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I would like some input from members regarding making money by restoring riders. I am retired and started picking up old mowers to repair or restore for resale, or sometimes just giving them away to people in need. I usually break even after a sale but ultimately the work is just because I enjoying fixing things.

Recently I bought a used 42" Craftsman rider for $50. The deck was in good shape. The mower was complete except the engine cowling was missing. I completed a frame off overhaul: rebuilt the engine(18.5hp B&S), disassembled the transmission(6 speed manual) to replace bearings and seals, replaced all the pulleys and idlers, pto clutch($110), new blades, starter, carb(will fit), battery, and belts. Without any discounted parts from OEM's, I've got just south of $800 in invested.

Considering a box store 42" lists for $1900 has anyone out there been able to establish a way to by discounted parts?

Without having a business license it going to be hard to get good discounts. But with hard work and experience you gradually develop the resources. I took me 8 yrs just to get a parts distributor to let me in.
Also with a business license and sales tax exemption you don't have pay taxes twice that is if you even pay the required sales taxes on your sales. Just don't want get caught doing so; fines are a killer.

You also got to be especially careful using after market parts as many are just off the wall stuff.

As for profit margins they are going very tight as there is a lot of competition out there from DIYers and other shops. IF you do good work then that is a plus as you get return customers and referrals. With me billing out nearly 20K a year I usually net 5K until recently. The Covid19 has really mess things up with OEM raising my part costs but wanting me to hold line on retail price increases if I use their provide price files. My MTD distributor has the worst discount rates but is still better than most of the online stores which are selling above suggested retail now.

Having multiple distributors offering the same OEMs help due different pricing discounts schemes. Also places like Jack's Small Engines and Partstree will give businesses a discounted rate for part purchases. I admit it not much but every little bit helps.

A good example is a recent purchase of mine of Cub Cadet spindles at the primary distributor they was $85 ea with a retail of $90 but the second distributor which takes a day long to get items here was only $65.31 ea. The same for deck belt which was less at the second distributor too. So who do you think I brought 3 spindles and the belt from?

Until you good at procurement you will need to do a lot prices comparison shopping. But don't forget shipping is part of the overall cost of an item. Sometimes you pay more for the part but save more on shipping making the overall cost less. I got one aftermarket distributor that has great rates but shipping is a killer under the $200 free ship level. On one order couple years ago I got for over $45 shipping on a $190 order. I lost a good chunk of profit on that order as it sold below cost. Now if I got $190 order I just throw some junk item on the order to make it over $200 and just throw the junk item in the trash can.

Anyway you will not see a huge discount rates 5-20 percent with an average of around 10% most times off their retail prices.

I run a small one man mower shop. I quit flipping mowers. Most folks won't pay more than 3 or 4 hundred for a used rider. By the time i figure parts and labor to make it reliable enough to sell i am always over what i can sell it for. If you want to do it as a non-profit hobby for the enjoyment of it then great but if you want to make a little money doing it then that may be a struggle. I can get parts at a discount and i can't make money flipping riding mowers.
You have $800 invested in parts not including a lot of time on a mower i could sell for maybe $400. Even if you got the parts for half that, which you never will, that still puts it at a non-profit sale not including any labor. I wish you luck, but........

Same story as Hammer .
I gave up on trying to refurbish riders & try to sell them at a profit. there is just no money to be made in it down here.
People seem to think they should be getting a mower that is better than new for 10% of the retail price.
Every week clowns come to the door looking for a $ 100 trade in and expect to get a fully serviced mower with new belts & blades.
Then you are competing with the bored retirees who just charge out what they paid for the parts so at the end of it they are not out of pocket.
However there is reasonable money to be made in repairing them when at least you can put a cost on your time .
Even more so if you work mobile as I pretend to do.
The person I ran into who makes a killing only does services on push mowers
Each day he does a particular street or couple of streets , does a full service including changing oil , filters & blades for $ 50 ( Aust )
His customers subscribe to the service, he tells them when he will be there & they leave the mower out , or allow him access.
Currently he is doing just under 1000 mowers a year , fits after market parts unless asked for original in which case there is a surcharge.
So he can buy parts in bulk ( very cheap) and does not end up like me with $ 75,000 of inventory just in case I need a particular part this week
Lots of people just want their mower to start first pull every time & not be bothered to service it or take it out for servicing then have to go pick it up again.
Particularly popular with Honda Self propelled owners as none of them ever properly lube the rear wheels .

Hammermechanicman said:

I run a small one man mower shop. I quit flipping mowers. Most folks won't pay more than 3 or 4 hundred for a used rider. By the time i figure parts and labor to make it reliable enough to sell i am always over what i can sell it for. If you want to do it as a non-profit hobby for the enjoyment of it then great but if you want to make a little money doing it then that may be a struggle. I can get parts at a discount and i can't make money flipping riding mowers.
You have $800 invested in parts not including a lot of time on a mower i could sell for maybe $400. Even if you got the parts for half that, which you never will, that still puts it at a non-profit sale not including any labor. I wish you luck, but........

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For my area that is a $400-500 mower that you may have to sit on for a year to get that money. That mower may go for $75 at the community auction.

And i love the folks who buy a used mower and feel it comes with a lifetime warranty.

Hammermechanicman said:

I run a small one man mower shop. I quit flipping mowers. Most folks won't pay more than 3 or 4 hundred for a used rider. By the time i figure parts and labor to make it reliable enough to sell i am always over what i can sell it for. If you want to do it as a non-profit hobby for the enjoyment of it then great but if you want to make a little money doing it then that may be a struggle. I can get parts at a discount and i can't make money flipping riding mowers.
You have $800 invested in parts not including a lot of time on a mower i could sell for maybe $400. Even if you got the parts for half that, which you never will, that still puts it at a non-profit sale not including any labor. I wish you luck, but........

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Yep, I'm figuring it isn't a volume business either
?
Thanks for your input.

ILENGINE said:

For my area that is a $400-500 mower that you may have to sit on for a year to get that money. That mower may go for $75 at the community auction.

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I am seeing this as well. Thank you!

bertsmobile1 said:

Same story as Hammer .
I gave up on trying to refurbish riders & try to sell them at a profit. there is just no money to be made in it down here.
People seem to think they should be getting a mower that is better than new for 10% of the retail price.
Every week clowns come to the door looking for a $ 100 trade in and expect to get a fully serviced mower with new belts & blades.
Then you are competing with the bored retirees who just charge out what they paid for the parts so at the end of it they are not out of pocket.
However there is reasonable money to be made in repairing them when at least you can put a cost on your time .
Even more so if you work mobile as I pretend to do.
The person I ran into who makes a killing only does services on push mowers
Each day he does a particular street or couple of streets , does a full service including changing oil , filters & blades for $ 50 ( Aust )
His customers subscribe to the service, he tells them when he will be there & they leave the mower out , or allow him access.
Currently he is doing just under 1000 mowers a year , fits after market parts unless asked for original in which case there is a surcharge.
So he can buy parts in bulk ( very cheap) and does not end up like me with $ 75,000 of inventory just in case I need a particular part this week
Lots of people just want their mower to start first pull every time & not be bothered to service it or take it out for servicing then have to go pick it up again.
Particularly popular with Honda Self propelled owners as none of them ever properly lube the rear wheels .

Click to expand...

Thanks, good info to chew on for sure!

Same on flipping mower for a profit. I finally quit even trying anymore and just away request for to sell any of my mowers; just parting them out and making more that way. All DIYers that were just patching up mowers have ruin it for us that sell correctly repaired and warranted mowers.

I have became a repair only shop too just like others here have done.

Personal advice - don't buy the mowers to fix and sell. Doing so, as u learned, parts kill any profit. The ones i get\fix\resell, I only pick up if complete and decent looking as a minimum. Although if the engine looks and pull feels good, then get it only to remove and test\cleanup\sell the engine alone.

If I was setting up from scratch I would go the way Jonnie went and just service walk behinds on an annual basis.
Buying B & S filters in 200 or more lots brings then down to 50¢ a piece and the swing back blades we use here to under $ 2 each for most mowers.
SAE 30 mower oil is about $ 2 / litre when bought in 44 gallon drums, spark plugs go for $ 1.50 when bought in 144 commercial sheets , it gets really cheap.
A full service on a walk behind may take as little as 20min if you are set up with all of the modified tools to make life easy and as you service the mower annually no surprises like wheels rusted solid onto the axels, missing parts etc etc which kill me on flat rate services and it take 1/2 hour to get a rusted dry bearing off an axel .
HE leaves them with a reciept & a report if some thing major will need to be done which he may or may not do at a latter date for an extra fee.

A riding buddy is setting himself up as a mower leasing service.
HE buys warranty returns by the pallet load, and makes some good ones out of them.
He used to try & sell these but as most were supermarket brands, no one would pay a reasonable price.
Then he twigged to leasing when his daughter bought into one of those "rent for keeps" deal on a TV and he saw she was going to pay 2.5 times the full retail price over the 4 year contract .
So now he leases them out along with a service guarantee so he basically will be swapping mowers over at the end of each season for another that he has serviced during to off season.
Same story, all the customer want is a no hassell mower that starts on the first pull & works.
They really do not care if it is an Aldi Chinese special or top of the line Honda just so long as it cuts the grass .
I think he was getting $ 10 / month for a push & $ 15 for a SP.
He is getting a lot of pensioner customers

bartles said:

I would like some input from members regarding making money by restoring riders. I am retired and started picking up old mowers to repair or restore for resale, or sometimes just giving them away to people in need. I usually break even after a sale but ultimately the work is just because I enjoying fixing things.

Recently I bought a used 42" Craftsman rider for $50. The deck was in good shape. The mower was complete except the engine cowling was missing. I completed a frame off overhaul: rebuilt the engine(18.5hp B&S), disassembled the transmission(6 speed manual) to replace bearings and seals, replaced all the pulleys and idlers, pto clutch($110), new blades, starter, carb(will fit), battery, and belts. Without any discounted parts from OEM's, I've got just south of $800 in invested.

Considering a box store 42" lists for $1900 has anyone out there been able to establish a way to by discounted parts?

Click to expand...

Selling Push Mowers
Over the years i sold any brand i would only sell clean better than average units. I found getting the parts for certain brands made it impossible
to make a great profit. I am not licence or have retail sales tax numbers. Today i only sell older Toros with Suzuki/ Briggs engines. These older units
are made well and don't break down. It seems the average person agrees the units are well made- they pay the price knowing the machine is quality.

There is a retired small engine repairmen here who wanted to work part- time, but be able to make some extra cash. He no longer does repairs, but picks up & delivers mowers to other shops for repairs. He has a small pickup & a trailer that will haul 2 riding mowers at a time. He makes more doing this than repairing. He charges $50 round trip for a mower, if it is within 15 miles each way.

My thought is that depending on where you live and what the landscaping business is like there, you could build a niche: selling to high volume guys. They break a mower and need something quick, they buy your renovation as a backup.
My experience is that most good businessmen also tune/fix everything by themselves. But when they are short 1-2 workers, they don’t have the time to do maintenance. And they’ll know how much value you add better than the nickel and dimer general public.

My friend had a small mower shop where he sold all equipment and tools and also provided services. However, he was at a loss and decided to close the store. I have no idea what happened. Perhaps the pandemic situation is also a factor.

My big saviour was the contractors.
I give them overnight routine servicing and drop everything repairs.
Thus they drop their mowers to me in the afternoon on their way home & pick it up the next morning on their way to the next job.
Originally when I started most only did it once a season & now nearly all are doing it every couple of months.
These are the smaller contractors who do not have a workshop & run their businesses from home.
Thus I have all of the "clutter" associated with their business in my workshop and of course I need to have everything I need for their mowers in stock , so it is not cheap to set up .
Just another thought .

I do a lot of same day service but i don't stock a large inventory of parts so i don't get a lot of the commercial guys. There is a shop that stocks a large inventory and does quick turnaround for commercial guys but they charge 3 times the hourly rate of me. They rape the commercial guys but they still have lots of business.

Hammermechanicman said:

I do a lot of same day service but i don't stock a large inventory of parts so i don't get a lot of the commercial guys. There is a shop that stocks a large inventory and does quick turnaround for commercial guys but they charge 3 times the hourly rate of me. They rape the commercial guys but they still have lots of business.

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I used to give the commercial guys a big discount thinking that price would be an incentive.
I was wrong
Time is what was important to them.
Their down time not needed to be spent on servicing the mowers and more important, lack of down time for equipment.
It is coming into winter down here but the local mower shop has a 3 week wait before they will even assess a mower then you can add another 4 to 6 weeks if they have to order in parts.
In town the story is the same but the big shop has a 1 week wait for quotation then it is 2 to 8 weeks for repairs .
Add to that they keep normal shop hours so the contractors can not pick up their mower before 7 am or drop it off after 6.
They all have keys to my yard so can pick them up any time which mostly will be between 4 & 6 am .
Small repair shops can not compete agains deep pockets if they are doing the exact same thing.
The trick I found is to do what the customer wants or needs rather than make them suit you .
One of my customers noticed his tranny was leaking so he dropped it in that day .
However the trannies ae sealed and have a life time warranty so it was either let me loose on it and void the warranty or send it to the shop he bought it from.
They quoted him 3 weeks before they would be able to pick it up + 3 weeks for repairs if it was not a warranty job or up to 9 weeks if it was an actual claimable warranty job.
It is a $ 5000 tranny so he went with the dealer & dropped his other 2 mowers in for an extra service so they would be able to cover for the mower that is out of service.

Hi yall . yes not much $$$ in flipping riders . the only way ive found to make money on them is to be able to get the rider your gonna try and sell ether for free or at a very good price with hopes that there isn't a whole lot wrong with it . my rule of thumb (and y'all are gonna laugh at me ) is if the tires are cracked and wont hold air its junk . there may be some parts on it but its not worth putting a lot of effort in to it to try and get it running again .

If you buy, or get a FREE non-running mower , it can cost you more than it is worth to get it ready for sale . So many have bad transmissions or engines.

I dont have a shop but I have a fairly large garage that slowly turned into something of a mechanic shop over the last years. (kind of lol) I usually find my mowers that I sell by using facebook marketplace, craigslist and offerup. Ive had pretty good luck with the mowers I buy (or free sometimes) to fix and usually cost originally from $50 -250 depending on the condition of the machine and cost about 100 or 150 dollars to fix... usually. I usually clean the carb because that is usually the problem of the mower apart from it being crazy dirty and abused. If it doesnt start after cleaning the carb, I check for other problems and if I have to, buying a new carb. They also usually need a few new tires and blades and usual services like oil change, greasing, and sometimes a little paint or glossy clear paint to make it shinier. After im done, I check it and mow the grass with it for 40 minutes or so to see that there are no problems. After this I put them up for sale and are 90% of the time sold after less than 5 days. Ive also had some occasions were the mower is sold in less than a day!

I also fix up some two cycle engines like blowers or weed eaters but I mainly fix push and self propelled mowers and riding mowers.

I price my riding mowers just in the middle and in my area the usual price is from 600 ( an average 2007 42" cut Craftsman in decent shape) to 1400 or so for a nice 2018 54 inch cut mower. For example a 2009 Troy Bilt Pony I sold was priced at 760 and I sold it at 720, it was in like new condition with 2 new tires, blades, carb, air, fuel, and gas filter, and just greased. I like for the machines I sell to be extremely clean so I like it and the person that buys it as well. Another example would be a 42" cut 2017 Cub Cadet XT1 I sold for 910 dollars. It also had new blades, cleaned carb, tires, filters etc and looked very nice and worked perfectly.

For the price of a standard push mower I sold was for 105 dollars. (nice looking murray 140 cc push mower) It had a sharpened blade and new carb, and oil. I bought it for 15 bucks when it was for fixing. Larger push mowers for example a honda 160 cc self propelled with bag, blade stop and choke control I sold for 250 which was also nice condition.

Ive only had one person contact me for a return of the mower but apparently didnt work properly when he used it but when I used it to cut the grass twice it worked just fine.

I only do this (apart from earning some money) for fun because I like fixing mowers but not much else. Im sort of a DIYer myself lol

I think in retirement you just need to relax and not think about how to make money

IDK, around here getting new mowers in for Dealers is getting to be a challenge. For some reason, they can't seem to get new stock.

That said: there may be a narrow market for good used riders. Not gonna get rich, that's for sure. But might make a few bucks. Just my .02.

Apologies for joining the conversation so late, but I couldn’t resist chiming in. As I can see, you're enjoying working on restoring old mowers and making a little bit of money on the side. As for discounted parts, have you tried looking into salvage yards or online marketplaces like eBay or Craigslist? You might be able to find some good deals on parts there. Additionally, if you're interested in exploring more options to earn extra cash enjoyably, you might want to check out joywallet.com. They offer a variety of ideas for making money, including side hustles, online opportunities, and even some fun and creative ways to earn cash. It's always great to have more options, so why not give it a look? Best of luck with your money-making endeavors!

JordanLess said:

Apologies for joining the conversation so late, but I couldn’t resist chiming in. As I can see, you're enjoying working on restoring old mowers and making a little bit of money on the side. As for discounted parts, have you tried looking into salvage yards or online marketplaces like eBay or Craigslist? You might be able to find some good deals on parts there.

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Thanks for your input. I do check those resources and get luck every so often. I really appreciate your advice!!

bartles

I would just like to post a warning to all who think refurbishing old equipment for resale is a good idea. Please take a good look at your liability?? In my many years of working in this industry I’ve seen countless times where people (both dealers and DIY guys) have been sued by those looking to make a quick buck. Most DIY guys don’t realize that if they are selling a piece of equipment, they have worked on, they can be liable for injuries and/or damage that may be caused by said equipment. I personally know of three guys who lost major dollars in law suits. One sold it to a relative. Even though I only repair about 2 dozen units a year and being 70+ years old I still carry a 1M liability policy to protect my family. Only takes one mistake or bad guy to ruin your “hobby”.

Have to agree with Rivets. If someone gets hurt today lawyers are involved. I too carry a 1M liability policy. When someone gives you money for something you assume some liability. I don't do much flipping but when I do sell something I do a bill of sale and state on it that the equipment is used and I warranty it for 30 days and accept no liability for its use.

Even simple things like a chain loop has to have a warning bout correct use and a "Danger Sharp" sticker on it
This is why a lot of businesses get rid of surplus stock via an auction because auctions generally as "as is where is " with neither warranty nor liability ataached to it .
Down here Ebay has the same status but Fac Book Market place or Gumtree or Trading post do not .
Failure to carry insurance can be a disaster
While a friend may not want to sue you, when the bills come in and the banks are chasing the house payments that changes in a flash.
If you are not a qualified certified repair agent then you will be taken to the cleaners as you first need to prove you competencey to a court that only recognises papers from colledges.
After that you have to prove it was not your fault and the purchaser was aware of the dangers
So I ve a roll of tape that reads "Danger Sharps " it is intended for medical waste but I stick it over every chai saw blade I sharpen, every mower blade I see And on the top of a chain saw bar
And parts bad big enough for a child to place over their head has to have the suffocation warning on it which is wht I use small sandwicj bages for small itens and old cartons for bigger orders .
If I have to leave them out & they might get wet I wrap them completely with packing tape ifI do not have a bag with a warning on it .
In my 11 years of trading, only had one customer try an injury claim
While I won the case, it cost me $ 5,000 in legal fees and I got a big dressing down from the magistrate for not "properly advising the customer of the potential danger" she obviously had never cut grass in her life .
IT was only a small claim for $ 75,000 making a claim against my insurance would have added $ 5000 to my annual premium each & every year for the next 5 years