Who works for Property managers

Henry Bockman said:
Hey Jeff, you can still price these types of jobs by using a linear foot measurement. Just average it out with your time and material method and then when you work faster your making better money. $1,500 a day running two or three crews is good but you can do better than that if your using higher volume equipment, good soap and a faster routine down. We did a 35,000 complex a few months ago in 5 days. Most of the buildings I do we knock out in 2-3 days.
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Henry a lot has changed for me in two, three years. That $1500 was for 2 or three guys. Now its more like $2500 give or take. The minimun a guy makes for me now is about $500 a day and usually much better than that. My numbers are way up the only number that is down is my labor cost. I use a lot less man hours now to do jobs. Example we did 70K more work this year. Last year I had $130K in labor cost, this year it is under 100K big savings. We now do complexes in 25% less time and sometime we actually cut the time in half.

As for measuring I personally do not have to. I really know how to price by the style of the buildings.

2006 is sooooo long ago for us now. Its a whole other world for JL. We have really stepped it up to a different level now
 
Good post! I am new to the site and have been looking and reading trying to learn more about the profession. My father and I are Just getting in the business He being retired so he is full time and I being a firefighter so almost full time other than every third day. I have learned quite a bit since I have joined and look forward to learning more over time.
 
Welcome to the board. You will get lots of info here. Some you will have to figure out for yourself and what techniques works for you.
 
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Hey guys. Im tryin to chase some apartment complexes around here. My question is what is the best way to find out who the property manager is? Ive talked to one complex manager and made it through them. Most have wanted a bid given directly to them to be passed on. Id rather talk to the person who can point me to more jobs.

Also when bidding basic vinyl and brick 2 story buildings with breezeways and flat ground is $50 per unit in line?

Thanks in advance
 
Yea Chris you sometimes have to be careful with apartment managers because sometimes (smaller complexes and company's) they get "bids" to find out what the market is paying for that kind of stuff and then get there "live in" boyfriend to go rent a washer and pay him that amount or less 25.00 and say he was the low bidder. Before you turn in a bid ask for the property company and contact info for your records, tell them it's something your insurance requires or something,,,just get the contact info. If she won't give it up front there is something going on. Put her on the spot as to why and might go as far as say you can't submit a bid without it. (This is another reason why you should be friends with your local competition, you can let each other know whats going on when stuff like this comes up) You'll tick her off and won't get the job but you weren't going to get it anyway. But you need to find out the info one way or the other. Keep an eye on the job and see who is doing it and take pics of them and their equipment. If she is having her BF or brother do it after getting legit bids for prices she needs to be busted. Don't make it your full time job but if you have the time,,figure it out. Usually the same prop company's do several complexes in the same area. Hit some of the others locally and ask who is there PM company's. Don't go into all the details of why you want to know, just ask. Might even ask some of the Realtor company's there, they all usually know the others business'. Good luck.
 
apple said:
Also when bidding basic vinyl and brick 2 story buildings with breezeways and flat ground is $50 per unit in line?

Thanks in advance
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Yea 50.00 to 55.00 is in line and about the norm I think. Now to make sure thats 50.00 per apartment / condo unit. I haven't found any condo places that want to pay for flat work. They just want the buildings washed so I ask the occupant / owners (HO's) for the flat work. I offer the HO 25.00 to 50.00 for the drives depending on numbers and high end condo's vs low end. I got most of them by leaving door hangers after I got the bid explaining I would "be back on ??/??/?? to wash the buildings for the PM. And as an additional service I can offer the driveways cleaned for 25.00 per drive to be paid for by each occupant / owner. The PM did not want this included in their bid. It is not required just a service offered if you wish YOUR DRIVE to be done. Please call to confirm and arrange payment by ??/??/??".
 
Well I came across this thread and started soaking it up "again" I forgot I had read it until I came across my above posts...

I WANT to wash some big apartment complexes! I didnt get into pressure washing until this time last year but I rocked on hard up till mid august. I did wash a few sets of duplexes around here last summer (10 1story vinyl buildings in a set) BUT I want more and bigger.

I did bid on a 200 or so unit apartment complex last year. 3 story vinyl buildings. I think 9 total. I beleive thats what I was asking about above. I bid them under 50 dollars a unit and threw in the office, pool area, dumpster pads, and mailbox hut. Found out later that every price they got was too high and they decided not to do the job. These apts were dirty but not the dirtiest ever I need to get back by and check them out.

Out of the blue a month ago I got a call off my website. A guy needing a set of apartments washed in an older ran down town near here. Because of the location I figured this wouldnt amount to much. Low and behold I googled it and this is one large set of apartments on top of that this GUY is a pm for a company that has 53 complexes here in Arkansas. Evidently he hadnt been able to get any one to return his calls or show for appointments. I showed the morning after he called and had the job 2 weeks later.

We did it monday. Ill try to post some pictures. It was a 200 unit brick complex, 3 stories, With 20 foot wide vinyl sections every so often. We only cleaned the vinyl and the bottom 3 feet of brick on half the building.

Guys sorry for the Looooong story...

Anyways had a heck of a day. Everything went great. He was Impressed and I think I will wind up with more work from them. Just want to play it right. Hey and we even ran my ole rag of a machine in the ground with one section of vinyl to go. ( been on its last leg for awhile now) pulled the little back up honda pwer over and finished her up.

Thanks for tolerating me guys.... I guess Im pumped and want to get into more larger work. Im all ears and like to read so any tips are appreciated.

Chris
 
Sounds like you are doing fine. Don't slow down. Put together a vendor package with your company info,references from past jobs etc. And send to more pm$.
 
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