Do I need a website to get work from property managers?

A website does not win the contract, and anyone telling you it does is selling something. The paperwork, the referral and whether you answer the phone win the contract. But a website does three narrow jobs in this process that nothing else does. First, it survives the pre-call check: a property manager who gets your name from a maintenance tech will search that name before replying, and a business with nothing to find is easy to skip when three other vendors already sent their packet. Second, it signals that you are running a company with a process rather than working out of a truck, which is the exact thing a manager is trying to assess before they hand you keys to somebody else's building. Third, most vendor applications have a website field on the form, and leaving it blank is a small unforced loss at the moment you are being compared.

What do property managers require from a contractor before adding them as a vendor?

The core of a typical vendor onboarding packet is a current W-9 with a valid tax ID, a certificate of insurance that meets the property's coverage limits, verification of any active trade license for specialized work such as plumbing, electrical, HVAC or roofing, and background checks for anyone who will hold keys or enter occupied units. The insurance is where most applications stall. Requirements commonly cover general liability, workers' compensation and commercial auto, with umbrella or excess liability at larger portfolios, and the certificate often has to carry an additional insured endorsement naming both the management company and the specific property owner, designated as primary and non-contributory. That endorsement is a request you make to your insurance agent, not a box you check yourself. Approval is also not permanent: policies and licenses expire, so managers re-verify documents on a schedule and a lapsed certificate can quietly pull you off the call list.

What should be on the commercial page of a contractor's website?

Write it for a different reader than your homeowner pages. Name the property types you actually serve, such as apartments, HOAs, retail centers, offices and rentals, and the commercial services you actually do, such as unit turns and make-readies, common areas, exteriors and scheduled maintenance. State your service area, your license number, your hours and whether you take after-hours calls. Say plainly that a W-9 and a certificate of insurance are available on request, and that you can add an additional insured endorsement, because that one sentence tells an experienced manager you have done this before. Include an email address at your own domain and a form that logs the request, since a cell number alone is a weak contact path for someone who needs a paper trail. Use photos of work at that scale rather than only kitchens and bathrooms. Prices do not belong here, because this work is scoped and bid.

RunCabin Blog · For working contractors

How do you get work from property managers and GCs?

Q: How do I get on a property management company's vendor list?

Start with the people who already know your work: the realtor, the landlord, the general contractor who subbed you a job. A vendor list is a risk decision, and a name from a maintenance supervisor moves faster than any cold approach. For companies you do not know, call and ask who handles vendor onboarding, then ask for the vendor packet rather than asking for work. It is a smaller request, it puts you in their system, and it tells you the insurance limits before you spend money adjusting a policy. Get the certificate of insurance and the endorsement right before you submit, because an application that fails the insurance check usually goes to the bottom of a pile rather than back to you with instructions. Then take the small first job, invoice it cleanly and answer the phone at seven in the morning. That is the audition.

August 14, 2026 · 7 min read

Almost every trade eventually looks at the same door. One property management company with a dozen buildings can hand you more work in a year than a hundred one-off homeowner jobs, on a schedule, without you bidding against everyone else who answered the same lead. The work repeats. The invoices are predictable. Nobody is haggling over a $400 job at nine at night.

The reason more owners do not have that work is not that they are unqualified. It is that property managers, HOA boards and general contractors do not hire the way homeowners do, and if you approach them like a homeowner you get silence and assume they already have a guy.

A homeowner hires on a gut feel: reviews, a quick look at your site, whether you sounded normal on the phone. A property manager cannot do that, because it is not their house. They are spending an owner's money and taking on liability for whoever they let into the building. So they run a process instead of a feeling. That process is called vendor onboarding, and it is mostly paperwork.

Why this work is shaped differently

If you have been buying leads, the contrast is the whole point. The complaint that comes up over and over from pros on lead platforms is that the same lead goes to everyone. One Angi contractor put it plainly in a BBB filing, saying leads were promised to be shared with "no more than three to five contractors in our field" and that "this representation has proven to be inaccurate," with the one real customer reporting being "contacted by nearly ten different companies."

Commercial and property-management work is the opposite shape. You are not one of ten names in an inbox. Once you are on the vendor list you are the name they call, and the cost of getting there is filling out forms correctly rather than paying per lead. That is the trade: more paperwork up front, no ongoing fee to keep being chosen.

What the vendor packet actually contains

Requirements vary by company and by property, but a typical onboarding packet asks for the same core set. Knowing it in advance is most of the advantage, because it stops you from looking green on the first call.

A current W-9 with a valid tax ID. Collected from every vendor at onboarding regardless of how you are set up, so they are not chasing you in January.
A certificate of insurance that meets that property's limits. Commonly general liability, workers' compensation and commercial auto, with umbrella or excess liability at larger portfolios. Often requested directly from your agent rather than from you.
The additional insured endorsement. The certificate frequently has to name both the management company and the specific property owner, designated as primary and non-contributory. This is the single most common place applications stall, and it is a phone call to your agent, not something you can type onto a form.
Verification of an active license for the specialized trades, which in practice means plumbing, electrical, HVAC and roofing get checked hardest. Ours is a related read on putting your license number where people can see it.
A background check for anyone who will hold keys or enter occupied units. Locksmiths, cleaners and maintenance vendors should assume this.
References, usually other commercial accounts rather than homeowners.

One detail nobody warns you about: approval is not permanent. Policies, certifications and licenses expire, so managers re-verify documents on a schedule. A vendor who was compliant at signup may not be eighteen months later, and a certificate that lapsed in March can quietly take you off the call list without anyone telling you. Put the renewal dates in the same calendar you use for your truck inspections.

Where a website actually fits

Honest version: the website does not win the contract. The referral, the insurance and whether you pick up the phone win the contract. But it does three narrow jobs in this process that nothing else does, and all three happen before anyone talks to you.

It survives the pre-call check. A manager who got your name from a maintenance tech will search that name before replying. This is the same fast, silent look homeowners do before they hire you, except the person doing it has two other vendors who already sent a full packet.
It reads as a company rather than a truck. Crew, service area, hours, the property types you handle. That is precisely what a manager is trying to assess before handing you keys to somebody else's building.
It fills the website field on the application. Nearly every vendor form has one. Leaving it blank is a small unforced loss at the exact moment you are being compared to someone who did not leave it blank.

What it will not do is substitute for the packet. Do not build a beautiful commercial page and then take three days to produce a certificate of insurance.

What belongs on a commercial page

Do not send this buyer to the page you wrote for homeowners. Different reader, different questions, and the homeowner copy actively works against you here because it sounds like a favor rather than a contract. Give commercial its own page and put this on it.

The property types you serve. Apartments, HOAs, retail centers, offices, rentals, subcontract work for general contractors. Name them, because managers search by them.
The commercial services you actually do. Unit turns and make-readies, common areas, exteriors, scheduled maintenance, emergency response. Not the residential menu.
Service area and hours, plus whether you take after-hours calls. A burst pipe at 6am is the test that decides how often they call you again.
License number and the insurance sentence. "W-9 and certificate of insurance available on request, additional insured endorsement no problem." An experienced manager reads that one line and knows you have done this before. Only say what is true.
A real contact path. An email address at your own domain and a form that logs the request, not just a cell number. These buyers need a paper trail, and a business address beats a personal one here: see getting an email at your business name and whether to run a form or a phone number.
Photos at that scale. Buildings, common areas, crews, equipment. A gallery of kitchen remodels tells a manager you do houses. More on what to shoot when you have nothing.

Prices do not belong here. Commercial work is scoped and bid, and a number on the page just gets you anchored before you have seen the property. That is a different judgment call than pricing on your residential pages.

How to actually get on the list

Start with the people who already know your work. The realtor you painted for, the landlord with four rentals, the general contractor who subbed you a job. A vendor list is a risk decision, and a name passed along by a maintenance supervisor moves faster than any cold approach ever will.

For companies you do not know, call and ask who handles vendor onboarding, then ask for the vendor packet rather than asking for work. It is a smaller thing to say yes to, it puts you in their system, and it tells you the insurance limits before you spend money adjusting a policy to guesses. Then fix the insurance before you submit, because an application that fails the coverage check usually goes to the bottom of a pile instead of coming back with instructions.

After that it is unglamorous. Take the small first job. Show up when you said. Invoice cleanly with the property and unit number on it. Answer the phone at seven in the morning. Property managers are not looking for the best craftsman in the county, they are looking for the vendor who does not become their problem.

The trap that comes with the work

Two things to walk in knowing. First, you get paid on their terms, often net-30 or slower, which is a real change if you have been collecting on completion. The work is steadier and the cash arrives later, and that gap has sunk otherwise healthy one-truck operations. Second, one big account is concentration risk. A management company that changes regional staff can cut your volume in half in a month, so keep the residential pipeline alive even when commercial is carrying you.

And do not buy your way in. There are lead sellers happy to charge you for "commercial leads," which is the same rented-pipeline arrangement that has trades burned out on paying per lead, only with a longer sales cycle. Vendor lists are earned with paperwork and reliability, and neither is for sale.

Why late summer is the moment

There is a calendar reason not to file this under someday. Fall is turnover and budget season for residential property managers, and the vendors they call in October are the ones already approved in their system. Onboarding takes time: your agent has to issue an endorsement, someone has to run a background check, a compliance system has to log it. Starting the paperwork in the middle of the busy season is starting it too late.

Where RunCabin fits

RunCabin builds and runs the site for $39.99/mo, flat, and a commercial page is one sentence of work. You ask for it in plain English, saying which property types you serve and which commercial services you do, and the page exists. When a management company asks for something specific on the site, or you add a service, or you finally get the additional insured language sorted, you ask again and it changes in moments. No ticket, no designer, no waiting until next week to look ready for a call happening today.

Your domain, professional email at that domain and a logo are included, which covers the contact-path problem the same day. No setup fee, no contract, and the site and domain are yours to take elsewhere whenever you want. That is the point here: you should be spending this month on your insurance agent and your referral calls, not on a website project.

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