Illustration for Landing Property Management Accounts

This guide is about the sales process. If you already have a bid to write, see bidding your first commercial job. To see what managers expect to pay, read what property managers pay to wash apartment buildings.

Find the person who actually decides

The tenant who answers the door at a shopping center usually isn’t the buyer. A new Metro Atlanta washer found that out on a trade forum. He spent an hour or two walking shopping centers with business cards. Some stores said no or already had someone, but a few gave him the property managers’ numbers.

That’s the right target. The site’s property manager is the one held to the budget. In a National Apartment Association article, one property manager said her goal is to come within 10 percent of her budget. As fall arrives, she checks whether the prices she was quoted mid-year are the prices she’ll pay. A manager like that wants a vendor whose price won’t surprise her.

Have the vendor packet ready

Managers screen vendors before they hire them. Put these in one folder or PDF:

Item What managers ask for
Certificate of liability insurance One HOA management firm wants at least $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate
Additional insured endorsement The same firm requires itself and every association it manages to be named
Workers’ comp proof “As required by local and state statutes,” in that firm’s words
W-9 The IRS says it gives your taxpayer ID to whoever files an information return
Signed vendor agreement One manager’s sample agreement wants it with the W-9, licenses and insurance papers
One-page price sheet and references Your own: prices by service, plus 2 or 3 managers or owners who’ll take a call

Keep the insurance current. That sample agreement says any lapse in coverage will end future purchases.

If a manager wants notice when your policy lapses, the certificate alone won’t do it. In Michigan, the insurance code says a certificate doesn’t oblige the insurer to give notice of cancellation. A person gets that notice only if the policy or an endorsement gives them notice rights. So if you’re chasing apartment managers around Detroit, ask your agent about the endorsement, not just the paper. Other states have their own rules. For how certificates work with a partner on site, see when a job is too big for your rig. This isn’t legal advice.

Expect a vendor portal. Some managers use a third-party screening service. One community association manager says registering takes about 15 minutes and comes with an annual fee paid to the screening service. A screening company’s help page describes its subscription as an annual fee the vendor pays to access the portal and maintain the account. Ask the amount up front.

Prove it on one building

The Atlanta washer’s first idea was a free demo. That can work, but keep it small: one wall, one breezeway or one dumpster pad, priced so the manager knows what the full job costs.

One good building can open the door. A Pennsylvania washer, doing about 80% residential work, washed a building for a management company that oversees 50 properties. He said the building was about 70,000 sq ft and took him and two others about 8 hours. The manager was happy and came back asking about sealing. A reply in that thread noted that on a building that size it’s worth doing a few test spots before committing to a cleaning mix.

Follow up on the budget calendar

The same National Apartment Association article calls the start of fall the beginning of the end of the calendar year, when managers take stock of the budget and plan the coming year. That makes fall a good time to:

  • Send a written price for next year, so the manager can put it in the budget.
  • Check in with managers you’ve already worked for, and offer the other properties they run.
  • Ask how invoices are approved and how fast they’re paid, so cash flow doesn’t surprise you.

Track every manager you contact: who you spoke to, which properties they run and when to call back. For how commercial compares with other lead sources, see where pressure washing leads come from.

Keep the account

Once you’re in, protect the price. When the work grows, re-bid it in writing; see re-bidding a commercial account.

Facts here come from managers’ and agencies’ own published pages, and forum examples are posters’ own accounts. How we check numbers.

Sources

Based on 10 sources · How we price