Lexington, SC Landscaping Equipment Financing: Skid Steers, Zero-Turn Mowers and Crew Payroll

Lawn care equipment can be paid for three ways: a dealer's own financing program, a bank, or an equipment lender. Each can price the same mower differently, and equipment financing requested through this site, which goes to funding partners, is one of those routes. Before signing, a landscaper can line the offers up on the same points.

• The full price, including the cutting width, bagger or mulching kit actually ordered
• The term in months against how many years the operator expects the machine to run
• Whether a down payment is required, and how much
• The total of payments, not just the monthly figure
• What happens if the mower is traded in before the term ends

Illustration only, invented figures: a $14,500 zero-turn mower at an annual rate of 9% costs $461.10 a month over 36 months, or $16,599.60 in all. A 60-month term lowers the bill to $301.00 a month while the total rises to $18,060.00: $1,460.40 more paid for one mower.

A skid steer earns its keep through attachments: a grapple for brush, an auger for post holes and tree planting, a trencher for irrigation lines, a box blade for grading beds. A quote that lists the machine and each attachment can go into one equipment loan, and the trailer that hauls it can sit on the same request.

Illustration only, invented figures: a $62,000 skid steer with three attachments at 9.5% over 60 months comes to $1,302.12 a month and $78,127.20 across the term.

A zero-turn mower has a shorter working life than a skid steer. A partner can set a shorter term on a mower than on a compact loader, so a company buying both can ask for each machine to be priced on its own line.

A new crew costs money weeks before it brings any in. The company hires, buys uniforms and hand tools, puts the crew on a route, and then waits for the first monthly maintenance invoices to be paid. Working capital covers those first payrolls.

Illustration only, invented figures: a three-person crew costs $2,400 per biweekly payroll, and the first client invoices are paid 45 days after work starts. Depending on where the first payday falls, that wait holds 3 or 4 payrolls, so $7,200 to $9,600 goes out before the route pays for itself.

For scale, the 112 landscaping establishments in Lexington County, SC had 1,014 employees on their March 2023 payrolls and paid $48.1 million in wages over the year, about $47,452 per employee (CBP; our arithmetic).

A crew truck rarely arrives ready to work. A dump bed or dump insert, a ladder rack, toolboxes, a hitch and lighting, or an enclosed trailer with mower racks are all upfits. A business line of credit lets the company buy them as each truck comes in and pay the balance down as routes bill.

The same line fits the startup costs of a newly signed maintenance contract with a homeowners association or a commercial property: an extra mower, more trimmers and blowers, a first delivery of mulch and pine straw. Those costs land before the first invoice, and the line is paid back as the contract pays.

Smaller operators do this on thin margins. Of the 112 landscaping establishments with paid staff in Lexington County, SC, 78 had fewer than five people on payroll in 2023 (69.6%, CBP).

A large install, such as a new subdivision entrance, a commercial bed renovation or a sod job measured in pallets, can call for a material order bigger than a month of maintenance revenue. When the payback runs over several months, term financing with a fixed payment can fund the order; shorter gaps fit a credit line.

• Sod by the pallet, with delivery dates from the supplier
• Trees, shrubs and perennials on a nursery order
• River rock, mulch and soil by the yard
• Irrigation heads, valves and controllers for the job
• Rental of a larger machine for the length of the install

The 2024 Nonemployer Statistics count 660 landscaping businesses in Lexington County, SC with no paid employees (NAICS 56173), and 2023 ZIP Code Business Patterns list 27 landscaping establishments with payrolls at a ZIP 29072 address. Other trades are on the Lexington, SC industries page, and area figures are on the Lexington, SC page.