If you’re under the guidance of a property management company, you’ve probably had all your vendors selected for you already—which is awesome! Never having to worry about snow removal, window repair, or anything in between is a wonderful thing.
If you’re doing your own HOA management, though, you’re tasked with the extensive process that is selecting your own vendors, which can get quite exhausting even for the most experienced boards. Sometimes, it can even feel like fruitlessly panning for gold!
Gassen, your Eden Prairie providers of everything from online property management services to accounting property management, has a few ways to make this process a little easier.
Compare Costs
It’s easy to boil vendors down to their periodic rates and go from there, but doing that puts your HOA at risk of everything from hidden fees to sudden charges for ending contracts. You thus must read the contracts word-for-word and use the fuller context to make your decision.
If, for example, it costs money to end a contract upon finding the vendor unsatisfactory, you’ll need to take that into account. Money shows up in contracts in more places than the predetermined rates.
Compare Service Thresholds
Certain vendors, such as snowplowing services, only will serve your neighborhood if a certain threshold of need is reached—in this case, it might be snowfall. If this is a concept that applies to your vendor situation, you’ll want to consider if these limits might cause neighborhood dissatisfaction or lead to needless bills.
Compare Vendor History
Working with an HOA is a bit different from working with an individual homeowner. Arguably, it requires a touch more skill, as workmanship of a given vendor must be uniform across the neighborhood. Thus, when selecting a contractor, you’ll want to carefully consider not only their previous works in their gallery, but also the looks of neighborhoods they’ve collectively served.
Compare Vendor Feedback
What have previous HOAs said about each vendor? While individual homeowner reviews can tell you a bit, the real indicator that you’ll receive great work is if your fellow HOA neighborhoods say likewise. A lot goes into how a vendor approaches a neighborhood, and it’s a much more multifaceted and involved process than serving a single homeowner; good feedback from HOAs shows they’ve mastered it.
Gassen Has Vendors for All Your Needs
Tired of shopping around? Gassen’s property management services has preferred vendors at the ready. When you give the reins to our property management services, you can rest easy knowing your neighborhood is in good hands. Give our Eden Prairie office a call today at 952-922-5575.