'Professional' stump grinding is about $300/per stump in my area, so your quote also sounds like a deal to me too!
I've tried quite a variety of methods over the years, including rental and grinding myself. I found it to be do-able, although kind of hard work, and slow going. Took me a couple hours + for a 4' stump and roots. The one advantage of DIY is that you can go deeper if you want to, than the standard 'pro' grind, and you can also go after all the surface roots that you want to as well. In my experience having someone else do it, they never went deep enough for me and they wouldn't do all the surface roots.
I suppose it depends what you are after in the front yard? If the goal is flat turf, then grinding one way or the other is probably the ticket.
Me--I'm a big fan of stump incorporation into some gardens and complete removal including all the offensive underground supporting structures in other gardens (and for that I use an excavator
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