Any Ideas? Sub Divisions with Homeowners Associations

[MsBladePlls, Inc.]

Any ideas on how to get into the homeowners associations for the sub-divisions? Best way on billing? Package deals? What are your comments or suggestions. They are greatly appreciated.

[65hoss]

Around here the bigger real estate companies are trustees for the homeowner assn. Its always political, and they are known for being slow payers.

[Eric ELM]

See if you can find out the name and address of the President of the Association. They usually make the decissions around here.

[David Gretzmier]

ask around- if you can get your foot in the door with beds or mowing the treasures house, you can know when the poa is up for bid. many times they'll just ask you to meet or beat the lowest bid. dave g

[lawnman_scott]

Ever seen one with a bulliten board at the entrance and slowed down to take a peek? usually goes something like this: ATTENTION HOMEOWNERS, yearly dues were due Jan 1 please pay whoever bla bla bla, and this is usually in june. Thats a good first sign not to count on that money being in on time.

[Keith]

Any Ideas? Sub Divisions with Homeowners Associations

Yes. Stay far, far away.

[lawrence stone]

The only comment I can share that comes to mind is a line in the song "Psycho Killer" by the Talking Heads.

Run run run, run run run away.

[jnjnlc]

Stay as far away from them as you can. I would rather have five residential homes than one large HOA. The are always political and someone is going to complain no matter how good you do. Not enough money in them to pay for the frustration you have. I have had two of them and gladly I do not have them anymore.

I have to agree with Stone and Keith.

[smithsonmi]

As the VP of our association for the last two years, I admit they are very political. I never thought soap operas were real life until this experience. People in general can not get along and don't even try.

Regardless, we requote every year for our lawn service and always have the fight of 'my nephew's co can do it cheaper' or 'my son will mow it'. The city could know the presidents of the assoc and you could call them each spring.

However, we tend to go by cost more so then with our own homes. Not sure how attractive that makes them.

[Freetime]

Stay out of them, as most of the time it is not lawn maintenance it is PEOPLE MAINTENANCE or ego setting.


“ You don’t edge my sidewalk the way I want it I will do it my self” three weeks later (Ass press) comes to you and ask “why did you not edge Mrs. Snodgrass/tightwads sidewalk” LCO “she told us not to” AP “well we pay you (every 90 day if you are lucky) to edge everything so do it or we will find someone else”

Yes Sir, let the cousin, brother, friend have a ball with it and go for more profitable prospects.
:angry:

[eskals]

There is a sub by me that has 30 acres of area to be mowed each week. I know the guy that does it. He gives the HOA a deal that says if they pay the bill in full by March 1st, they get a 10 percent discount. They always pay early.

Eric

[NateinAtl]

If you reaaaalllly want to do HOA's here in the Atlanta area, I would call Homeowner Management Services. Tell them you are a licensed, inssured business and that you want to bid on the properties. But keep in mind, more often than not, they are gonna take the cheapest bids that meet their specs, and you WILL have to deal with unhappy homeowners. Case in point, the neighborhood tennis club was practicing at the courts on a Sat. morning and asked me if I would be so kind as to put off the blowing until they were done!!!! NO WAY!! I'm a friend of the Pres of the HOA and he was pissed at the audacity of the "eletists" in his neighborhood. Say you have the common areas of a neighborhood that has 100 homes in the sub. Theoretically there can be as many as 200 people that can complain to you about the proerty. Give it some thought.

[kcameron]

I just picked up a HOA this summer and it has worked out great. I know the pres. from my full time job and inquired about who did it and if they were going to renew their contract for this upcomming year. Well they didn't and he came to me to see if I wanted it. I fit my schedule and the price was good. All I am responsible for is the common areas (pool, entrance drive). Anything extra that I do and they agree on, then that is extra cash. I don't do any homes and if I do, it will be on a person to person basis. Plus, I have the neighboring HOA looking at my work and I am doing some minor mulching around the pool for a picinic this week. It's a foot in the door. Just my two cents. Kevin

[Avery]

I am going to go against public opinion on this one. Most of our maintenance work is for sub-divisions and condo complexes. The largest percentage of these properties are managed by two different property management firms. You know what you are getting with this type of work as you have a clear cut contract. Never have a problem with payment like we use to with homeowers. You will realize MUCH larger profits from this type of work provided you bid it correctly. They love add-ons such as seasonal color, irrigation trouble shooting, outdoor lighting, IPM programs, and adding mulch twice per year. If you want to get in this end of the business look in your local yellow pages for "Property Management". These are the folks that run the large properties. All the homeowners assoc. does is set the budget. You will be dealing directly with a property manager. Keep him/her happy and life is good! If a resident of one of our properties asks us to do work outside the contract we advise them to contact the property manager, that we can only deviate from the contract on their say so. Also make sure you are licensed, well insured, and have a basketfull of references prior to bidding on one of these properties. If you land one and do a good job it is pretty much yours as long as you want it.

[MsBladePlls, Inc.]

Thanks everyone for all of our comments. I will keep you all posted on some of the out come. Again thanks. :)

[Russ]

Good Luck-But I gotta agree with the guys. If you get it your going to be sorry. Big checks when they come, low profit, extensive customer maintaince and lots of complaints. Your cuttin too high-to low, trimming too close-not close enough, cuttin too often-not ofter enough, and somebodys brother in law will always do it for less.