As we are in the last month of quarter one, the topic of project procurement has been on our minds as schedules are quickly filling up; so I thought it would be great to go over the process and why it can be beneficial to have most project procurement done in the first quarter.
Procurement is the gathering of bids from contractors to award work so that projects can be completed in a specific timeline. The earlier you can get projects on the calendar with your contractor the less likely work will be postponed to the following year. This can be especially important in areas of the country where the construction season is shorter due to weather; typically the months of April – October. It’s also important to take into account what kind of property the work is for. When working with office, commercial and industrial properties a lot of work has to be scheduled on the weekends so that tenant business operations are not interrupted. With only 52 weekends a year and weather limitations in many areas this limits availability even more.
Before the scheduling can happen there’s a few things that need to take place. The typical process for procurement that most property managers are accustomed to starts with contacting 3-4 contractors or vendors. Then coordinating a job walk to assess what work needs to be done on the property. Each contractor will then submit their bid for the work that needs to be done. It’s up to the property manager to decipher each bid. Sometimes this means having contractors revise the scope of work based on the budget they have reserved for the property that year.
If this all sounds daunting and time consuming, that’s because it is! Especially if you are not familiar with the repairs that need to be made. SCS can help and our process makes it easier for you to make your decision with confidence. Our process reverses the traditional process. We do the property assessment first and give you a report on the overall condition of the property and repairs that need to be made. As well as what will need to be done in the coming years. Then we provide options for repairs based on the budget and write a detailed scope of work that contractors can bid on. Because each contractor receives the same scope of work you will get “apples to apples” bids back that fit in your budget. Making it easier to choose the best contractor for your project within your budget and get things scheduled.
