For multifamily real estate owners and community association boards, selecting a property management firm can be quite an undertaking. It’s a fragmented market – everything from small, owner-operator managers with one or two employees who “do it all” to huge, national and international companies that manage billions of dollars of real estate and thousands of communities. While there are pros and cons to each, one area that is often overlooked during due diligence in choosing a property manager is how a company’s size affects its maintenance operations.
Major national operators have untold lists of vendors, often vetted through a procurement process that can be bureaucratic. Depending on the location of the property or the type of service needed, vendor bids are reviewed and selected by individuals who may or may not have even stepped foot on the property. On the other end of the spectrum, small operators often lack the size to attract larger vendors or competitive pricing, opting to funnel work through a handful of smaller vendors they know, but who may or may not be best suited for the work.
Working with a regional management firm provides a sweet spot for communities who recognize the importance of maintenance operations in preserving the value of their assets and optimizing the return on their investment.
As a large, regional property management firm, WPM knows what it takes to attract and work with high quality vendors and how to maximize maintenance operations. Here are a few considerations and why size matters to your community’s maintenance operations (and bottom line!).
Major national operators have untold lists of vendors, often vetted through a procurement process that can be bureaucratic. Depending on the location of the property or the type of service needed, vendor bids are reviewed and selected by individuals who may or may not have even stepped foot on the property. On the other end of the spectrum, small operators often lack the size to attract larger vendors or competitive pricing, opting to funnel work through a handful of smaller vendors they know, but who may or may not be best suited for the work.
Working with a regional management firm provides a sweet spot for communities who recognize the importance of maintenance operations in preserving the value of their assets and optimizing the return on their investment.
As a large, regional property management firm, WPM knows what it takes to attract and work with high quality vendors and how to maximize maintenance operations. Here are a few considerations and why size matters to your community’s maintenance operations (and bottom line!).
- Vendor Selection. No one wants to find out in the middle of a project that the company doing work on your community roof wasn’t insured properly or lacked appropriate licensing. So it’s important that your property management company has a fair and rigorous process for due diligence on vendors. WPM works with a reputable, third-party provider to vet prospective vendors, determine and track insurance verifications, assess fit for multifamily and/or association communities, and evaluate performance against our standards of excellence. Not all vendors are a fit for all property types. Only after a thorough review are vendors approved to be a preferred partner for one of our divisions and eligible to bid on projects for the communities we manage.
- Buying Power. Having a portfolio that represents a sizeable potential market to vendors provides a management company with access to a larger pool of high-quality vendors. This helps secure more competitive, bulk, and volume-based pricing. WPM’s size creates a spend that is large enough that vendors are willing to create discount pricing for things like flooring, cabinetry, fixtures, HVAC equipment and supplies, roofing, paint, landscaping materials, and so much more, because they know that over the course of the year we will purchase a significant volume across our communities. This means we’re not purchasing at retail rates, but rather securing lower commercial or hybrid rates, locking into a discounted rate for purchases made throughout the year. In the end, these savings benefit our clients, both financially and operationally, eliminating the need to inventory or store items in order to receive lower pricing.
- Quality & Relationships. Size also affects the depth of relationships a company can have with its vendors. Does the company have a direct line to the vendor contact to resolve issues? While competitive pricing is important, having strong relationships with vendors who have mutual respect for quality work and a shared commitment to doing what’s right when things go sideways (which, unfortunately, they can sometimes do) can mean the difference between successful projects and costly re-work and blame games. WPM has spent decades building trusted relationships with preferred partners throughout the Mid-Atlantic region – from setting clear expectations for quality and service to ensuring fair pricing, accountability, and quick resolution to any issues. We have a shared goal to deliver exceptional value to the clients we serve.
- Staff & Contractor Management. How a property management company uses its team can provide insight into how well they optimize your maintenance budget. Do they try to keep everything in house, deferring maintenance projects they can’t get to? Or do they leverage outside contractors for time-consuming and specialty-skilled work? Bringing in a contractor to make sure work gets done properly can minimize the impact of delays and deferred maintenance. WPM’s team takes pride in carefully evaluating the work to be done and identifying the most cost-efficient and productive way to deliver quality results. In the end, this ensures the highest level of service for our clients.