Would be a good service? Please help

Question

Hi!

My name is Matt, I own a residential and commercial cleaning business in MA. I thinking about this idea I have and would some feedback to see if it has a good fit.

I thinking of starting a service that manages all the home services for property management businesses or real estate companies. Essentially what I'm trying to do is: Anytime a property manager or real estate professional needs a home service, (for example cleaning) they book through us and we'll take care of it on our end. We'll send out a team, inspect the property, and send back a report with pictures. We would take care of scheduling services available for the needed date even for same-day or weekend visits.

I'm wondering if this is a service that a property management company would find valuable. The pricing would be based on the number of units under management (Ex: $10-20 per unit per month).

Do you think this would be something a property management company would be willing to pay for?

Thank you

Matt

Nathan Gesner · Answer

So you are an inspection/scheduling service? Those exist and there's definitely a market for them, but pricing would be tricky.

Let's say you charge $10 a month. After one year the Landlord calls you for an inspection. 5-10 minutes on the phone, 30 minute drive to the house, you spend an hour inspecting, 30 minute drive back, 30 minutes on the phone giving the owner a report. That's over two hours of work for $120 which is only $60 an hour. It doesn't count gas, software, telephone, or any other expenses yet. What if the owner calls you out twice in one year? Now you're grossing $30 an hour.

I don't see it working unless you have low rates and a lot of properties.

Matt Santos · Answer

This is great info! Thank you. I just checked out Latchel, very interesting.

Drew Sygit · Answer

@Matt Santos might work for smaller PMC's, but they also just hire www.Latchel.com

You may want to target OOS DIY landlords.

Matt Santos · Answer

Good to know! Thank you for responding!

Bill B. · Answer

Every professional property manager already has this service. They send someone out that notes all the service required (cleaning, holes in wall, broken blinds, bulk disposal, carpet cleaning, landscaping, etc etc) and a price to fix it all. That’s then sent to the owner for approval.

So if your company can do all types of repairs along with cleaning then you could ask for a chance to compete with their current company. I don’t think you’d get far with just cleaning unless you targeted short term rentals. They don’t want to have one more company to schedule.