Landscaping DMV Area

Landscaping for HOA communities is a tough market in my opinion. As a Board member, we have 3x the quantity of landscapers willing to do work for us than we have work to keep them busy. For example, we have at least 5 companies willing to provide bids for annual maintenance on our landscaping and of course only need one company to do the work. Landscape project work is a similar story.

We could use a lot more electricians. We don't seem to have a lot of quality electrical companies that want to do work.

But landscapers? We have plenty.

NevinG, I would write the registered agent of all the HOAs in your area, using the address given at your state's Secretary of State site. State politely that your company would love to bid on the HOA's next landscape contract. Would the registered agent kindly keep your company informed as to when bids will next be invited?

Contact management companies, join your local CAI chapter and network with them.

As a Board member, I am thankful that our property manager screens out (throws away) unsolicited offers to provide services to our community. We don't have time as volunteers to weed through advertising and I appreciate that we do not have to. I wouldn't waste any time trying to get to know property managers or the CAI as a landscaping vendor, because I am sure that pretty much everywhere is already saturated with landscaping companies.

We solicit bids from vendors that we see in action. If I see a neighboring communty using a specific landscaping vendor, I ask them to submit a proposal on our landscaping. I read meeting minutes of other HOAs to see who they use. I see which commercial firms are serviced by landscapers, and see if those landscapers would be willing to submit for us as well. Bottom line is I look for vendors that appear to be busy with clients and do a good job, not because they send a flashy advertisement to us.

I know none of this helps a fledging landscaping company. But I think that HOAs are a tough nugget to crack as an entry level landscaping company. Typically you have 5 different people telling you that they want 5 different things, 3 who are complaining the landscapers cost too much while the other 2 are trying to increase the scope of work. Many landscapers choose not to work with HOAs for that very reason.

I pride our HOA in being organized. We have a single point of contact with our landscaper (me) who is the only one permitted to talk to them. They in turn have a single point of contact that talks to us. They do a nice job, and we are satisfied with their work.

Some landscapers try to underprice the maintenance contract and make profit on the projects. We had one of those previously to our current vendor. Thing is, I noticed their project pricing was high, and we found a different landscape vendor who had better pricing and only does projects. We then sent all projects to them, which angered the landscaping maintenance vendor because he was losing money off of us. Bummer for him that we figured out his pricing model.

Bottom line is that it's a tough business. I wish you the best. I hope that helped some.

Tons of information you guys are great.