When there is a maintenance request, I usually ask the PM to get quote first. But PM always get only one quote, and usually a quote much higher than market price. I can get quote myself, but what's the point to have a PM. Just wondering how you guys dealing with maintenance quote with PM? Do you ask PM for multiple quotes or do you find and use your own tradee? Thanks
When engaging tradesman, cost is not everything. I value reliability, consistency and accessibility. Unless you compare apples to apples, its pretty hard to know who's better or worse. I guess at the end of day, one really must know the subject matter. An eBay remote of $30 is quite different from an Australian made and assembled remote with 3-years warranty of $60. The fundamental issue is trust. If you do not believe your PM has your best interest in mind, it's time to review you're relationship.
It depends on the value of the work. For higher value stuff, definitely. If something can be completed in the time it would take to go there and quote it, they may as well just do the job while they're there. If they weren't a well priced, honest, reliable person that I'd used multiple times before then they wouldn't be going there anyway, ya dig?
What category the $300-$400 work will fall? The one done without quote, or you would concider it higher value?
For around that range it's likely basic or urgent repairs and not worth shopping around (unless your super mega tight sumlord). I would trust the pm to have a reliable list of trades to get it done. PM's having reliable trades make their life easier which means the job done quick and easy Shopping around for a 10% saving isn't really worth the hassle but for work 2k+ it's a different story.
We are finding that tradies are asking $200 to do a quote for bigger jobs and if they win the job they take the $200 off the price. The rationale we are given for this is that they cannot absorb the loss of revenue running around all day quoting on jobs they don't get. They argue that they have a right to manage a sustainable business. For small jobs, like most agencies we have a handful of reliable tradies to do small jobs where quality of work with reasonable charge is expected. Like most agencies, we receive no kickbacks whatsoever from engaging specific tradies. If an owner has a preferred tradie in mind we request the contact details and engage that individual.
I don't like wasting my tradespeople's time with small jobs. I think under $300ish it's worthless getting a quote and many won't want to do it. Instead I have an approval limit which I use, ie. go ahead on work if it's under $300 however if it's above the tradesperson can call me from site for further approval, or provide a quote. Owner knows invoice will be under the predetermined price, tradesperson knows they're not wasting their time, and the tenants are happy that there's no stuffing around - especially if they need to be home to allow access.
