Photo by Jon Anderson
RJs Landscaping 3-23-19
Jimmy Gray of R.J.'s Landscaping mows a lawn in the Country Club Estates subdivision in the Green Valley community in Hoover, Alabama, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. R.J.'s Landscaping is one of about 15 lawn care companies signed up to bid on jobs through GreenPal.
Just in time for spring, a company that connects homeowners with lawn care providers last week officially expanded into Hoover.
GreenPal, a Nashville-based company sometimes referred to as the Uber for lawn care, lets homeowners list their address, lawn care needs and desired service date on the company’s website or mobile app.
Vetted lawn care professionals then bid on the jobs based on Google street and aerial images and other details provided by homeowners, and the homeowners pick which company they want to hire based on vendor ratings, reviews and prices.
Once homeowners pick a company, they enter their credit card number to secure the service. When the lawn care providers complete a job, they send a time-stamped photo of the completed work. Homeowners then pay via the app and set up more appointments if desired.
GreenPal, which operates in 75 major markets in 27 states, did a soft launch in Birmingham toward the end of the cutting season last year and officially launched in Birmingham about a month ago, said Gene Caballero, one of three founders of the company.
GreenPal since has expanded to a few surrounding cities, including Bessemer, Gardendale, Hoover and Mountain Brook. There was a soft entry into the Hoover market a couple of months ago, and the official launch into Hoover was March 20, Caballero said.
GreenPal has about 15 lawn care companies offering service in Hoover and about 40 in the Birmingham-Hoover metro area as a whole, he said. Nationally, GreenPal has more than 6,000 landscaping professionals using the service, he said. Most of them are people who are self-employed or small companies that appreciate assistance with marketing, scheduling and payment, he said.
But before GreenPal will allow them to bid on jobs, the companies must show pictures of previous work and confirm that they have commercial grade equipment and valid Social Security Administration and bank account numbers, Caballero said.
GreenPal does not verify that the companies have a business license in each jurisdiction but encourages them to get licenses from appropriate cities, counties and states, as well as limited liability insurance, he said.
More than 500,000 homeowners have signed up to use GreenPal’s service, Caballero said. About 90 percent of the company’s clients are homeowners, while 10 percent are businesses, he said.
GreenPal receives 5 percent of whatever bid price is accepted by the client, he said.
Once a homeowner lists their property, GreenPal sends emails to the lawn care services to alert them, and most homeowners start getting bids within five to 15 mintues, Caballero said. There typically are three to four bidders per job, he said.
Susan Crawford, a resident of Country Club Estates in the Green Valley community, said she struggled trying to find someone to take care of her lawn and came across GreenPal when she did a Google search a couple of months ago.
She listed her property, and her top choice among lawn care companies ended up being too far away (in Pinson), she said. Her second choice was R.J.’s Landscaping in Birmingham, owned by Robert Wright.
“Robert came out on the day we needed him, exactly at the time we needed him,” Crawford said.
So far, she has hired him to come back twice more, and he has provided excellent service, she said. “He does everything just like I ask,” Crawford said. “And we came up with a game plan on how to improve the appearance of my lawn.”
Wright, who has owned his own landscaping business since 2015, said the GreenPal service has been beneficial for his business as well. It started out kind of slow, but as more people are learning about it, he’s getting more opportunities for jobs, he said.
So far, he has won seven bids through GreenPal, he said. One GreenPal client in McCalla has scheduled 18 more appointments with him this season, and another in Birmingham has 16 more appointments scheduled, he said.
“Everything is done through my app on my phone,” he said.
Caballero said he came up with the idea for GreenPal in 2012, and he founded the company with Zach Hendrix and Brian Williams in 2014. Right now, they are trying to add one major market per week, and by the end of this year, they hope to be doing business in every state, he said.
People interested in finding lawn care service in Hoover through GreenPal can go to yourgreenpal.com/local/lawn-care-hoover-al.
