Lawn mowers can depreciate a lot, but there are some things you can do to get the maximum price possible when it comes to selling your mower.
If you’re selling your mower because you want an upgrade, you’re done with lawn care or you’d just like to make some extra cash, you’ll want to make sure you’re getting top dollar for it.
I’m going to let you in on all of the tips I have for getting best price when selling your used lawn mower.
Have the paperwork to hand
If you’re selling your used mower, here are some things you’ll want to have ready to show the customer…
Specification to list
You’ll want to have a list of the specifications to hand. If you’re not sure of anything, you can find a lot of the information online by googling the serial number. I’d make sure to know the following:
- Deck size
- Push or self propelled
- Engine size/type
- Age of the mower
Make sure you’re aware of any special features your model has. For example you might have a bagger that does not come with the standard product. This may be a selling point to a potential buyer of the same model so make sure you list any additional features.
Maintenance
It always looks good if you have a list of all the maintenance that has been done previously. It shows you’ve taken care of it and you’ll be much more likely to get away with asking for a higher price if you have this available to show a potential buyer.
I like to keep a list of the following items with a date on which it was done:
- Check oil
- Grease & lube
- Change oil
- Change air filter
- Clean
- Sharpen blades
- Change spark plug
- Other
I’d also recommend having a basic description of how the mower runs. It’s best to be honest about it otherwise you’ll end up wasting the buyers time as well as your own.
What about the price?
Of course, one of the most important things to consider is the price you want to sell for and this can be quite difficult to figure out in the case of a lawn mower. Unfortunately, there’s not really a lawn mower blue book to help you figure out how much its worth. A good starting price will generally be determined by the market value for similar mowers posted on various auction websites, forums and social media platforms. From there you can price up or down based upon the age of the mower and the condition that it’s in.
I’d always recommend doing a quick search on SearchTempest. You can put your model in and see what different people are asking for their mowers.
Once you’ve got all the information you need to sell your mower, you can move on to choosing when to actually sell the mower.
When is the best time to sell a used lawn mower?
There’s really only a couple of things to consider when it comes to figuring out when you should sell your mower. The time of year and the condition of the economy.
Pick a warmer season to sell
You don’t need to pay much attention to this if you’re living in an area thats warm all year round, but for the rest of us, it’s going to be best if you’re able to sell during the warmer months when the demand for lawn mower’s is high.
There’s going to be very few people concerned with their lawn during the cooler months and so the demand for mowers will be much less during this time than in early spring through summer.
People are much more likely to be in the market when the weather starts to pick up so you’ll have much more potential buyers during this time.
Keep a watch on the economy
Its debatable whether you’d classify a lawn mower as a luxury item (I would) but the fact of the matter is, people are more likely to part with their cash for these kinds of things when the economy is doing well. So if possible, wait for better days before you try to sell your mower.
This will become more important for higher value mowers. If you’re selling a push mower that’s only a couple hundred dollars, this may not be too big of a deal but if you’re trying to sell a zero turn mower for thousands of dollars, it’s a completely different story. Thats a pretty hefty investment for most folks so they’ll have to spend more time deciding whether they want to part with their cash.
Predicting when the economy is going to be in good condition is no easy task. Sometimes its better to just sell than wait because you could end up waiting forever!
Prepare it to be sold
Now you know how timing plays a role in this process, we can begin to discuss preparing the mower for the sale. Even if you don’t worry about the timing of the sale one bit, you absolutely need to make sure you prepare you mower before you put it up for sale.
Just because your lawn mower is used, it doesn’t have to look and feel like one. It can take some time to make it look pretty, but it’s definitely worth making sure its in the best condition possible before you try to sell it.
Making it look nice and new will help you get top dollar.
Clean your mower
Just before you begin trying to sell your used mower, you’ll need to make sure its as clean as possible. This means more than wiping the outside of the mower and calling it a day.
You’ll want to fully clean out the deck and get rid of all that caked on grass. I usually recommend cleaning your mower after every cut because if you let the grass dry, it can be really hard to get it off.
Don’t try using a pressure washer on your mower, it can cause water to get into key components of the mower that don’t need to get wet. For cleaning under the deck, I’d recommend using a scraper. Compressed air works well for the rest of the mower.
It’s also a good idea to do some basic maintenance work before you sell too. It’s a good idea to change the air filter, change the oil, sharpen the blades and fill the tires.
It can seem like a lot of work but it might make all the difference to a potential buyer who comes along and sees it looking like new. If you’ve done a bit of maintenance on it too, its going to run that little bit better which will be good if the buyer wants to test it out before making the purchase.
Once you’ve finished cleaning your mower and doing any necessary maintenance work on it, you can move on to advertising.
Take photos
You’ll want your lawn mower looking its best on camera so use the best equipment you can get your hands on. If your mower looks like its in top condition on an ad, you’re more likely to get a lot of interest. Cell phones take reasonably good photos if you don’t have an expensive camera. You should photo all sides of the mower.
Make sure you’re not using any special filters or effects that maybe misleading to the buyers. Its only likely to turn them away.
I’d also recommend uploading a video of your mower in action too. Its free to upload a video to YouTube or some other platform that allows for video footage and it only takes a couple of minutes to get out your cell phone and record something.
For the video, I’d recommend recording the following:
- A walk around the mower
- Starting the mower
- Running over some grass
Best places to sell your used lawn mower
Ultimately there’s no best place to sell your lawn mower but if you really want to make sure you’re getting the most amount of money you can out of it, you should offer it up for sale in a lot of different places.
You usually have a few options, you can try selling it through word of mouth or to someone you know. You could also try using ads, flyers or online forums. Going through a dealership can work out pretty well too.
Selling your mower on your own
This is my favorite way to sell. Its really great if you’re just trying to get rid of a basic push mower or something like that. Selling to someone you know means you’re not going to have to worry about whether you can trust the person either.
Its pretty common to find a neighbour who’ll want to buy of you too.
Alongside marketing through word of mouth, you’ll want to get your mower up on your social media. I’m always seeing a lot of posts advertising different types of mowers but then again alot of my contacts have the shared interest in lawn care. It’s totally okay if you’re not in that position, not to worry!
TOP TIP!
A potential buyer will often ask – is the mower still available and can it be delivered. You can avoid these questions by posting this info straight up front.
I’ve had some success posting on local classifieds. You could try a generic website or maybe even a local newspaper. The ones that are fee to post are great; you don’t have to worry about extra annoying costs.
If you’re really keen to go local, you could always print of an ad and post it up in your local gas station or grocery store.
Selling your mower online
Putting your lawn mower up for sale on social media sites is technically selling your mower online, but what I want to discuss here is selling on online auction sites and lawn mowing forums.
Putting your mower up on online is the best way to get a large volume of people looking at what you have to sell which increases the chance of you making more money.
I’ve had some luck using Offerup to sell locally. When people search they can filter by location and even search for a particular brand or model so make sure you’re specific when writing a description.
Lawnsite.com is a great place to sell a mower in my opinion. There’s a lot of experts on there and it has a pretty nice community feel. I know if I’m looking to buy a mower, I’m much less likely that to run into fake sellers on a site like this since nonsense usually gets called out immediately.
TOP TIP!
When you post the asking price, confirm whether you are firm or flexible on this value.
It can be pretty frustrating when you get people who put in ridiculously low offers but if you’re selling anything, it’s going to happen at some point. You will just have to ignore these. If someone offers a price so low, it’s very unlikely that you’re going to get them to offer something even remotely close to what you’re willing to accept so you’re better not to waste your time with that person and move on.
Other options like Facebook Marketplace, eBay and Craigslist are great for finding a lot of potential buyers. Facebook marketplace charges no listing fees and the bidding on a site like eBay works in your favour because you can set a minimum price so the value you’ll get in the end can only go up from there if people do bid.
Going through a dealership
Maybe you’re thinking its going to be too much hassle to try and find someone trustworthy at the right price. It can certainly be a little intimidating and it may be a better option for those with a little more experience. In this case, you might want to look into selling your mower to a dealership.
There’s definitely some benefit to selling to a dealership. You don’t have to worry about marketing your mower, dealing with potential buyers and having to negotiate a price. You might also be able to get away without giving it a full service yourself as they can often do this for you. You should probably at least cover the basics though.
All you really need to worry about is agreeing a price with the dealership. I’ve found this often lower than you might expect and I’ve had way better offers from selling on my own but if you don’t want to go through the hassle of it all, you may want consider selling to a dealer.
If your mower is so old and not worth alot, a dealer is not going to be interested so you’ll be on your own in this case.
Final Tips – Selling the mower
There’s really only a couple of things to left mention.
Only accept a bank transfer as payment – There are ways for the buyer to get the money back if they pay through various payment sites so I’d recommend bank transfer only. Don’t hand over anything until you’ve received the full agreed amount in your account.
Don’t leave a potential buyer left unattended with the mower – I’ve heard of stories where the buyer purposely damaged the equipment before pointing out the fault they created to the seller and then used that to ask for a lower price. Keep an eye on things at all times.
