Cheap condo associations driving me nuts!

ckingclean

ckingclean

Cleaning with Aloha
We've been going for condo complexes full time here for about 3 months. We've done lots of demos and put out lots of bids. It is amazing how after proving our superior service, they still don't want to pay for it.

We are dealing mainly with the general managers, on site building managers, etc. We show them the demo, put together a professional bid packet for them with pics and they submit it to the board. The people we deal with tell us that no one can get the surfaces as cleans we can, we are more professional, blah blah blah. The board still says no. We are more expensive than the lowballers, but not crazy expensive.

It's driving me crazy having these people tell us how much they want and need the service, just to have the board say no everytime or go with a rediculously cheap low baller. Does anyone have any suggestions that would help this situation? Are we going to the wrong people? Any input would be great! Thanks Guys.
 
Kill the competition!!
 
Yeah there you go!

It's not just the competition, sometimes they would rather leave the surfaces rediculously dirty than pay to have them cleaned. People are paying tons of money to vacation at these places and have to deal with super dirty pool areas, walkways, etc. It's crazy!!
 
ckingclean said:
Yeah there you go!

It's not just the competition, sometimes they would rather leave the surfaces rediculously dirty than pay to have them cleaned. People are paying tons of money to vacation at these places and have to deal with super dirty pool areas, walkways, etc. It's crazy!!
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This is the scnenrio all across the country, except Myrtle Bch :D
 
Maybe I should pack it up and move there!
 
The Cleaner said:
This is the scnenrio all across the country, except Myrtle Bch :D
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Hahaha! Yea! We can't get the bid to go out and kill 1 mold spore but somehow Mertle Bch is the cleanest place on earth! LOL...:D
 
ckingclean said:
We've been going for condo complexes full time here for about 3 months. We've done lots of demos and put out lots of bids. It is amazing how after proving our superior service, they still don't want to pay for it.

We are dealing mainly with the general managers, on site building managers, etc. We show them the demo, put together a professional bid packet for them with pics and they submit it to the board. The people we deal with tell us that no one can get the surfaces as cleans we can, we are more professional, blah blah blah. The board still says no. We are more expensive than the lowballers, but not crazy expensive.

It's driving me crazy having these people tell us how much they want and need the service, just to have the board say no everytime or go with a rediculously cheap low baller. Does anyone have any suggestions that would help this situation? Are we going to the wrong people? Any input would be great! Thanks Guys.
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It can be very aggravating for sure. There are properties here that get cleaned with just pressure & water and the mildew is still everywhere. These are properties I used to clean so they know the difference but they save 25% or more they go with the hack

First starting out it is and will be very hard. I am sorry to say price is the major factor with the majority of properties. I wish I could charge more than I do but I work it where what we do is very profitable. Now you can possibly be in an area that is just rediculous and so many very low ball contractors

Are you offering to much? I ask this because sometimes you got to give them what they want, not what you think is right. Let me explain... these properties want perfect yet never pay for it and never get perfect. How about if you offer instead of perfect you offer GOOD. You dont tell them any different you offer a GOOD basic wash and anything extra is just that extra. We dont scrub gutters 99.9999% of the time, WHY? because we line item the gutter scrub, its an extra. The see the extra price the say no, so we dont have to worry. There are marks & stains that just not cleaned in the basic wash, often also that will be extra. Forget about perfect and just think about doing a damn good job. Your competition if they arent getting it clean at all and they pay for it, then I guess they just dont care.

How many properties have you bid? Do you know how much lower the bids were? Is it the same PM , sometimes some PM's have thier guy that they go to even if that guy sucks. Maybe move on to other PM's, the good ones quite often realize a good vendor and will only use a good vendor, the problem is you have no history for them to say hey even thou this guy is higher we still should use them. Now if you are regulary double the price of many others you may just be bidding to high. Theres sooooo many factors that could be going on. good luck, keep going for it, but you have to find out if your pricing is way off or just a little off

Call me if you want sometime
 
The Cleaner said:
This is the scnenrio all across the country, except Myrtle Bch :D
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Pricing is tough here too BUT you just got to work with what you got. Its just like flatwork large scale, we all know we should be making more but you deal with it and make it profitable


I love Myrtle Beach
I love PWing
I love my PM's
I love my Xjet
 
jlpressure said:
Pricing is tough here too BUT you just got to work with what you got. Its just like flatwork large scale, we all know we should be making more but you deal with it and make it profitable


I love Myrtle Beach
I love PWing
I love my PM's
I love my Xjet
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I love my wife, I will say it for ya, because i know you do!!
 
Good info to work with Jeff! :) I like it.
 
jlpressure said:
It can be very aggravating for sure. There are properties here that get cleaned with just pressure & water and the mildew is still everywhere. These are properties I used to clean so they know the difference but they save 25% or more they go with the hack

First starting out it is and will be very hard. I am sorry to say price is the major factor with the majority of properties. I wish I could charge more than I do but I work it where what we do is very profitable. Now you can possibly be in an area that is just rediculous and so many very low ball contractors

Are you offering to much? I ask this because sometimes you got to give them what they want, not what you think is right. Let me explain... these properties want perfect yet never pay for it and never get perfect. How about if you offer instead of perfect you offer GOOD. You dont tell them any different you offer a GOOD basic wash and anything extra is just that extra. We dont scrub gutters 99.9999% of the time, WHY? because we line item the gutter scrub, its an extra. The see the extra price the say no, so we dont have to worry. There are marks & stains that just not cleaned in the basic wash, often also that will be extra. Forget about perfect and just think about doing a damn good job. Your competition if they arent getting it clean at all and they pay for it, then I guess they just dont care.

How many properties have you bid? Do you know how much lower the bids were? Is it the same PM , sometimes some PM's have thier guy that they go to even if that guy sucks. Maybe move on to other PM's, the good ones quite often realize a good vendor and will only use a good vendor, the problem is you have no history for them to say hey even thou this guy is higher we still should use them. Now if you are regulary double the price of many others you may just be bidding to high. Theres sooooo many factors that could be going on. good luck, keep going for it, but you have to find out if your pricing is way off or just a little off

Call me if you want sometime
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Right on, thanks for the tips Jeff. We have bid on about a dozen or so. Still trying to figure out how much lower the other bids were. There is a large janitorial company here that does every type of cleaning under the sun and they bid unbelievably low. Guess what - they get all the work! People have told us that they hate the work and service, but still hire them because they are so cheap.

We aren't dealing much with PMs we are dealing with the on site resident managers and on site facility managers for each property. We go to the property and ask who is in charge of Facility Maintenance, etc. Those people then submit the bids to the board. We put in lots of bids in December so they would be reviewed at the January meeting (some are still going on).

In a few weeks I'll know if we got a few that are still looking promising. I'll give you a call soon too, thank for the offer.
 
ckingclean said:
Right on, thanks for the tips Jeff. We have bid on about a dozen or so. Still trying to figure out how much lower the other bids were. There is a large janitorial company here that does every type of cleaning under the sun and they bid unbelievably low. Guess what - they get all the work! People have told us that they hate the work and service, but still hire them because they are so cheap.

We aren't dealing much with PMs we are dealing with the on site resident managers and on site facility managers for each property. We go to the property and ask who is in charge of Facility Maintenance, etc. Those people then submit the bids to the board. We put in lots of bids in December so they would be reviewed at the January meeting (some are still going on).

In a few weeks I'll know if we got a few that are still looking promising. I'll give you a call soon too, thank for the offer.
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I'll comment more later. BUT Janatorial Companies ARGGGGGGG They are historically lowballrs around here. They price like they are washing a toilet. They pay their help $7 an hours and let them loose. There may be ways to attck this with some properties let me think on a stratigy I get back to this.
 
Cool thanks man! We are having the same problem with commercial flatwork centers. A national maintenance company does all the maintenance including poor quality pressure washing. Almost every larger center here is in a contract with them. :mad: :mad: :mad:
 
ckingclean said:
Cool thanks man! We are having the same problem with commercial flatwork centers. A national maintenance company does all the maintenance including poor quality pressure washing. Almost every larger center here is in a contract with them. :mad: :mad: :mad:
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Chris
I have never been to your area, but I hear everything is real expensive over there, I would think because of that the pay scale would be more to compensate for the cost of living or is that just for 9to 5ers and such?
 
Al Patterson said:
Chris
I have never been to your area, but I hear everything is real expensive over there, I would think because of that the pay scale would be more to compensate for the cost of living or is that just for 9to 5ers and such?
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I hear they only pay top dollar for surfboards LOL. Sometimes pricing is scewy even in the rich areas or what you would think should be good money areas.

I see guys up the northeast get 3 - 4 times more than we get and then a county or two over they cant get the work because their pricing is to high. I wish there was a set rate country wide, but thats just a dream
 
jlpressure said:
I wish there was a set rate country wide, but thats just a dream
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yep ....... I rear main on my 2500 duramax went out yesterday and we called couple places to check on prices and all they do is look it up on computer and BOOM!!! aprox $900.00 on all the places we checked.
It would be nice if our business was set up like that!
By the way its a big BUMMER to have your work truck go down and cost $$$$$
 
This is the most expensive place in the US to live and do business. Hawaii is the most expensive state and maui is the most expensive island. Crazy huh?

It is constantly a struggle to keep prices high enough. It's a really transient environment here so there are tons of fly by night low ballers. Everyone comes here from other parts of the US and expect to pay the same prices that they pay at home. Everything has to be shipped at crazy prices. We know more about Power washing equipment. than the local distributor does.

From what I can tell, our prices are not any higher than what most of you guys are getting. So there you have it, Hawaii is a great place to go for vacation, but don't come here to work! Hahaha The great weather and surfing does make up for it though!
 
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