You drive past the same townhome community every week. Sixty units, a clubhouse, a front entrance with dead shrubs, and a big-name landscaping truck parked out front. You figure that contract is locked up. Big companies win HOA work. Small crews get the leftovers.
That’s not how it works. Learning how to bid on HOA landscaping contracts is mostly about showing up prepared, pricing the full year honestly, and proving to a board that you’ll answer the phone. A 2–5 person crew can do all three better than a company with a call center.
This guide to winning an HOA lawn care contract walks you through it step by step: finding HOA landscaping bids, getting bid-ready, reading the scope, pricing a full-year contract, and keeping the account once you win it.
Table of Contents
- Why HOA Contracts Are Worth Chasing for a Small Crew
- How HOA Boards Actually Pick a Landscaper
- Step 1: Find HOA Landscaping Bids
- Step 2: Get Bid-Ready Before the RFP Lands
- Step 3: Read the HOA Landscaping RFP and Scope of Work
- Step 4: Price the HOA Landscape Maintenance Contract
- Step 5: Write an HOA Landscape Proposal That Wins
- Step 6: Present to the Board
- Keeping the HOA Contract After You Win
- Common Mistakes That Lose HOA Bids
- FAQ
Why HOA Contracts Are Worth Chasing for a Small Crew
Steady monthly revenue and route density
An HOA is dozens of lawns, common areas, and beds at one address. Your crew unloads once and works all morning.
The market keeps growing. According to Realtor.com’s 2025 HOA research, 67.9% of new-build homes are in an HOA, compared to 38.9% of existing homes. HOA contracts are also usually billed in equal monthly payments across the year. That smooths out the cash flow dip most crews feel every winter.
Which HOAs fit a 2–5 person crew (and which to skip)
Don’t chase the 800-home master-planned community with three pools and a golf course. That’s a big-firm account. Go after:
- Small townhome and condo associations (roughly 20–100 units)
- Patio-home communities where the HOA maintains front yards
- Entrance-and-common-area-only contracts for single-family subdivisions
- Self-managed HOAs where a volunteer board runs things without a management company
Skip any HOA where one contract would be more than a third of your revenue. More on that in the mistakes section.
If you’re new to commercial work in general, start with our guide on how to get commercial landscaping contracts as a small crew. HOAs are the friendliest door into that world.
How HOA Boards Actually Pick a Landscaper
Who decides
Three groups are involved:
- The property manager. Most HOAs hire a management company. The manager writes the RFP, collects bids, and makes a recommendation.
- The landscape committee. Some boards have a few volunteer homeowners who care about the grounds. They walk the property and have opinions.
- The board. The board votes. But they usually follow the manager’s recommendation.
The manager is your real customer. In a self-managed HOA, find out who’s in charge. As one landscaping YouTuber put it: “you need to find out who is in charge who’s the president who’s the person in charge of the landscape for that homeowners association and uh shoot them on an email” (YouTube).
The 8 things boards score besides price
Elevate Landscapes’ guide for HOA managers lists eight things boards should weigh when picking a provider:
- Aesthetics and curb appeal
- Cost stability (no surprise increases)
- Irrigation management
- Weed control
- Plant health
- Risk management (insurance, safety)
- Responsiveness
- Enhancement recommendations
That’s your scorecard. Your bid should answer every one of those, in writing.
The 3–5 year re-bid cycle
Yellowstone Landscape recommends HOAs re-bid their landscaping every three to five years. Every HOA near you is a future opportunity.
Step 1: Find HOA Landscaping Bids
HOA bids rarely show up on public bid portals. You find them through people.
Property management companies
List every HOA management company in your service area. Call each and ask: “Who handles vendor bids for landscaping?” Get on their vendor list. One manager may oversee 10 or 20 communities.
Referrals from neighboring HOAs
If you already mow for homeowners inside an HOA, you have an inside track. Ask them who’s on the board. Residents who like your work will mention you at a meeting.
Board budget season
Most HOAs set next year’s budget in the fall for a January start. If an association is unhappy with its current landscaper, that’s when it decides to go out to bid. Reach out to managers in late summer and early fall so you’re on the list before the RFP goes out.
Track it: Keep a simple list of every HOA in your area with the management company, contract renewal date (ask), and current landscaper. Check in once a quarter.
Step 2: Get Bid-Ready Before the RFP Lands
When an RFP shows up, you may get two weeks. Don’t spend them chasing paperwork.
Insurance, COI, and additional insured
Nearly every HOA will ask for a certificate of insurance (COI). Common asks include:
- General liability
- Workers’ compensation
- Commercial auto
- Umbrella coverage
- The HOA and management company named as additional insured
The required limits come from each RFP or contract. They vary. Don’t assume a number. Call your agent now and ask how fast they can issue a COI with an additional insured endorsement. A good agent turns it around in a day.
If you’re shopping coverage, see our breakdown of commercial landscaping insurance cost.
Licensing and bonding
Check your state’s requirements. Some states require a landscape contractor license. Pesticide and herbicide application usually requires a separate applicator license. If you spray weeds in the common areas without one, you’re out. Some HOAs also ask for a performance bond on larger contracts.
One-page capability sheet
Make a single page you can attach to any bid:
- Business name, years in business, owner’s name and cell
- Services you perform yourself vs. subcontract
- Crew size and equipment list
- Licenses and insurance carriers
- Three references with phone numbers
- Before/after photos of your best work
It tells a manager you’re a real business.
Step 3: Read the HOA Landscaping RFP and Scope of Work
The scope of work is where bids are won and lost. Read it twice.
Service frequencies and standards
Look for exact numbers:
- Mowing visits per year (weekly in season? biweekly in fall?)
- Mowing height and string trimming standards
- Edging frequency for sidewalks and curbs
- Shrub pruning cycles (two or three times a year?)
- Bed weeding frequency
- Mulch: how many yards, how often, what type
- Leaf removal and spring cleanup
- Fertilizer and weed control applications per year
- Seasonal color (flower rotations)
Anything vague is a risk.
Irrigation responsibilities
Find out exactly who does what. Are you running monthly checks? Repairing heads? Who pays for parts? Is winterization and spring start-up included? Irrigation is a big source of HOA complaints. Know your role before you price it.
The site walk
Always attend the site walk, even if it’s optional. Bring:
- A measuring wheel or a satellite measuring app
- Your phone for photos of problem areas
- The scope, marked up
Count beds. Note slopes, push-mower-only spaces, and dead plants that will turn into complaints. Ask your questions in writing so every bidder gets the same answer.
Also check bid validity, start date, and any required bid form.
Step 4: Price the HOA Landscape Maintenance Contract
One commenter in a Facebook landscaping group put it well: “price the risk as well as the work” (Facebook). Another said it more bluntly: “Winning jobs does not help if those jobs are losing you money” (Facebook).
Here’s the formula:
Annual price = (labor + materials + equipment + overhead + risk) ÷ (1 − target margin)
Man hours × visits
Time each task from the site walk. Estimate man hours per mowing visit, then multiply by the number of visits. Do the same for pruning, mulch, cleanups, and irrigation checks. Use your burdened labor rate (wages plus payroll taxes, workers’ comp, and benefits), not just the hourly wage.
If you’ve never built a job cost this way, start with how to calculate landscaping job costs.
Materials, overhead, and margin
Add mulch, fertilizer, plants, and irrigation parts. Add equipment cost and fuel per visit. Then add your share of overhead: insurance, the truck, your phone, software, your own office time.
For margin, NIP Group suggests a 15–20% net profit target for a well-run landscaping business. They also note commercial contracts tend to carry lower unit pricing but higher total value. Don’t cut your margin to the bone just because the total looks big.
Worked example: a 60-unit townhome HOA (hypothetical)
These numbers are made up to show the math. Plug in your own.
| Line item | Calculation | Annual cost |
|---|---|---|
| Mowing, trimming, edging | 30 visits × 18 man hours × $28 burdened | $15,120 |
| Equipment and fuel | 30 visits × $60 | $1,800 |
| Mulch (materials) | Annual install, all beds | $4,500 |
| Mulch install labor | 60 man hours × $28 | $1,680 |
| Irrigation checks | 8 visits × 3 man hours × $28 | $672 |
| Overhead share | Insurance, truck, admin | $3,000 |
| Subtotal | $26,772 | |
| Risk/contingency | 5% of subtotal | $1,339 |
| Total cost | $28,111 | |
| Annual price at 18% margin | $28,111 ÷ 0.82 | $34,281 |
Round it to $34,300 a year. That’s about $2,858 a month across 12 payments. Across 624 total man hours, you’re bringing in roughly $55 per man hour, which falls inside the $50–$100 range NIP Group cites for standard landscaping labor.
12 monthly payments
Bill HOAs in 12 equal installments, even though your heavy work happens in the growing season. The HOA gets a predictable budget line. You get income in January. Our guide on recurring billing for lawn maintenance clients shows how to set that up.
Line items, extra-work rates, and escalators
Three things protect you:
- Line-item pricing. Break out mowing, pruning, mulch, irrigation, and seasonal color. If the board wants to cut something, they cut a line, not your margin.
- Extra-work rates. State your hourly rate for work outside the scope: storm cleanup, irrigation repairs, plant replacements.
- An annual escalator. On a multi-year contract, include a yearly increase clause tied to labor, fuel, and materials, with notice. Without it, year three costs you money.
Step 5: Write an HOA Landscape Proposal That Wins
Match the scope line by line
Follow the RFP’s structure exactly. If they number tasks 1 through 22, your pricing sheet goes 1 through 22. Managers compare bids side by side. Don’t make them hunt.
If they don’t give you a bid form, our landscaping proposal template is a solid starting point.
Include a communication plan
This is where small crews win. Spell out:
- One named contact, the owner, with a cell number
- Response time for calls and emails (for example, same business day)
- Photo reports after each visit or each month
- Storm response: how fast you’ll be on site after a big wind or rain event
- Enhancement ideas: two or three upgrades you’d suggest, priced separately
A big firm sends an account manager who covers 40 properties. You can promise the person who owns the business.
Double-check your math
Math errors are one of the easiest ways to lose a bid. Add every column twice. Make sure the monthly figure times 12 equals the annual total. One wrong number and the board stops trusting the rest.
Look professional
A handwritten quote or a price scribbled on a business card won’t cut it. Use a clean, branded document with your logo, license numbers, and insurance info.
Step 6: Present to the Board
If you make the shortlist, you’ll likely be invited to a board meeting. You’ll get 10–15 minutes.
- Bring printed copies of your proposal and capability sheet for each board member.
- Open with what you saw on the property. “Your irrigation is overspraying onto the walkways by building C” shows you actually walked it.
- Explain your communication plan. This is what they care about most after price.
- Don’t trash the current landscaper. Board members may like them. Talk about what you’ll do, not what they did wrong.
- Answer price questions directly. If you’re higher, explain what’s included.
Follow up in writing within 24 hours on anything you couldn’t answer.
Keeping the HOA Contract After You Win
Winning is half the job. Getting renewed is the other half.
Service logs and photos
Document every visit: date, crew, tasks done, and photos of the finished work. When a resident complains the beds weren’t weeded, you pull up last Tuesday’s photos. That ends the argument.
Handle resident complaints through the manager
Residents will flag down your crew. Train them to say, “I’ll pass that along to the property manager,” then do it. Free side work creates scope creep.
Invoicing and receivables
HOAs pay on whatever terms the contract says, and payments often go through the management company’s approval process. Don’t assume you’ll get paid fast. Read the payment terms before you sign, and price the wait into your cash flow plan.
What you control is getting the invoice out on time, every month, with no errors. That’s where an app like Okason earns its keep. You send branded estimates from the site walk, set the HOA up on a recurring monthly invoice, and keep visit photos tied to the job, all from your phone. Payments run through Stripe at 2.9% + $0.30 with no markup on top. There’s a 2-week free trial, no credit card required.
Common Mistakes That Lose HOA Bids
- Underpricing to win. A YouTube commenter called it a “race to the bottom with an RFP” (YouTube). If you win at a loss, you lose for three years.
- Skipping the site walk. You’ll miss the slopes, the dead shrubs, and the irrigation mess, and you’ll eat the cost.
- Vague scope language. “Weed control as needed” invites endless callbacks. Write frequencies.
- No escalator clause. Fuel and wages go up. Your multi-year price shouldn’t stay flat.
- Missing paperwork. No COI or no additional insured endorsement means your bid gets tossed before anyone reads the price.
- Putting too many eggs in one basket. One landscaping owner on YouTube described a firm where 90% of revenue came from a single client (YouTube). When that client leaves, the business is in trouble. Keep any single HOA under about a third of your revenue.
FAQ
How do you bid an HOA landscaping job?
Get on the manager’s vendor list, attend the site walk, price the full year from your own costs, and submit a line-item proposal with your COI and a communication plan.
How much should I charge an HOA for landscaping?
There’s no reliable national per-unit rate for HOAs. Use the formula above: total annual cost divided by one minus your target margin (15–20% net is common), split into 12 payments.
What insurance do I need for HOA contracts?
Check the RFP. Expect general liability, workers’ comp, commercial auto, and often umbrella, with the HOA named as additional insured. Limits vary.
How long are HOA landscaping contracts?
Term length is set by each contract, and many include renewal options. Yellowstone Landscape suggests associations re-bid every three to five years.
Can a small landscaping company win HOA contracts?
Yes. Start with smaller associations and sell what big firms can’t match: the owner’s cell number, fast response, and photo reports.
Your Next Step
Pick three HOA management companies in your service area this week. Call each one and ask who handles landscaping vendor bids. While you wait to hear back, get your COI and one-page capability sheet ready. When the next RFP lands, you’ll be the crew that’s already prepared.