How to quote a lawn without driving to it
Most mowing quotes do not need a drive-by. With the satellite view, a measurement and an honest time estimate, you can send a price the same hour somebody asks, and save the visits for the yards that really need one.
- 10,890 sq ftA quarter acre, off the map
- 17 minMow and trim, 48" zero-turn
- $35At $75 an hour, $35 minimum
1Find the yard on the satellite map
Search the address and zoom in until the lot fills the screen. You are looking at a photo, so take a second to read it: where the grass actually stops, where the beds and the drive are, and whether the trees hide any of the edge. If the house looks brand new or the yard looks bare dirt, the photo may be older than the lawn.
2Measure the grass, not the lot
Trace around the turf you will cut, and take out the house, the drive, the beds and the pool. The lot size on a county record includes all of those, so it can be close to double the grass, and a price built on it will be too.
Free toolLawn measuring toolFind the yard, tap around the grass, cut out the beds, and read the square footage. Free, no sign-up.Measure a lawn3Note what will slow you down
- Gates. If the backyard is behind a gate narrower than your deck, that part is a push-mower job.
- Slopes. Long shadows and Street View give them away. A bank is its own piece of the job, and a steep one may need a smaller mower than the rest of the yard.
- Beds and edges. Every bed and fence line is trimming. A lone tree costs seconds; a yard full of beds costs minutes.
- Narrow strips. The strip between the sidewalk and the street, or down the side of the house, is all turns.
4Turn the size into time
Time is what you are really selling. A typical quarter-acre yard takes about 17 min with a 48-inch zero-turn, trimming included, and 1 hr with a 21-inch push mower. The same square footage is a very different job depending on what you mow it with.
Free toolMowing time calculatorLawn size, mower and kind of yard in; minutes on site out, mowing and trimming, from planned mowing routes.Time a yard5Turn the time into a price
Multiply the time by an hourly rate that covers your whole day, not just the minutes in the yard, and never go under your minimum. At $75 an hour with a $35 minimum, that quarter acre with a zero-turn comes to $35. The pricing guide covers how to pick both numbers.
6Send the price with what it covers
A remote quote is only as good as what it assumes, so say it: mowing, trimming and blowing off the hard surfaces, every week or every other week, at normal height. Add that an overgrown first cut costs more, and that the price holds if the yard is what it looks like from above. Most people are glad to have a number the same day they asked.
When you should still go and look
Everything else, quote from the map, and check it on the first visit. If the yard was not what it looked like, adjust the price before the second.
