I toyed with the idea of getting a lawn service when I bought my house last year. The lady I bought it from had one of those big zero-turn mowers that she offered to sell me. She mentioned that she just put several thousand $ into it...but then I found out it was about 30 years old. I've never paid more than $1500 or so for a riding lawn mower, so I figured that something that old, that could run up that much in repairs, was just a bankruptcy waiting to happen! So, I passed.
On the day I settled on the house and started moving in, a guy from a lawn service stopped off, and dropped off a section a hose that he said one of his guys ran over, so he repaired it for her. I was a bit confused at first, and said, but she always cut her own grass? But, since she was selling the house, and wanted to downsize, perhaps she sold her mower? No, the guy said that it broke down on her! So, she paid him, $1200 for six mows. Or, $200 per cut.
Now, this property is 6.5 acres. Parts of it are wooded, and then once you account for the house, outbuildings, pool, driveway, etc, the mowable area is considerably less...but probably still about 4 acres. He said it took about 2 hours for his crew to come in and cut it all. He also said that, if I got on a contract plan with him, he'd do it for $150 per cut.
It was late in the season last year, so I said I'd think about it, and kept his business card. My uncle brought our tractor from the old house over, and cut it for me for its one last time of the year. He did it over the course of two days, and he said it took about 4 hours per day. So, 8 hours, total. Suddenly, that $150 per cut started looking pretty good!
But, my uncle is retired, and has nothing BUT time, so he's offered to do it for me. And, earlier in the year, my Mom gave me her old tractor, so now we have two of them, and hers is a little bit bigger than the one we have. Also, my uncle tends to cut "low and slow". I tend to go faster, but keep the mower deck up higher, so I'm less likely to kill any critters that sometimes try to hide in the grass, or can't get away quickly enough. I can cut the whole yard in 4-5 hours, depending on how high we let the grass cut. So, suddenly, that doesn't seem *too* bad.
Still, $150 per mow, considering the size of the yard, seems pretty reasonable. However, I'm sure they'd be out every week, so they could knock it out fast. I think we might have cut the grass perhaps six times total this past year. First time was in April, and I think the last was in mid/late August. This was a fairly dry summer. Even though it's pushing mid-November, it probably could use one last cut, but at this point it's no big deal. Anyway, I guess one way of looking at it is $150 x the six times we cut it = $900 in savings. But I'm sure the lawn crew would have been out an average of once a week for 6 months. So, $150 x 26 = $3900! Even if the dry season threw them off and they only came out 20 times, that's still $3000.
Eventually, my uncle will get too old to be able to do it. He's 67, but not in the best health. And even now, he has trouble driving the bigger tractor that my Mom gave us. It's heavier, the steering requires a bit more muscle, and it hits the bumps harder than the one we already had.
Once I'm retired, I'll have nothing BUT time, so I'll probably do it. But, who knows; I might change my mind. The old house is on about 4 1/4 acres, but mostly woods. It would only take 1-2 hours to cut the whole thing, depending on how out of hand I let the grass get. That didn't seem so bad. I'd knock it out right after work, and still have plenty of time left in the evening. But riding around out there at the new house, and after an hour or so looking around, and seeing just how much still needs to be done, can get a bit depressing.
So, at this point I'm on the fence about paying for a lawn service. I won't do it now, because I'm still in savings mode, and trying to sock away as much as possible. But, once I switch to spending mode in retirement, I might splurge on it.
). My mom cleaned until she died just short of 90. I think it helps people to stay healthy.
