Mount Pleasant, SC Landscaping Equipment Financing: Skid Steers, Dump Trailers and Truck Upfits

A crew truck becomes a landscaping truck once it carries a dump or landscape body, ramps, mower racks and a toolbox. That upfit is equipment with a fabricator's price, and it can sit on the same request as the truck or on its own. A lender can request:

• The upfitter's quote, itemized by body, racks, ramps and lighting
• The truck's year, VIN and title, if the truck is already owned
• Recent bank statements showing route or contract income
• Maintenance contracts that show recurring work, where the company has them
• The current equipment list, with anything already financed marked

Illustration only, invented figures: a $14,200 landscape body and $2,600 of racks and ramps, $16,800 together, on a 48-month schedule at 10.75%. The upfit is paid off at $432.17 a month, $20,744.16 by the last payment.

Pallets of sod, loads of river rock and flagstone, mulch by the yard and nursery stock are paid for when they are delivered, often well before a homeowner or a property manager pays the final invoice. Working capital can cover a large install as one amount; a business line of credit is drawn for each order and paid down as customers pay. Neither ties the money to a machine.

In Charleston County, SC, nearly three in five landscaping services establishments with paid staff were small crews in 2023: 109 of 184, or 59.2%, had fewer than five employees (CBP, NAICS 561730). The county's 1,609 paid landscaping employees average about nine per establishment, by our arithmetic.

Dump trailers and zero-turn mowers wear out on a schedule a crew can predict, so equipment financing can be timed to the machine's working life. A dealer quote for a trailer and two mowers keeps all three on one payment.

Illustration only, invented figures: an $11,800 dump trailer and 2 zero-turn mowers at $13,650 each, $39,100 in all, financed for 48 months at 9.25%. The schedule runs $977.65 a month, and the payments come to $46,927.20, $7,827.20 of it interest.

ZBP for 2023 puts 27 landscaping services establishments inside ZIP 29464, the office ZIP, counted by physical location.

A skid steer or compact track loader grades beds, moves pallets and digs for walls and drainage, and it can be a substantial equipment purchase with a dealer price and serial number. Equipment financing can be secured by the machine, with attachments such as a bucket, grapple, auger or trencher on the same quote. A used machine can qualify when the partner accepts used equipment, with the hour meter reading and serial number on the paperwork.

Illustration only, invented figures: a $54,900 skid steer with bucket and grapple, financed over 60 months at 9.5%, costs $1,153.00 a month. Sixty payments total $69,180.00; interest makes up $14,280.00 of that.

Irrigation work runs on parts: valves, heads, controllers, pipe and wire, bought from a supply house on account. Those parts are used up on the job, so a credit line or working capital fits them better than equipment financing. Payroll works the same way: the crew is paid every two weeks, and a large install is paid when it is finished.

Illustration only, invented figures: a six-person crew costs $9,400 per biweekly payroll on a job that pays 40 days after it starts. Over those 40 days the crew is paid twice, or three times if the first payday falls on day 12 of the job or earlier, which leaves $18,800 to $28,200 to carry until the check clears.

Owner-run outfits sit in a different file: 2024 Nonemployer Statistics listed 704 landscaping services businesses with no paid employees in Charleston County, SC (NAICS 56173). Repair shops are on the auto repair page, builders on the construction page, and the town's figures on the Mount Pleasant, SC page; every trade is listed on the industries page.