Preferred vendors

Yes, be wary. We have handled most of our own work order

As a management company, we seek bids from those contractors who have previously performed satisfactorily for the client or other clients of ours. We are constantly seeking to add to our 'stable' of contractors we trust and who we know bid competitively.

However . . . we try to counsel our clients to not bid everything. For example, if the landscape contractor calls and says there is a need for a $350 repair to the irrigation system, we do not bid the work. We try not to go bid for anything below $1,000, if the client balks we will drop the figure to $750. Any type of break in a main water supply line will result in a minimum $750 plumbing bill so why bother gathering bids? The bill will be what it is. The same holds true for minor roof repairs, fence repairs, etc.

We are located in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the amount of commercial and residential construction is astounding. Anyone in this area who wants to work can find work, and there is work going begging. Homeowners and condominium associations are generally pretty small potatoes. Contractors do not wish to continually be asked to bid without being selected or awarded the work. The bid process is time consuming for the contractors and for us. We had a situation two years ago in which we contacted over 30 contractors to replace windows, eventually it was about $50,000 worth of replacement windows. 15 of 30 responded and met with us, 2 submitted bids. One we called flatly told us he will not bid on any job worth less than 1 million.

It is not uncommon for us to tell Boards we were able to obtain only a single bid. We have learned that is the indicator the scope of work is too small to be worth going to bid. Obtaining 3 bids for a scope of work less than $5,000 is nearly impossible.

Our property manager also gave us a list of qualified vendors - those usually worked for other HOA clients so the property manager could usually persuade them to give us a competitive price. Have you asked your manager what he or she means by "qualified?" If not, why not?

That being said, you need to remember that the property manager works at the behest of the board, so if yours isn't soliciting bids as you've requested, it may be time to get another property manager. In the meantime, is there a reason why YOU can't look for other bids? If you're on the board, you already know what's in the RFP (if you don't know, that's a bigger problem in my opinion). Call a few places and see if they work with HOAs, and if so, send them an RFP and see what happens. Don't forget due diligence - ask for references and check them, check if they're licensed and bonded, depending on what you want them to do, etc. You should be doing that for all the bids anyway.

Additionally, while it's good to be wary of possible ulterior motives of others in the process (e.g., the MC in this case) . . . it's also good to trust the knowledge, skills, abilities, and prior experience of someone you've hired to help manage your property. Many times the relationships they've built with vendors is a positive thing for both the MC and the HOA.

And you should trust, but also verify. Even if their "qualified" vendor appears to be best on paper, there's nothing stopping the Board from doing interviews, asking for references, etc.

Or it could be a money-grab and the MC's getting kickbacks. But in my experience, things like that don't end well for anyone involved. The HOA gets a bad product at an increased cost, the vendor gets fired (eventually and makes a bad name for themselves), and the MC gets replaced (eventually and makes a bad name for themselves). For a reputable MC who has been in business for a long time, I doubt they would intentionally steer you wrong for a quick buck that puts their reputation and business at risk.

Had a situation concerning repairs to our retention pond. One company I interviewed said they do not do work for homeowner associations. He said they are looking to get things done cheap. To many people have a say in the process. A new BOD come in and re-questions everything.