what to charge your neighbor

[arboromega]

myneighbor has 4 trees she wants taken out. they border my property and i want them out too. she is a retired janitor and doesnt hve much money. i have told her i wanted no payment as it will benefit us both. she will not accept that and i believe it is a matter of pride for her. it is easily 1800-2200$ 's worth of work. i want to only ask for a couple hundred but dont want to insult her at the same time. anyone else relate to this. what shoul i ask for? remeber i was willing to do it for free, she is making me give her a price.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Tell her no cash, but she has to fix you a meal anytime thereafter, whenever you request!

 

[vharrison2]

Split the dump fee? I doubt she has any clue what it is worth, and if it is a benefit to you as well...it will come back to you! If you only ask a couple hundred, she may tell others...he only charged me $250.00. I am saying split the dump fee because here is substantial.

 

[fwf]

I did a removal for friend recently and wanted no money. When he insisted he pay me, I said lets do the job and see what's involved. When the job was done I refused to give him a price, but said if he felt the need to chip in a few bucks to cover fuel and wear and tear on equipment, I would accept whatever he felt was right. A couple of weeks later he sent me a check for $100. I was happy and assume he is also.

 

[arboromega]

ok im still open to more response for sure but just too clearify before it gets the thread continues... i asked for the meal(which being a southern grandmother im sure would be awesome) and she wont have it...must be money. i dont require a dump fee because iwill shoot the chips into my own yard for mulch. and she wants a price up front. you guys are on time with your ideas, i just didnt write all the info. initially in the interests of keeping my question to the point.

 

[juststumps]

just cut them down when she's not there...she carps,,, tell her she's such a good nieghbor.. you wouldn't think about taking payment....if she goes on,, get a few dinners,,pies,,cakes,,etc...ps, i like pecan pie..if she makes an extra one,, i'll take it

 

[fwf]

arbormega,

You're in the drivers seat here. You have the service she needs and she can't afford to buy it elsewhere, nor would she consider that with you living next door.

Simply tell that you will not accept money and you stand ready to do the job whenever she gives you the go ahead.

She is trying to be kind and generous, but you have to stand your ground and tell her that you will not stand for it.

 

[JonnyHart]

If you have to pay a crew or a worker to help on the job, ask her to take care of them for the amount of time they are there. Maybe a pizza too.

 

[begleytree]

Don't sound to me like she's trying to be generous, more like she's being fair. She doesn't expect you to work for nothing, she pays her own way.
charge her 1/4 of the price, and then split it with her cause they're 1/2 your trees too.
-Ralph

 

[spacemule]

I wish I could find service provders like this. This is contrary to every business deal I've ever seen.

 

[treeseer]

myneighbor has 4 trees she wants taken out. they border my property and i want them out too.

What are her goals for removal? What are yours? If you want to be a REALLY good neighbor, look for ways to make you both happy; lessen the negative effects of the trees and keep the positive contributions. WHat are the trees doing that are causing you $2000 worth of guilt?

 

[intheelements]

How about an hourly fee. If you think its going to take 3 hours, do the job for say, 50 an hour. That way you control the price she pays. Also if you take a few breaks in between cutting the trees, she won't know exactly how long it took you.

 

[a_lopa]

$400

 

[Dadatwins]

If you are going to charge her, then charge her. If not, don't. I don't agree with cutting prices down to a 1/4 of its worth. Word gets around that you will work cheap and you are in trouble. Hard to draw the line about who gets the 1/4 price. Next door yes, 2 doors away, sorry you pay full price. If you do charge offer a discount, but never cut yourself down to a point that you have to make it up on the next job, or explain why you did it so cheap. In this situation with the trees bordering your property, I probably would not charge anything, but anyone else gets out the checkbook. JMHO

 

[treeseer]

omega how about posting a picture?

 

[vharrison2]

Dadatwins.....you got it!

 

[Koa Man]

When I do work in my subdivision, I usually will base my time at $45 an hour, (usually I charge around $65-70) plus a very small profit on the ground crew. So if the 4 trees fair cost is $2000, I would charge her $750 for 2 trees and the other 2 are yours.

 

[iain]

if you where building a twin garage for you both too share, would you build her side for nothing,
favours are okay! untill they start costing you or losing you money

if the jobs worth 2K then you both pay half ! , thats what you'd do if you werent it the trade, and had to pay a contractor

 

[fwf]

From some of these responses, I get the impression some of you folks have never lived in the country where "neighbors help neighbors" and "help people out who are less fortunate than yourself".

Maybe I am reading all this wrong, but I get the impression that arboromega has a good neighbor who is an older woman without a lot of money. He wants to help her out because that is neighbors and friends do. That is ???? admirable. Ya, you could make her pay her fair share, but that ain't the way things work where I come from.

 

[treeseer]

cmon omega post a pic and tell us why the trees need to come down in the first place; give us some context so all this good advice you're getting can be better informed.