You sealed and restriped the Brookfield Center lot last June. The work was good, the property manager said thanks, and the invoice got paid. This spring the management company put 14 of its properties out for maintenance, and Brookfield went to someone else with the rest. The other contractor sent a three-year plan for every lot in October, while the budgets were being written.
Nobody lost that work on the lot. It was lost in the office, months before anyone called for prices.
What property managers are buying
Property managers give repeat sealcoat and striping work to the contractor who makes their job easier: a price that fits the budget they set months ago, a lot that stays usable for tenants during the work, paperwork that clears their vendor rules the first time, and nothing they have to explain to an owner afterward. Good work on the lot is the ticket in. Those four things are what bring you back.
It helps to picture the property manager's week. They run several properties, answer to an owner or a board, field tenant complaints, and deal with the roof, the HVAC and the landscaper as well as you. Sealcoat is one line in a budget. The contractor who takes that line off their plate gets the next one.
Get on the vendor list before you need to be
A lot of management companies won't issue a work order to a contractor who isn't set up as an approved vendor. That setup takes a while, and it's the same every time, so do it before the first proposal:
- A certificate of insurance with the management company and the property owner listed the way their contract asks. Get the wording from them and send it to your agent word for word.
- A W-9.
- Your license number, where your state or city requires one.
- Safety paperwork, if they ask for it.
Some companies manage this through an online vendor compliance service, and your insurance certificate has to be renewed there every year. When the certificate lapses in the system, the work orders stop, and nobody calls to tell you. Put the renewal date on your calendar.
Work their calendar, not yours
Commercial property budgets for next year usually get built in the fall. HOA boards adopt a budget at a set meeting, often with a reserve study behind it that says when the pavement is due. If your price shows up in March, the money has already been assigned to someone's number, or to nothing.
So the time to sell next season's sealcoat is late summer and early fall, while the lot is dry and the property manager can see it. Walk the lot, take photos of the cracks and the faded stalls, and send a price they can drop straight into the budget. Put a date on it that runs into next season, with a sentence about what happens if material prices move before then.
Sell a plan for the lot, not one job
A property manager with a three-year plan in hand doesn't have to get three prices every spring, and has something to show the owner. Here's what that could look like for a 60,000 square foot lot with 180 stalls. Use your own prices:
Year 1: crack fill, 1,800 linear feet at $1.10 ($1,980), two coats of sealer on 60,000 square feet at $0.19 ($11,400), and a full restripe ($2,700). Total: $16,080.
Year 2: crack fill, 900 linear feet at $1.10 ($990), and a restripe ($2,700). Total: $3,690.
Year 3: crack fill, 1,200 linear feet at $1.10 ($1,320), and a restripe ($2,700). Total: $4,020.
That's $23,790 over three years, with the sealcoat due again after that. Price years 2 and 3 in today's dollars and say you'll confirm them each spring, or build in an increase and say so. Either way, the property manager can budget it.
Whether a lot needs sealer again in year 3 or year 5 depends on traffic, sun and what's underneath. Say what you see on this lot and let the photos back it up. If you're pricing the sealcoat itself, pricing sealcoat walks through coverage and crack footage, and pricing striping covers stalls, stencils and layout.
Keep the tenants parking
The property manager hears about your job from the tenants, not from you. Plan the work so those calls don't happen.
Phase the lot. Seal half on Saturday and half on Sunday, or work in sections so there's always somewhere to park and a way in for deliveries. Put the phasing plan on the proposal, with a simple map.
Hand them the notice. Write the tenant notice yourself: which areas close, which days, when they reopen, and where to park meanwhile. Send it a week ahead so the property manager can forward it. That's a thing they would have had to write, and now they don't.
Mind the cure. Tell everyone when the lot opens to traffic, and don't let the striper come back before the sealer is ready. Sealcoat cure time and restriping covers the waits.
Start when you said. If a rain day moves the job, tell the property manager before the tenants notice, with the new dates and an updated notice.
After the job, before the invoice is paid
Send photos of the finished lot the day you're done. The property manager will forward them to the owner, and your work gets seen by the person who approves next year's budget.
Then invoice promptly and cleanly, with the property name, the purchase order number if they gave you one, and nothing they have to ask about. Invoice the day the punch list closes covers why that matters.
Add one more line to the email: what the lot will need next year, and when you'll send the price. It's a note, not a pitch, and it puts your name on next year's list before anyone else's.
Ask for the next property
A property manager who's happy with Brookfield runs other lots. Ask which ones are coming due. Ask whether the company has a regional contact for maintenance contracts. When someone moves to another management company, a short note congratulating them, with your contact information, costs nothing.
Keep a simple list of every property you've done: who manages it, when you sealed it, when you restriped it, and when you told them it would need work again. That list is next year's sales calls.
Where Pavr fits
Pavr is job management software for paving, sealcoating, striping and concrete contractors. Every open job sits on the Jobs board by sales stage, and a proposal that's sitting comes back to whoever owns the job: at three days if the customer hasn't opened it, at a week and two weeks if they haven't signed. Pavr tells you, not the customer; you decide whether to call. Sealcoat and striping go on one proposal the property manager signs on their phone, and the striping waits 24 hours after the sealcoat on its own. Their page shows the schedule and the crew's photos as the work goes, and a week after the job, a short survey goes out with a button to your Google or Facebook review page for anyone who scores you a 9 or 10.
Questions contractors ask
When should I send property managers pricing for next year?
Before their budgets are set, which for a lot of commercial properties and HOAs means late summer or fall. Ask each property manager when their budget is due, and send the price a few weeks before that.
Should I discount a multi-property contract?
Only where your costs really drop, such as fewer trips with the rig or lots close enough to do in one day. A discount with nothing behind it just lowers your price on work you'd have won anyway.
How do I get on a management company's approved vendor list?
Ask the property manager who handles vendor setup, then send exactly what they ask for: insurance certificate with their wording, W-9, license and any safety paperwork. Keep the certificate current, because a lapsed one can stop work orders without anyone telling you.
What if the property manager has to get three prices anyway?
Many do. Being the contractor who walked the lot first, sent the photos and wrote the plan they budgeted from still puts your plan for the lot in front of the other contractors, and your price is the one they're compared against.
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