We get this certified letter form Mexico Beach basically stating that we need to have all the dead trees cut off our lot or we will start getting fined.

This is a 100'x150' piece of property about 3 blocks off the public, City owned beach.

So Mrs. Irish posts up on the Mexico Beach Facebook page that we need to have the trees cut and removed. (They are all dead from the hurricane.) From the pictures it honestly looks like about 10 - 15 dead pine trees and none of them are that big.

Well she immediately gets an email from this lady who apparently is putting contractors in touch with customers and then gets a cut for providing business leads for them. Well she sends "Juan" over to look at our property this weekend and calls Mrs. Irish back with a price to remove the trees and haul them off... $8500.

I about fell out of my office chair. That just clearly screams price gouging to me. I told her to keep looking.

She calls me back after talking to a local guy who lost about half his pecan farm in South Georgia to the hurricane and lost his house in Mexico Beach. He drove over to our lot, looked at it and told her he would cut down all the trees, dig up all the stumps and pile it all by the road for the city to haul away for $4100.

That still seems high, but is sure sounded a lot better than the first sticker shock.

Does that second price sound pretty normal?

I've got some guys from Cherokee County that have done similar work for me at the cabin and I honestly think I could send them down there and pay all their expenses, hotel, food, gas, etc... and still come out better.