on xmarks.

[grassyguy]

Explain how you are getting a 17thou. check for the first month. 75 thou/12 does not equal 17.

[grassyguy]

I tried out a new bad boy today and loved it . The maintenance features are awesome. It had a 26 lc Kawasaki. Many features, heavy duty and a great price.