TaskEasy: Make Money Mowing Lawns

Whether it’s winter or spring, homeowners often face a litany of yard care tasks — from snow-blowing to mowing — that few have the time or equipment to properly address. If you, on the other hand, have the necessary outdoor equipment and are aching to use it, you should know about TaskEasy.

What is TaskEasy?

TaskEasy pairs homeowners and property managers with contractors in their area who are ready and willing to provide outdoor services. These services include lawn mowing, edging, trimming, snow removal and yard maintenance.

Homeowners get instant quotes online and schedule jobs through the system. Contractors use their own equipment and vehicles to complete the work.

How it works

Registering as a contractor is free. You simply fill out a form with basic information, name, company details, email, phone, primary zip code and submit it.

The company will have you sign in and attest to a variety of things, including that you have appropriate business licenses, have never been convicted of a felony or a sex offense and that you’re willing to undergo a background check. You’ll also have to attest to having liability insurance of $1 million per occurrence/$2 million aggregate, as well as a worker’s compensation policy that covers up to $100,000 per incidence and $500,000 total.

Contractors without insurance must get General Liability and Occupational Accidental coverage through TaskEasy, though it costs a fee per service.

TaskEasy can (but might not) run a background check on you.

Once you’re approved, you enter their contractor network and will start getting job requests.

TaskEasy Review

The basic idea behind TaskEasy was to make property maintenance simpler by allowing customers to book services online, without the need to have a contractor come to your house and provide a bid.

The site does this by using AI tools coupled with Google Earth to find and measure the customer’s yard and come up with a price for basic mowing or premium services, which include trimming and weeding. Clients can schedule a one-time service, weekly, bi-weekly or monthly.

The platform covers residential properties and some small commercial ones across the United States.

The good…

The value proposition for contractors is that the site finds customers for you and bills them on your behalf. You don’t need to schedule a meeting with the customer, bid the job and collect. The site does all of that.

Likewise, the benefit for customers is that they don’t have to find their own contractors and schedule bids. They can simply book online and get a fixed price for the service they choose.

The bad…

But the ease of the bidding process doesn’t always lead to accurate bids. After all, where online tools may help you measure lot sizes accurately, they can’t provide a good description of the current state of the property.

And where some properties are pretty standard, others are seriously overgrown or have access issues that make them challenging. Sometimes the site allows contractors to charge additional fees for overgrown lawns or extra work. But getting approval for those isn’t a sure thing. The site says the bid has to be 20% under market rate for them to approve an extra payment.

Moreover, where most clients are great, some are jerks. When you meet them in person, you get a sense of that and bid accordingly. Here, you don’t meet the client in advance. So your first indication of problems can be a client that nitpicks every job, forcing you to return to re-trim the 2-inch patch of sod that the client claims wasn’t properly manicured. TaskEasy, by the way, offers clients a performance guarantee. So, you don’t have the right to ignore smarmy customers once you’ve taken that job.

And, of course, TaskEasy’s services are not free. So, where you get 100% of the customer’s payment when you work on your own, you’re likely to get some fraction of the pay here.

Hidden terms

Notably, when you go to the TaskEasy site for contractors, you get a lot of vague platitudes about how the site will help you manage your business and optimize your routes. But you don’t get any detail about how the site works or pays you until you apply.

At that point, you get access to a dashboard that tells you all the requirements to work with them, including

Contractor assignments

Contractors are contacted about job assignments based on location and availability. Each job shows the property size, the type of service needed and the amount it pays. You choose which jobs to accept. But once you accept a job, you’re expected to show up and complete it.

You must take before and after photos as proof that you did a job and completed it.

Pay

Pay depends on the job type, where you’re working, and how big the property is. But you don’t set your own rates here. Pricing is predetermined by TaskEasy using public property details and the consumer’s description of the job that needs to be done.

Contractors are paid through direct deposit, but timing varies on the payout option you pick.

TaskEasy has two payout methods: Standard Pay (no fee) processes weekly, but takes about 3 to 4 weeks from when you finish the job.

FastPay gets you paid within 1 – 3 business days after approval. But they charge a 3.9% fee for this.

Commissions & fees

TaskEasy is no longer transparent about the fees it exacts from each job. In years past, the site took a 14% commission and charged another 6% to those who bought liability and workers compensation insurance through them.

Now the site says that it takes nothing from the pay you see when a job appears on the app. However, the site is likely collecting considerably more from the client than what you get paid.

If you need the site’s insurance, TaskEasy charges $2.15 on jobs paying $70 or less. For bigger jobs, the cost of insurance coverage is 1.86% of the job value, plus 85 cents. Importantly, if you ever needed to make a claim against this policy, TaskEasy will hold you liable for the policy’s $500 deductible.

Work availability

How much work you get depends heavily on your location. Urban areas tend to have more consistent demand. Rural zones might see sporadic opportunities. Work is seasonal by nature — mowing jobs in summer, snow removal in winter.

You’ll manage everything through the app, scheduling, job details and uploading photos.

TaskEasy manually verifies your work using the photos you submit for proof. This creates some transparency in the process. But if you skip the before and after photos, your payment might get delayed or denied entirely.

Challenges

Job descriptions aren’t always accurate. Property sizes might be understated. Or there could be obstacles nobody mentioned — like poor access to the customer’s yard.

And customer support quality varies. Sometimes, there are delays in processing, poor communication or payment issues, such as withheld funds over alleged mistakes.

Finally, there’s no reimbursement if you drive to a property and the customer’s a no-show, and fuel costs are on you.

Once you accept a job, you’re locked in. Backing out can result in penalties, especially if you end a long-term contract early.

Additionally, you cannot use this site to build your own clientele because TaskEasy’s contract has a non-compete clause that bars you from soliciting business from any client you met through the platform for two years.

Recommendations

When we look at reviews and this site’s contract with contractors, we get the impression that TaskEasy once worked well for contractors, but doesn’t anymore. You do get to pick and choose gigs here. So if you’re highly selective, you may be able to make decent money cherry-picking jobs. But be careful about taking regular gigs, if you haven’t scoped out the property first. You can sign up with TaskEasy here.

However, other sites, including GreenPal, charge lower commissions and pay more promptly. So, if you’re looking for a way to boost your lawn care business, sign up there too. And, you may find the best success using a completely free social media platform like Nextdoor to get customer referrals.

What their users say (from Google Play)

I am having a good feeling about this app service. It isn’t too difficult and I know someone who used to use them that says they are wonderful for as well.

[The] app doesn’t work. you put in all your information and it says your IP address is out of the country. I’m in Colorado, the middle of the country.

Whoever created this app did so with the intention of stealing your blood and sweat for money. They refuse to pay u less you cover the entire property with photos.

Overgrown properties

All of the risk and materials are on you as far as your equipment and vehicle go. The yards are mostly neglected rentals so you’ll enjoy hidden holes, roots, dog toys, kid toys and household items hidden in the yard.

Horrible. The first job I have been given is an extremely overgrown lot without access to the back yard, no gate at all. I quadruple cut the overgrowth I could and made it look presentable. They won’t pay me. They want a full property cleanup for pennies.

These guys pay you very little to do big landscaping jobs, give you no benefits, reimbursement is non existent, equipment is all up to you, and won’t listen to ideas or suggestions at all.

Emailed me saying there will be a price cut on their already cheap yards.. well I downloaded the customers side and they are charging $75 for some of these yards and trying to pay the contractors $20 hahahahhahaha. Run run run for your lives, buddies.