I am a Regional Maintenance Manager and I run into the same thing. I have a list of vendors I usually call for bids, but that list rapidly changes due to either they don't win enough contracts or just too busy to take on any more work. Like us, most vendors are facing a Labor shortage as well and not many are willing to spend the time to bid on something they can't take on anyway.

My only suggestions to help get better results: Have a clear and detailed work scope, price matrix and provide as much detailed information to the vendor you can to limit the time they have to spend on providing the quote. Outside of that, it's just finding the ones who are ready for additional work.

Kyu wrote:

I work for a property management company and we manage maybe around 1.2M sf of commercial space and couple thousand units of apt units.

As the APM, I am responsible for sourcing vendors for the maintenance needs, building upgrade projects we have.

Overtime, I've come to realize I spend so much time searching for contractors/vendors, vetting them out, walking the scope of work w/ each vendor, waiting for the bids and repeat this process by the amount of bids I want to get. The back and forth with proposals, revisions, change orders is so administrative it's crazy. Also, I feel like I'm always following up on the status of their work and it is rare when a vendor voluntarily calls to give me updates on the project.

I know it's part of the job but posting to see if anyone on here has ideas on how to better manage this. Is there an app or software that is out there that can save me some time and organize everything for me?

What are the frustrations you have in terms of sourcing vendors and communicating with them.

Kyu - I feel your pain on this. While I do not have an app or a software to recommend, I have successfully used BidSource to find vendors. What I like about it is that they only send one vendor, and the vendors are actively looking to do more property management work. They are normally very responsive, pro-active, etc.

Kyu,

As a vendor, I can tell you that your frustration is felt by "the other side" as well. Walking projects and submitting bids for work that comes from an unexpected inquiry is seldom profitable for either party.

In my humble opinion, the job can be made easier by establishing a relationship with a few key vendors who offer products / services across a wider geographic area. This provides a level of familiarity on both sides -- they know what you expect and how to best respond to your needs (including things like frequency of communication and the delivery of only information that you need or would find useful.) From time to time, review your vendor list to make sure those who make your cut are still performing for you.

But, having a core group that you have a relationship with should go a long way in making this process more simple and easy.

DG

Hi! For CapEx work, our Regional Service Manager and Construction teams handle this. In terms of the best way to manage, a project management spreadsheet or something like Airtable may work for you!

I work for a property management company and we manage maybe around 1.2M sf of commercial space and couple thousand units of apt units.

As the APM, I am responsible for sourcing vendors for the maintenance needs, building upgrade projects we have.

Overtime, I've come to realize I spend so much time searching for contractors/vendors, vetting them out, walking the scope of work w/ each vendor, waiting for the bids and repeat this process by the amount of bids I want to get. The back and forth with proposals, revisions, change orders is so administrative it's crazy. Also, I feel like I'm always following up on the status of their work and it is rare when a vendor voluntarily calls to give me updates on the project.

I know it's part of the job but posting to see if anyone on here has ideas on how to better manage this. Is there an app or software that is out there that can save me some time and organize everything for me?

What are the frustrations you have in terms of sourcing vendors and communicating with them.