I don't know if I've ever told this story before on here, but I still can't believe how I got in with one property mgmt. company. I was sitting at the table eating supper (that's dinner down south) and my dog let me know somebody was coming up the front walk. I looked out and it was two well dressed 30 something ladies looking like they were going to church. I muttered something under my breath and got up to go answer the door, irritated at the interruption. My wife asked me what was up and I waiting until I was almost at the glass door before answering (so they would hear me), "I don't know, it looks like a couple of Jehovah's Wittnesses at the door!"
It wasn't Jehovah's Wittnesses.
It was two office personnel that worked at what I assume is one of the largest property mgmt companies in our area. I had cleaned the home of one of them and she couldn't remember my name, but knew where I lived. She's come looking for me because they were tired of the run around some of the cleaners they'd been using put them through. They's just caught one of them (one of the largest companies in our hood) sending out invoices for houses they never cleaned.
I went through the hoops to get on their vendor list, but told the office person right up front it probably wouldn't work out, because I would be higher priced than what they were used to. It WAS touch and go for awhile. They were just telling their renters to call off their vendor list, and of course they were choosing the cheapest ones. So, I didn't get a whole lot of work at first. But, one of their busiest property managers/realtors called me on a weekend asking if I could go get a kool-aid stain out of a house she has sold that day. I went and did it, and she was really appreciative. So, she started sending everything she could my way, and actually had her rental agreements changed to read my company was the have to use company. I still can't believe she was able to get away with that. Once she started using me, then a couple more did and they both also changed their rental agreements. I now have four of the 8 property managers using me exclusively, and the other 4 using me when possible. I fully expect to get a couple more of the final 4 this year.
Of COURSE, the issue of my prices came up quickly. She asked me why I was so high and I told her how I cleaned and drew her attention back to the jobs I had done for her. The ones I knew she was really impressed with. I explained to her something I just took for granted she already knew. The fact that their current practices rewarded their renters for picking the cheapest (and thereby worst) companies to clean for them. I told her that until they stopped giving them a choice of who they used, they would continue to get poor cleaning. I still can't believe it, but she actually understood what I was saying and took it up with the rest of the managers at their next staff meeting. I don't know this for a fact, but I think a couple of them were told to start writing up their rental agreements to exclude everybody else and just see how it all worked out. This all happened last year, and over the course of the move out season I picked up the first two and then a third.
This year, I still have those three and a fourth. I am so busy I need a second van RIGHT NOW and another guy to run it, but it's only two and a half to three months out of the year that they keep me this busy, so I'm not going to go crazy and get into debt over their work ... not yet, anyway.
Besides, I'm waiting on their renters to start complaining about not having a choice and have my work yanked out from under me at any time.
