Short answer
One vendor usually means fewer handoffs, one point of contact and fewer gaps in scheduling, which matters most on turnovers. Separate specialists can make sense for a large, specialized scope. It often comes down to how much time your team spends coordinating, and whether one company can really do the work well.
There’s no single right answer. It depends on the size of your property and how much coordinating your team has time for.
When one vendor makes sense
- You have regular turnovers, where cleaning, paint, repairs and flooring all depend on one another
- Your on-site team is small and doesn’t have time to manage several schedules
- You have properties in several cities and want one relationship across them
- You want one place to call when something goes wrong
When separate contractors make sense
- A big or specialized job, like a roof replacement, which a specialist is better suited to do
- You already have a great contractor for one trade and don’t want to give them up
- You have in-house staff covering most of the work, and only need to fill one gap
Questions to ask
Ask a one-stop vendor which work is done by their own crews and which gets subcontracted, and ask for examples of each. “We do everything” only helps if it’s true. More on this in signs your maintenance vendor isn’t keeping up.
We provide cleaning and janitorial support alongside maintenance and repairs, so property teams can work with one vendor. For things we don’t do ourselves, like installing roofs, we work with partner companies and we’ll tell you that up front.