What would you charge?

[Jeff Lary]

I have this neighbor who lives a mile above me.He has hired me in the past to do some material moving with my tractor and yard some logs for him as well. He called me a little while ago and hears the deal
He want's to cut about 6 coards of Poplar and Hack and wants me to yard the logs for him .He will be felling them into a horse pasture at least some of them and he want's me to move the brush as well. Oh and he also does not have a saw that runs so he wants me to supply him with a saw. I told him by the time he paid me and paid the trucking of the logs there would be very little money left over for him. And he should check the price per coard closely first. He wants to know how much I would charge him for Me ,My 4wd Kubota and Farmi winch and at least 2 saws as i would not go with just one saw,He has absolouty nothing for chain hammer wedge ect.I will have to supply it all.I told him $35.00 per hour gets him me and everything He needs to do the work. I think he feels this is too much,I said well saws are $300 min the Kubota was $14,000.00 winch was $1500.00 and then I have to supply all the incidentals,what would you charge? I should have said $75.00 per as I really dont want to get involved. So I am hopeing he thinks there will be no money to be made.

 

[murphy1244]

80.00 per hour. What happens if you get hurt? What happens if your equipment breaks down?

 

[5030]

Being neighborly and freindly is doing it for FREE.:thumbsup:

Glad I don't live by you.

 

[Thomas]

Down this way your price would be more than fair Jeff.
Hope the neighbor realizes when old man winter does arrive cutting/pulling etc. going to take longer and could cause him even more $$'s...my gut feelings saying little distance on this one.

 

[Willl]

Being neighborly and friendly is only asking for small free jobs to be done.

Not large unpaid ones.

 

[Jeff Lary]

Well I did'nt want to write for an hour but in the past the agreed upon price was really not what I got paid in the end I always settel for less.Last time I worked fro 6:30 am till 4"30 pm and when we totaled up 25 per hour for the day I got the sob story we have all heard before I ended up charging $150.00 instead of the $200.00 it really should have been. When I hire my cousin who is a great carpenter I pay him $25.00 per hour and I work every minuite right beside him. The neighbor problem is when you give the guys a break and you dont get one in return.He should have said "look you saved me $50.00 last time we worked together and I appreaceite it so $35.00 is more than fair" I tried to give him a saw and have himm call me when he has it all on the ground,but I get the impression he wants me there to run a second saw to "help out"

 

[teg]

How much of a friend is he really? If it's not a two way street and he doesn't "work" for you the same way... Sounds like he's just taking advantage of you. Up the rate to $50 easily.

 

[Jeff Lary]

Well if he wants to pay 35 per I will do it this one time but from that day foward it will be 50 for the tractor and me.anything else will be extra.The thing is I have ZERO intrest in trying to make money with any of my equiptment I bought it for me and me alone.But everybody figures come on up I buy ya a 6 pack or I"ll give ya 20 bucks.Chri$t fuel is 26 bucks a can. Everbody wants somthing and nobody want's to pay anything for it.It's the ,....old well you already own it sorta thing ,it will only take a minuite.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

We did some work for a friend of my brothers. 22 hours each one of us over a weekend. Money had never been discussed. We used our 10 ton hydraulic crane, Case 580 backhoe, Mahindra 7520, Peterbilt and low bed trailer. On the following Tuesday the guy asks how much he owes us. My brother tells him $1100. The guy is sort of in shock, thinks that it is a lot of money. He is then reminded that over $250,000 worth of equipment was used and that he was only being charged 1/2 price. He also was reminded of what he had paid for 20 yards of dirt ($600) to be hauled in by another company. This guy is in a remote area and the crane by itself would have been a grand from a crane company. Anyway after all was explained to him he couldn't pay fast enough and had us come back 1 other time to do other work for him.

Sometimes people have no idea what stuff costs and things just need to be explained to them. Other times people think because you're in business that you are rich and because they know you and you're rich, you should help them out for free, when it isn't free at all, but costs you TIME and money.

Oh well, life goes on, just an example.

 

[Thomas]

"But everybody figures come on up I buy ya a 6 pack or I"ll give ya 20 bucks.Chri$t fuel is 26 bucks a can. Everbody wants somthing and nobody want's to pay anything for it.It's the ,....old well you already own it sorta thing ,it will only take a minuite. "

Not just in your back yard Jeff,we got those type over here also.