[Bob_Skurka]

I would seriously doubt your ablity to dig a pool unless you've done it before. If a pool dig is $2K, then I would hire someone to do it, and lower your tractor budget by that amount and look at a smaller tractor since your biggest job has been eliminated. Digging a pool is best done by people who have some real experience in digging. Any large hole is a big project with a tractor/backhoe and is best done by any piece of equipement OTHER than the type you are looking at buying. Consider renting a mini-excavator for a couple days at about $125 to $200 a day, the job would go much faster. Most pools by me are done with skid steers or mini-excavators.

Also, if your lot is roughly 19,000 square feet, a big 30hp tractor/loader is going to be a hard fit for the other tasks you are talking about. You are talking about a lot that is ROUGHLY 90' by 210' and if there are already houses, drives, bushes, etc in place on many of those lots, then I would seriously consider a SMALL tractor.

For $6000 - to - $8,000 LESS than your budget you could get a Sub-CUT or a small frame CUT with a FEL & backhoe and that would probably be more useful on traditional neighborhood lots. The biggest I would go is a very small 30hp B7800, it is the smallest/lightest tractor of that HP available, but I don't think you need 30hp to run a hoe or a loader so you could go much smaller/lighter. We have a lot of landscape companies in my area using SMALL tractor because they don't tear up things and they FIT into regular neighborhood yards. Also, seriously consider TURF tires. If you do a job for a neighbor and tear up their yard, you will be replacing that. Many of the landscape companies here use lightweight tractors with turf tires AND lay down sheets of 3/4" plywood to drive over so they don't end up resodding yards, because homeowners don't want to resod their yards for every project.