Funny Story

Last week I got a call to give a bid on a 38 lot trailer park. I went and looked at it and gave a bid for $1000 a cut,( $25 a lot) twice a month or every 10 days. I called him back today, and he said he already told the guy to go ahead and cut it, this guy is cutting it for $380 per cut ($10 a lot). The manager , the one I talked to said " I wouldn't cut it for less than $500" so I told him he got a really good deal,and said if it didnt work out to call me back. When I hung up I laughed for the longest, he won't last long. I cant believe these people killing themselves for next to nothing.

 

Wow...haha i guess some people have a lot of free time on their hands...and energy

 

Actually if it was a "normal size" trailer park lot(s) then the guy that got it was probably way closer to being right at $10 a lot then you were at $25 a lot as trailer lots are small in size and can be cut in minutes with a Z cause there are no to few things to get in the way of cutting and none to little trimming involved. Now I don';t do any MHP's and never would, heck I don';t even think we have any around here. BUT I have seen and been through thousands in my day and they are all basically the same.

 

How long to cut each lot and can you do it with a Z? That's the way I'd figure it.

 

Tornado magnets, you can make more cleaning up than you can mowing them

 

They are pretty simple in and out with 2 z's, most ppl have only small gardens round home and I just edge and occasionally use the line trimmer, we used to service 4 manufactured home complex's but have dropped them to make time for restaurants, they take a lot of attention.

 

Sounds like you were both wrong. You may have missed an opportunity by missing the mark or maybe they were only looking for the lowest price to begin with. It would be a good deal if you could have gotten it since you are getting 38 props at one stop and you only have to collect from one person. I've mowed many mobile home lots and still do some. The average sized lot is 10-15 minutes of mowing and 3-7 minutes of trimming.

If you were responsible for mowing and trimming each lot 494-836 minutes (8-13 hours) solo with a 36" mower. If you could squeez a bigger mower in there and/or get a helper you could get it done much quicker, more profitably.

If you wanted to gross $1 per minute, consider a median of $665 for a reasonable bid. I would be willing to shave that down some just for the convenience of taking in a decent chunk of cash for one stop/one day of work. The other guy at $380 is not going to get rich off of this, but he isn't going to lose money either.

You can just blow this out of the water if the lots are bigger than what I'm describing.

 

Trailer parks can be a big pain in the rear. A lot of them up have landscaping and decks and all kinds of crap in a small area. You have to mulch them or bag , theres no way you can side discharge. Line trimming around the skirts is time consuming , its very easy to damage. You have to take this all in to the price. No way would I do it for 10.00 a lot. I charge a minimal for trailer lots of 20.00 + sales normal my minimal is 35.00

 

Side discharging is very doable, but you're right about the siding, and for the size of the lots, alot of them do have too many obstacles. A twenty dollar minimum would be reasonable if you had to deal with each home owner individually and you only had a few per stop, but for this example, 38 properties in one stop, only dealing with one person I'd go slightly lower than $20. At $17.50 per lot $665 total, I'd average slightly more than $1 per minute after factoring that the average lot would take 17 minutes. Some will take 11 minutes and some may take 20+ minutes but it would average out. Maybe it could be worked into the agreement that each property is only allowed 5 obstacle in the mowing surface (ex. 1house, 1shed, 1tree, 1clotheline, 1ornament or 1house, 1shed, 3trees) or 190 obstacles for the whole park. For each one over 190 add $1-2 for the decrease in efficiency and extra trimming.

 

What about all the broken down cars on block you have to trim around. Or the bicycles in the grass...Toys....Dog crap.....etc.

In my experience, people renting lots at trailer parks are not trying to keep their yards immaculate, or neat for that matter. I would think there would be much more prep time (picking up stuff) than you bargain for.