You must also live in a low cost of living area. I can’t imagine anyone (even a kid with a lawnmower making a few bucks) mowing that area for $40.
I wish!
The homes in this area mostly sell for $650k–or more–and as you might know, NJ has very high property taxes. It is virtually impossible to find a decent apartment in the northern and central areas of the state for less than $2k per month, and it isn’t unusual to see listings for $3k per mo. While some food items–like eggs–seem to be less costly than in other parts of The US, this is definitely not a low cost-of-living area.
One possible explanation for the pricing of lawn services is that there is a LOT of competition. In just my development, there are at least 6 different lawn services that have contracts with homeowners, but my lawn guy seems to have progressively increased his market share over the past few years, and he seems to be the major player in this area at this point.
But… who knows what the price will be this year? He won’t be mailing out the new contracts for a couple of months, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the price goes up.
Or you live in a very high cost of living area.
There are always heated discussions on the lawn care sites regarding regional price differences as well as the lowballers that come into an area and undercut the established pricing structures. Usually, they have no insurance, hire undocumented labor, use improperly maintained equipment that ends up breaking down a lot or other cost cutting measures that the established lawn care companies aren’t willing to entertain. Often, the lowballers end up losing money and disappearing mid-season, leaving the “lowest quote” folks hanging and desperately trying to re-hire the old company…
We’ve had these guys for about 7 years. It takes two guys about 20 minutes to mow my yard including edging paved areas and gardens. I don’t know if the workers are documented or not, that’s up to their employer to take care of. I’m not asking every employee of a company I hire if they are here legally or not.
+1, on all points.
Sometimes there are two guys, sometimes there are three, but they manage to mow/trim all of my lawn areas in less than 30 minutes, and they do a nice job. I have no idea about the immigration status of the workers, just as I don’t know about their vaccination status, or their family structure, or any other of their personal details–nor do I need to know any of that information.
Well it’s certainly not cheap. But just at first glance, sending a truck, equipment, manpower, gasoline out to mow over half an acre and only charging $40 seems like a very low-profit proposition.
They have several customers in my neighborhood. They can easily spend several hours here.
Well, somehow my lawn guy manages to employ about 10 people, buy a couple of new Ford F-350s + commercial lawn mowers every few years, pay his own expenses, and send his kid to college, so…
Nobody suggested you should. The discussion turned to lawn care pricing and, similar to the sites dedicated to that topic, the differences in regional pricing started to appear here as well. The other common problem is when people have unusually low pricing even for their area. That probably should concern you if you have that situation as it may not last and be left high and dry at the worst time, after all the reputable service providers have filled their schedules for the year. No need to respond if you’re not in that situation…rather, let’s pivot to seasonal vs per cut sensitivities 
An hour and a half of hired labor for $40 and enough profit to buy a $60,000 truck and send children to collage? Minimum wage is $14/hour plus social security tax, unemployment and workmen’s compensation tax. If they are undocumented immigrants, then wages are negotiable.
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No, I don’t think that his son majored in art.
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Even at half an hour of labor I don’t see it…
Reminds me of a (not so) funny story about a friend I made while running my own business. “Russ” was a wealthy janitor. Beautiful house, Porsches and Cadillacs in the garage, daughter at school at Andover. All on a janitor’s salary. He ran his own cleaning service, his clients were mom and pop stores, restaurants, office buildings, post offices, etc. He had a crew of about 12-15, 6-8 vans, and all the power equipment needed to run a successful quality business. And from day one he ran his operation cash under the table. Paid his people in cash–no insurance, liability, workman’s comp, tax witholding, social security, unemployment. Of course never reported enough income to pay any income or personal taxes either. Worked great until someone blew the whistle.
Now I don’t know what kind of power the state of Massachusetts has, but between the state and the IRS, they took just about everything. They left him with a 1980 Seville and a 1969 Skylark Convertible, and a federal tax liability of $3000/month. The state of MA had such a large judgement against him he moved west. He was on some kind of list, when his dad died he had to fly to a neighboring state and drive to Boston for fear of being arrested at the airport. When I met him, he drove into the lot in a 69 Skylark with a power floor buffer and mop bucket hanging out of the trunk, starting over in a new state.