Who actually hires a trade for a strata building?

Under BC's Strata Property Act, the strata corporation is responsible for common property and acts through its elected council. In practice, many councils hand day-to-day trade calls to a property management company, so the manager is often your real buyer.

What do property managers ask for first?

Usually proof of licensing where your trade requires it, liability insurance, a WorkSafeBC clearance letter, and a clear rate sheet. Having those ready in one place puts you ahead of most competitors.

How long does it take to get on a manager's vendor list?

It varies widely. Some managers add a trade after one good emergency call; others review vendors once a year. Plan on several months of steady, polite contact before it pays.

Do you contact managers on my behalf?

We prepare the materials, research the firms and draft the messages. The relationship works better when the first real conversation is with you or your office manager, so you send or make the contact.

Strata and Property-Manager Marketing in Richmond

In Richmond, the person who decides whether you get a job is often not the person living with the problem. With roughly 34,000 apartment units counted in the 2021 Census, plus thousands of townhouses in strata complexes, a lot of plumbing, electrical, roofing and drainage work goes through a council or a management company. This service helps your trade get onto their call list and stay there.

We are a marketing and business consulting service. We are not a contractor, and nothing here is legal or compliance advice; we help you present the credentials you already hold.

Who the buyer really is

The Strata Property Act makes the strata corporation responsible for common property, and the corporation works through its council. Many Richmond councils then contract a property management firm, which handles trade calls between meetings.

That gives you three different audiences:

Property managers, who want a trade who answers fast, documents everything and doesn't create complaints from owners
Council members, volunteers who approve bigger spends and care about price, disruption and fairness to owners
Individual owners, who call you for work inside their unit and then mention you to council

A marketing plan that only targets homeowners misses the first two.

Who this service suits

It fits trades whose work regularly touches common property or building systems:

plumbing, including domestic water, drainage and parkade sumps
electrical, including lighting, panels and EV charging in parkades
roofing, gutters and membrane repairs
painting, sealant and restoration work
landscaping and irrigation for townhouse complexes

It's less useful if your work is almost entirely inside detached homes. In that case, start with local search.

What's included

Credentials page. A page on your website listing what a manager needs: licences held where your trade requires them (Technical Safety BC licenses gas and electrical contractors), insurance, WorkSafeBC registration, after-hours contact and service area.
Capability sheet. A one-page PDF summary for managers and councils: services, response times, sample scope of a typical job, and who to call.
Target list. Research into management companies active in Richmond, prioritised by the building types that suit your trade.
Outreach drafts. Short, useful messages and follow-ups written for you to send, plus a simple tracking sheet.
Job documentation habit. A template for before-and-after photos and a short job note, which managers forward to councils and which becomes proof on your website.
Review and referral routine for owners you meet inside units.

Timeline

Materials are ready in three to four weeks. Outreach then runs over months, not days. Many trades see their first manager calls after an emergency job goes well, so being easy to reach after hours matters as much as any brochure.

How we measure it

We track the number of management firms contacted, the number who added you as a vendor, the calls received from each, and the revenue from strata jobs compared with homeowner jobs. Because strata work often repeats, we also look at revenue per manager over a year, not per call.

What a good capability sheet contains

Keep it to one page. Put your business name, trade, the parts of Richmond you cover and an after-hours number at the top. Then list licences and insurance, your typical response time for urgent and routine calls, three or four building jobs you've done (with the building type, not the address), and the name of the person who answers manager calls. Managers skim, so short lines beat paragraphs.

Mistakes to avoid

Sending a generic brochure. Managers want to know your response time and your paperwork, not your mission statement.
Quoting without a scope. Councils compare quotes line by line. Vague quotes lose.
Disappearing after one job. A short follow-up with photos and a note keeps you top of mind.
Bad behaviour in shared spaces. Blocking a parkade ramp or leaving dust in a lobby gets you dropped faster than a high price.

Strata work fits well with paid search for emergency calls from those same buildings. See the pricing page for plans, or the City Centre section of our areas page for where Richmond's towers cluster.

Winning strata and property-manager work in Richmond