Landscaping questions and cost.

LaserSVT

LaserSVT

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I realize I am gonna get a lot of "your house is small and chitty" comments but I am hoping to get some serious advice.

As some of you know I have my house and 10 acres up for sale. Its been slow going so I think it would help if I had the yard done up a little nicer. I know jack about yard work and hate it with a passion. A friend and his brothers are pros and offered to do it for me but I about pooped myself when he told me the price. We agreed at $2300 but man it still seems like a lot of cash for a couple days work.

Just wanting to know if they are being strait up or tryin to hose me.

They will trim down this tree and clear out the old dead branches on the ground plus trim the tree till 10' up and he said "umbrella" shape it. Whatever that means?

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Clean out all the growth thats around some very nice white rock flower bed here on the side and plant a couple bushes.

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Trim down this big ass tree and take off its dead branch. (car is getting moved tomorrow)

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Trim down all these trees to make them uniform and again "umbrella" shape them. Also trim the lower branches to be able to walk under them without ducking.

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And then clean out the growth around the front and side here. Trim the rose bushes. Clean the palm bush and put in a couple more bushes on the side and lay down some red dirt.... I think he said red dirt. That whole area is also surrounded by a 8" tall white rock border.

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So is $2300 about right for all that? They will also be trimming out the rest of the yard and around the fence plus haul off an old bed and old car shell.
 
If that includes letting one of the trees fall down on your house to collect the insurance money then I say you are getting a deal.
 
I'm part owner in a landscaping company, that's seems pretty standard for that size job. You could post a listing on CL and get an illegal crew to do it cheaper, but that in itself comes with another possible set of problems.
 
That sounds like a lot of work. The price sounds reasonable...perhaps not a "great deal" I would expect of a friend, but then again I do not know what the going rate is down there either...certainly not a bad deal!
 
Looking at your pics, I think the landscaping is the big reason you're not getting any bites, and it sounds like the work they're proposing will fix it--IMHO, the house itself looks decent, but it's hard to see that because that landscaping looks like a hell of a lot of work. I've never hired any landscaping, so I don't know if that's a good price, but if we assume that the above assessments of the costs are accurate, it's money well spent. Hell, even if it's a little bit high it's still money well spent if it gets your place sold.
 
To be honest, the trim work on the tree is not hard work. The flower bed is more time consuming (and harder IMO) than the trim work I am seeing.

I have this that was bought from Home Depot and works perfect for trim Jobs.
Amazon.com: Remington RM1015P 10-Inch 8 Amp Electric Pole Saw: Patio, Lawn & Garden
Once you cut of the branches that hang, you would have to cut them into reasonable size for the city to take them or that's what I have to do here. Might be different for your area.

The flower bed is harder IMO. You first have to pull out all the useless crap out of there and clean out the bed (and I see a lot that needs to be pulled out). Buy the bushes you want and plant them. Then put mulch (red dirt;)) over it. If you wanna go a step above that and do it "right". Buy compost and mix it with the soil first. Also place a weed control fabric after you have planted and then put mulch on top. Mulch costs 2$-3$ per bag. Compost 2$-3$ per bag. Weed control fabric is around 20$ and should be enough.

Now IMHO, that price is high for that amount of work but it maybe how much landscaping companies charge (I have always done the work myself). I know you said you hate yard work but trimming really isn't that hard if you have a free weekend. Flower bed is another story...:rolleyes:
 
I think $2300 sounds about right. You may be able to get a cheaper price if you help out some. Like cleaning up the side and some of the front yourself. I know you said you hate yard work with a passion, but if helping out saves some cash it's worth it IMHO.
 
Get a 30 pack and do as much of it yourself as possible. You can do alot of the lower tree trimming and flower bed work yourself. Buy/rent a chain saw and pick up a pair of trimmers. Once you get the bulk of the crap out of the way it'll give you room to start planting/mulch and laying down the weed cloth.
And i bet those 3 dishes aren't helping either.;)
 
sbcaprice305 said:
You can do alot of the lower tree trimming and flower bed work yourself. Buy/rent a chain saw and pick up a pair of trimmers.
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I told him that in Chat last night. May save alot on the overall cost.

Originally posted by keatonsdad
Hell if they are real friends it should cost a few cases of beer!!!
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Is that not the truth, or maybe some of that wacky grass and afterward much needed snacking will work too! :D
 
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Price seems right, but not sure it will help sell.
The market is just chit.
I'm not sure of the market were your at.
Ask your realtor for some numbers.
Some numbers I get form a weekly realtors e-mail.

Pending sales are down -22.6% in a 3 month average.
152 day on market before sale.
90% of Original List Price Received at Sale.
5.88 Houses Per Buyer
8.2 Months Supply of Inventory.

The house I wanted to sell, I put on a new roof on the house and garage, new siding on the house and garage, cleaned up the lot, re-modeled the kitchen new sheet rock on all walls new cabinets sink dishwasher, stove and fridge, microwave above the stove, new floor.

All new sheet rock in the dining room new lighting fixtures new sheet rock in the back porch, all new paint.
Same in the bath all new rock...paint new sink shower paint.
Re finished all the floors.
New carpet in all the bedrooms.
New floor in the basement, painted walls.

Worked my ass off non stop and the value of the house dropped and didn't sell.
I now have a pile of debt to pay off and a house I have to rent to just get it to pay for itself.
Tax value in 2006=180,000
Tax value for next year=121,000
Ouch.

I just sayin.....don't assume some lot clean up will sell it.
 
Raped Ape said:
I told him that in Chat last night. May save alot on the overall cost.

Is that not the truth, or maybe some of that wacky grass and afterward much needed snacking will work too! :D
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lol, seems like the most logical way of doing it.

And it doesn't have to be perfect either. Don't worry about all the stuff way up high and dangerous. Get the stuff you feel safe doing w/ a 6-8ft ladder and leave the branches up high alone. You can also get one of those extendable poles with a manual saw at the tip and a cutter for smaller limbs to get the higher stuff. They actually work quite well imho.
Cut down the small out of place (<10ft) tree's and pull any shrubs out along the fence line..
With a chainsaw you could make quick work of it. Start a burn pile and add to it as you cut.
 
Realestate lady came out and we went over everything. She agrees that doing the garden area around the house is most important. She also said that the money spent to prune and trim the trees would be recouped in hose selling price. Also two of the trees are really wrapped around the power lines so it needs to be done.

She also said that believe it or not that the old TV antenna and extra dish are a good thing. Sounded ludacris to me but she said she still sells houses out here where people dont want anything other then an antenna or simply dont want HD. So they can keep what they want and remove the others.
Also issues with having holes in the roof to fix so screw it, they stay.

Big thing I like about this realator is she said the tax office has screwed up the property tax for this property and while I have been paying $1300 it should only be $300 cause I have cows and horses. Yay! So I get to see the tax man Monday and see if I get some back. Not holding my breath.

Things she said were important to note on the property value is the large cement floor dog kennel I have thats caged and roofed and the storage shed out back. I dont use them so never really thought about them.

Thanks for all the input everyone. :)
 
LaserSVT said:
Also two of the trees are really wrapped around the power lines so it needs to be done.
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You know you can call the city and tell them to do it for FREE. Obviously they will only trim the branches that are close to the power line.
 
mark0101 said:
You know you can call the city and tell them to do it for FREE. Obviously they will only trim the branches that are close to the power line.
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That depends on where you live. If I told my city to come clean up those trees, I'd probably get a really polite "WTF?" out of them--that's the electric company's responsibility, not the city's--but you do have a good point. Talk to your electric company about the trees near the power lines. Mine just came out and trimmed some trees near my power line, and they didn't charge me anything.
 
SoonerLS said:
That depends on where you live. If I told my city to come clean up those trees, I'd probably get a really polite "WTF?" out of them--that's the electric company's responsibility, not the city's--but you do have a good point. Talk to your electric company about the trees near the power lines. Mine just came out and trimmed some trees near my power line, and they didn't charge me anything.
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whoops, I guess it would make sense for the electric company to come out and do it. I know we had it done, just got them mixed up:)
 
The electric company around here does the tree trimming on their dime all the time. It is for one a fire hazard and two it could knock out power or cause a PDB to fail. But the electric company is responsible for tree limb clearance of their power lines.
 
mark0101 said:
whoops, I guess it would make sense for the electric company to come out and do it. I know we had it done, just got them mixed up:)
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It could very well be the city that's responsible for it where you are; it depends on who runs the electric utility. I'd suggest calling the place where you send your monthly payment.
 
that price for all that work is more than a break already. one of the guys i work with has owned his own tree and lawn company for 11 years, they just did a job 2 weeks ago removing 2 live oak trees close to a house here in fl, 2 trees and the 2 of them made $2,500 to cut it down and remove all the wood off the property. i'd say they are giving you a break, but i am not saying go spend the money, cuz a break or not, i'd find better things to do with that much money!
 
Laser your house is really cool, I love the way the porch roof is supported by branches - sweet ;) The rustic look and how the house looks like a part of the land instead of sitting on top of it really brings appeal to it.

Sounds like a fair price, and yes, if he is willing to take some of your labor, pre job prep, or after job clean up that would save you too. (can you burn? if so, you can take care of removal). Also I would pull in your scope, in other words, the further out, do the least. As quite a few said, its a crappy market, so you want to spend your $$ wisely. I'd try to keep that price if that is what you can afford and look at a few other areas closer to the house itself, putting some focus on the first impression. Usually, if it's liked from first glance, other things can be "worked out"

Also I am sure the realtor has told you to remove any clutter (FedEx the wheelie chair, metal ramps and any other useful car stuff to my house for storage ;] ), fix the window with blue tape.. and to get rid of the blinds or get new ones, worn blinds can cost 100.00 on each window (figuratively speaking) .

I recall when I was looking for a house, sometimes I would not even go in because I didn't like the way it looked when I drove up on it. So take it or leave it, here are my 1st thoughts:

- Take a look at the driveway as you pull up, maybe have them spruce up that drain pipe with some type of brick treatment on both sides, or divert a little landscaping $$ there, maybe just a few flowering shrubs....there are several ways to make that area look more inviting.

- can you paint the silver pole on the side of the house a color to blend in more with the siding, or move that tree 3 feet over!

- have landscaper get a few thick shrubs to make a hiding place for the trash buckets there on the back corner of the house

- i love the brick, that is definitely the outline of a very nice bed, but don't let him clean it, actually if you could make it a little darker then the branch porch supports, but not darker then the house that would be perfect.

- DEFINITELY contact the electric company, one - to see about trimming around the lines, two, remove that electric pole on the other side of the house and have them put the box on the house, at the very least straighten up the electric pole.

- put a few items on the back porch to relax on, something fitting to the area, the pictures really don't show much, but I am sure a few outdoor chairs and table .. you know something that would make you want to stay out there longer and gaze at the country side.. I bet sunrises and sunsets there is just amazing.

When the landscape job that you are considering is done, things will be revealed...

- did you just plant grass seed in the back yard? If not whats going on out there? That area will get a lot more sunlight and if you have planted grass - good job

- are those cinder blocks really supporting the poles for the back porch roof? May want look into some way to sharpen up that area, some creative inexpensive stone work, something that is going to keep with front porch theme and blend in with the land.

Once they clear out the 8" white rock bed the faded siding in front, can he move the large shrub right in the middle, to the corner? It would help cover the big white spot and the shrub is airy enough to not interfere with the satellite, but hide it a bit, and after trimming it up it would look decent and save you money on a putting a new plant there..

Look around the house to see if there are other spots which may be exposed once something is cleared away.

- once all the overgrowth is cleared from the stairs, they will be in clear sight - maybe you can find a few more (smaller) tree limbs to make a handrail with.

- a few REALISTIC LOOKING or very hard to notice statues of scampering creatures (native to the area) can be placed in natural stances attached on the huge tree supports on the porch, but I emphasize very hard to notice and/or very realistic - lol not live animals, fake yard animals

- Does the entrance welcome you? Your house is adorable and very inviting, but it's hard to identify where to go to get in, the path in and out..., do you drive to the back and go into the house from there or go up the stairs? Laying a few large stone stepping stones, or a subtle timber lined pea gravel path to the house... at both entries to the house would be warm and inviting. Humans instinctively follow a path and feel more comfortable.

one last thing....well question - is that a goats head there at the stairs? may want to consider removing it too... hummm to the corner fence area of the drive way with maybe a big clay pot of chickens and hens and some other rustic pieces (some old horse bits, maybe a few horse shoes), that would be low and not distracting from the house (make the skull less white...dirty it up).

I'd leave the Mark, wash it though.

You have a very nice house I really like it, good luck with the sale.
 
lol well, in today's market, having things to your advantage is always a good thing. and yeah it is kinda long....(I speak fast though, so it's really not that long...lol)

I really really like the house, I looked at it and could see it looking so different.. oh, I used to do landscape design. I love it....

btw: that guy has one really big middle finger...
 
you are getting a deal for sure. I do all the sales for a landscape company I would have been $4k-$15k (depending how far you wanted to go with it). labor rates are around $40-$50 a man hr. plus machine use, debris disposal and the cost of the materials & delivery

I would really like to see before and after pics.

I am going to say pressure washing and re-staining the house will be a must when the beds are cleaned out.

Wish I had 10 acres and a cool ass cabin in the woods here.
 
I played around with it and cleaned up a few things just to get an idea of what it would look like. This was only a 5 min job. I'm assuming there is a door behind the bush but I left it and trimmed on it just a little. Took two of the dishes off the house. The round 18" dish isn't put up anymore by DTV so it would be useless anyway and the one right on the front of the house had to go. I guess I was around front.... fixed the broken window and played with the grass and got rid of a lot of weeds from the front of the house.

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