Landscaping business loans

Which loans work best for landscaping?

Equipment financing works best for commercial mowers, skid steers, mini excavators and trailers, often through the dealer at a promotional rate. Commercial vehicle loans work best for the trucks that carry crews and tow equipment. A line of credit works best for the gap between the last fall invoice and the first spring payment, drawn in winter and repaid by June. SBA 7(a) fits buying another landscaping company or a yard.

• Equipment: 2 to 6 years, 0% to 20% down, 0% promotional to 20% APR.
• Vehicle loans: 3 to 6 years, 7% to 18% APR.
• Lines of credit: $10,000 to $250,000, 8% to 35% APR.

What do lenders like and dislike about landscaping?

Lenders like commercial maintenance contracts that repeat every year, snow removal contracts that fill the winter, hardscape and installation work with higher margins, and equipment they can resell. They like a company with a yard, a fleet and crews rather than a single owner with a truck.

They dislike seasonality, weather that can wipe out a month, low barriers to entry that keep margins thin, and crews that turn over every spring. Cash heavy residential work understates revenue in the bank. Working capital lenders that look only at the last three months will decline a healthy company in February, which is why timing the application matters more in landscaping than almost any trade.

How much can a landscaping company borrow?

Equipment lenders fund the invoice, typically $8,000 to $20,000 per commercial mower, $40,000 to $80,000 for a skid steer and $30,000 to $70,000 for a crew truck. Working capital lenders advance 50% to 100% of one month of in season deposits, so a company depositing $80,000 a month in summer usually sees $40,000 to $80,000 if it applies in summer. Bank lines for established companies are sized at one to two months of average revenue across the year, not the peak. SBA 7(a) acquisitions are sized by the target's annual cash flow and commonly run $250,000 to $2 million. Use how much can I borrow for a range, and borrow against the whole year, not the best month.

What documents will you be asked for?

Landscaping lenders ask for the standard package plus evidence that revenue repeats:

• A list of commercial maintenance and snow contracts with annual value and term
• 12 months of bank statements, not 3, so the lender sees the full season
• Equipment and vehicle quotes
• Liability and workers compensation certificates, plus a pesticide license if you apply chemicals
• Two years of tax returns and financial statements for banks and SBA
• A fleet and equipment list with liens
• A simple month by month cash flow projection showing how winter is covered

The document checklist covers the rest.

What are the common uses of funds?

Landscaping loans typically pay for one of these.

• Equipment: two commercial mowers and a trailer at $45,000 financed over four years before the spring rush.
• A truck: a $60,000 crew cab with a dump body financed over five years.
• Winter payroll for key crew: a $50,000 line draw in December repaid by May. See seasonal business financing.
• Growing into hardscape: a skid steer and a compactor financed against the new contracts.
• Snow equipment: plows and a salt spreader financed in the fall so the winter contracts can be signed.
• Buying a competitor's route: an acquisition loan sized to the maintenance contracts that come with it.

What usually gets a landscaping application declined?

The most common reason is applying in the off season, when the last three months of statements show little revenue and negative balance days. After that it is being under a year old, no written contracts, and existing advances taken to survive a prior winter. Equipment lenders decline on credit scores under about 600 and on used equipment that is too old. Banks decline on losses, mixed personal and business accounts, and no winter revenue plan. Missing insurance or an expired pesticide license stops loans where chemical application is part of the work. Why loans get denied explains how to fix each one.

How to apply

Apply once here with 12 months of bank statements, your contract list and your equipment quotes, and your application reaches equipment, vehicle, line of credit and SBA lenders together. Or connect your AI assistant to our MCP server through the agents hub and let it read your statements, fill the application and submit it. It is free to the business, and offers come back to the same place for comparison. Apply in season if you can.