Princely Properties

If a man’s home is his castle, then property managers’ accounts are their palatial estates throughout expansive empires. And in these realms of homeowners’ associations and office parks, landscape contractors are property managers’ loyal aides who use polished techniques to maintain the grounds and keep landscapes trimmed and tidy.

But life isn’t always a fairy tale around such stately properties. Landscape contractors often find that property managers can be very particular about landscape maintenance. Moreover, with stringent budgets, expertly grooming everything from turf to trees often leaves little funding for landscape enhancements. And the challenges multiply when industry turnover becomes a problem.

Among contractors who have significant experience working with property managers, the No. 1 piece of advice to remember that communication is key.

THE ROYAL TREATMENT. Arguably, the biggest challenge that landscape contractors face when working with property managers is that they’re all different. “Every property manager has their own opinions and viewpoints of what quality is and they’re all different in their knowledge of landscapes,” says Tom Heaviland, owner, Heaviland Enterprises, Vista, Calif. “Some are more hands-on and some want you to handle everything for them. You have to develop the relationship and know what their expectations are

For example, Heaviland says he works with some property managers who like to formally walk through properties on at least a monthly basis, while others simply ask to be updated on any challenges or new developments on the property and require little contact. For contractors, identifying and respecting these requests is essential to maintaining good working relationships.

“It’s critical to understand what property managers want and need,” explains George Gaumer, vice president of commercial service, Davey Commercial Ground Management, Kent, Ohio. “We have to understand what kind of challenges are being placed on them by their customers and help make them successful.  

To give property managers the royal treatment, many landscape contractors build relationships by identifying property managers’ preferred methods of communication at the outset. “For the most part, our property managers prefer to communicate via e-mail,” Heaviland says. “From our standpoint, face-to-face communication is usually the best because if you’re stopping in and seeing that property manager on a frequent basis, you’re going to develop a stronger relationship. But e-mail is certainly an easy and quick way to keep everyone updated.”

Additionally, Heaviland Enterprises employs several account managers and a customer relations manager who communicate with property managers directly (see Getting to Know You on page 42.) “Our account managers have to have great communications skills, they have to be flexible and they have to be very patient,” Heaviland comments. “You’re dealing with a lot of different personalities and you’re not going to make everyone happy, but you have to be able to adjust to specific situations.”

Likewise, account managers on Doug Smellage’s Lawns of Dallas staff divvy up commercial accounts andstrengthen relationships through frequent communication. “Our account managers try to get to their sites and meet with their people weekly,” says the owner of the Dallas, Texas-based company. “And on large accounts where we have multiple crews working, not only do we have a representative that deals with the property manager during the course of the week, we have another representative who handles all of the crews.”

In the midst of this diversified method of communication, Smellage says Lawns of Dallas creates consistency by providing property managers with a single point of contact – an account manager – who then informs crews of the property managers’ requests. “That creates a bond that moves down through the chain of communication so nothing gets missed,” he notes.

Frequency of communication with property managers also is important. “We try to meet with all of our customers on a six- to eight-week basis,” says Bruce Bachand, chief operating officer for Carol King Landscape Maintenance, Orlando, Fla. In addition to regular contact with property mangers on that schedule, Randy Bachand, Bruce’s brother and maintenance manager for the company explains that account managers turn in weekly reports on any intermittent visits they made to property managers.

“If the property manager sends an e-mail with a request for service on the property or just a visit, the account manager may take a copy of that e-mail with them and visit the property itself or go to see the property manager in his or her office,” Randy explains. “They keep track of everyone they visit and on Mondays the account managers will turn in a contact sheet saying who they visited and what the problem was, and they note that it was taken care of. Moreover,  account managers are responsible for following four to six crews on a daily basis to ensure that work and hour goals are being met. We try to keep the same account manager with the same crews so they all get to know the properties very well and the property manager can depend on that consistent communication.”

KING’S RANSOM OR PAUPER’S PAY? Though continual communication helps solidify relationships with property managers, landscape contractors have another hurdle to jump: Budget constraints.

“Many times, property managers on the commercial building/industrial building/shopping center side have tight budgets that can change from year to year as occupancies rise and fall or the economy impacts what they’re doing,” explains Bruce Bachand. “You either have to change and adapt with them or they’re going to find someone who will.”

Heaviland agrees. “The range of budgets we have to work with all depends on the economy and what’s going on there,” he comments. For instance, one of Heaviland Enterprises’ clients is the campus of a golf manufacturer’s headquarters. Because the golf industry was in a recession for a few years, the company’s landscape budget was reduced accordingly. “They were looking to save and reduce their expenses, so we had to be sensitive to that,” Heaviland says. “On the other side of the industry, you’re working with homeowners’ associations, which are great arenas for enhancement sales because homeowners are looking to increase the value of their properties. Depending on the situation, you could have small contracts of $1,000 per month that will add tens of thousands of dollars in enhancements, vs. large accounts that are much more stringent.”

Though the amount of money allotted to landscaping varies by property and region, Diane Crouse notes that the budgets on properties she manages range from 20 to 25 cents per square foot per year. This averages out to about $8,700 per acre annually. “Each property owner has a different financial objective that they want to accomplish,” says the se nior property manager, Crescent Resources, Lake Mary, Fla. “On a monthly basis we produce financial statements for the property owners and from there we’re absolutely tied to budgets. We have to be able to justify any variances, and most of those are within a 5-percent range from the monthly budget.”

Indeed, a 5-percent margin of error isn’t much to work with, so many contractors find creative ways to meet property managers’ expectations without breaking the bank. “No. 1, you have to prioritize,” Gaumer says. “Cost is always an issue because they have to meet or beat bottom-line budgets. For that reason, we have to prioritize our recommendations and make sure we sell the benefits. We have to show them there’s value in adding a certain enhancement to the bid or how we can reengineer the service on the property to offer more bang for the buck.”

For example, Gaumer notes that recommending more landscape beds for color and curb appeal is one way a contractor can help property managers increase interest on a property with low occupancy.

Another approach may be to redistribute the amount or level of service a property receives in order to stay within budgets. “Sometimes we have to look at the quality of the service and see if we need to pull it back a little bit,” Bruce Bachand says. “How can we value-engineer their maintenance program so that the property manager can accomplish the majority of their objectives and then meet a budget? This can be as simple as changing a chemical program, less frequent mulching, fewer annual flowers, less frequent irrigation maintenance – you just find ways to pull from the more peripheral parts of the landscape program in order to keep the whole contract in line.”

Heaviland adds that working with strict budgets almost always goes back to staying on top of client communication. “We should be in a relationship where we sit down with the property manager and work out a budget scenario with them,” he says. “We have a sheet we use for that, which breaks down our maintenance budget, tree trimming budget, annual color replacement and irrigation repair costs for January through December. By  planning out the year based on what they have available we’re always going to have that information up front, rather than after the year starts and we find out that they don’t have the money for any enhancements.”

CHANGING OF THE GUARD. With good communication and workable budgets, contractors can begin to bring joy to their property managers’ manors. That is, until borders between these dominions begin to blur.

“What’s difficult is that you develop the relationship, get a feel for what the property manager’s looking for and then the board changes and wants to hire a new property manager or this manager leaves and goes to another firm,” Heaviland comments. “You get things just where you want them to be and all of a sudden you’ve got a new person or company you’re dealing with.”

Indeed, because of consolidation and career advancement, landscape contractors are bound to experience turnover within their property manager clientele. Thankfully, this type of regime change can be positive if contractors effectively manage the situations. The Bachands take preventive steps early on to ensure that relationships can withstand such stresses.

“We try to communicate with a representative of a board of directors or a landscape committee chairperson on homeowners’ association accounts, especially, to build relationships both ways, if we can,” Bruce says. “The property manager often serves at the whim of the board of directors and they can be instructed to make changes to their vendor lists without warning.”

Gaumer adds that creating multiple bonds on a property can put contractors in good positions if turnover occurs. “If you have a good relationship with the current property manager and a good relationship with the owner, an incoming property manager may be asked to keep you on as a contractor. That’s the best scenario. Plus, the outgoing property manager may take you to some of their new sites, as well.”

Still, even with solid relationships, new property managers may have preferences of their own in terms of contractors they like to work with. “You’d like to think that the quality of your performance will speak for itself, but if a person comes from another property management firm, it may not matter,” Smellage says. “They usually have someone they like who they’ve worked with before and may persuade the ownership to transfer because of convenience and comfort on their part.”

To prevent problems like these, Smellage likes to set up multiple year contracts on some accounts like private schools and churches that they handle. Also, the company tries to identify loyal property managers before taking on an account. “We try to find customers who will give us the opportunity to help them,” he comments. “Once you find people who are willing to let you work with them, it’s a great situation.”

Smellage says that property managers who have been with their firms for a while are usually loyal to their vendors as well, and that his company stays away from accounts like apartment complexes because of less property manager loyalty and lower-dollar returns.

In cases where contractors are confronted with a property manager switch, Randy Bachand notes that contractors must be proactive in meetings with the new manager. “When we hear that there’s been a management change, we try to get in front of the new property manager within a day or two and let them know that we’re there to work with them and to change or tweak the program to meet their specific needs,” he says. “Each individual may have different hot-button areas, so we let them know that we’re going to be accessible to them and do whatever is necessary to start building a relationship.”

Crouse agrees that contractors must pay attention to those “hot-button issues” in order to start off on the right foot. “All property managers look at different things on a site,” she says. “For instance, I want rounded shrubbery, so I always look for that. But if there hasn’t been as much attention paid to other areas, I try to be fair to the situation. Poor performance is obvious, but you need to look at the reasons – were there budget constraints? Who’s responsible for that level of performance and how can we bring it up to our standards?”

To meet this challenge, Heaviland recommends documenting every maintenance task performed on a property and the reasons behind their execution. “You may have a property manager who says, ‘As long as the grass is green and there’s no weeds, that’s fine,’ but that may not be acceptable to an incoming property manager,” he notes. “They’re going to want to know what’s been going on and you really need to communicate and document – with notes and with photographs – that these were the expectations of the previous property manager. That way, you can show that this level of service was acceptable then, and if it’s not acceptable now, then together you need to make some adjustments either in price or man-hours to bring it up to the next level.”

To create strong relationships that extend over multiple properties and withstand frustrating budget constraints, contractors simply must communicate with property managers, either face-to-face or electronically. Working closely with property managers can help create peace throughout commercial lands. 

The author is associate editor of Lawn & Landscape magazine and can be reached at lspiers@gie.net.