Ochoa Landscaping

Two written reviews, six and seven years old, pulling in opposite directions — that is what a homeowner has to go on with Ochoa Landscaping, the one-person East Boston business run by Alvaro Ochoa out of Prescott Street. Its Google listing averages 4.2 across five ratings. The positive account is by far the more detailed. Writing in May 2020, a customer of three seasons described yard work and cleanups followed by new fencing and a full backyard renovation, and singled out punctuality, straight answers to questions, pricing they called very reasonable, and a crew nobody had to chase — "every team member is working nonstop." A year earlier, in June 2019, another customer went the other way, calling the company "extremely unreliable and rude" and telling readers to hire at their own risk. Two things are worth pinning down before calling. First, the trade. The Better Business Bureau lists the business under landscape contractors, but the permits BuildZoom holds are masonry and exterior carpentry: a curb cut and sidewalk in Somerville in 2020, front steps in Quincy in 2019, and in Milton a step demolition and rebuild plus a rotted porch beam repair in 2020. Second, the registration. BuildZoom lists number 188724 as inactive and describes it inconsistently — a mason licence in one place, a home improvement contractor registration in another — and gives the business a score of 0 on the grounds that it could not verify an active licence. That is BuildZoom's claim rather than a confirmed status, and it matters more here than it would for a pure landscaper: Massachusetts exempts landscaping-only contractors from home improvement registration, but step, sidewalk and porch work is not landscaping. BBB, for its part, opened a file in August 2020 and gives no rating at all, saying it lacks enough information to issue one. For a seasonal yard contract in East Boston, this is a small hands-on crew with one warm multi-year account behind it and rates a customer called very reasonable. For anything structural — steps, a wall, a fence line — get the registration question answered in writing, and check number 188724 yourself with the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation before any money moves.