Relocation Company Work

Why this matters

When a large employer moves a worker to another city, it often hires a relocation management company to sell the worker's old house. Those companies order inspections and repairs by the dozen, pay reliably, and come back when the work is done right. They also run on approval chains, invoice rules and payment terms that look nothing like a homeowner job, and a shop that treats the order like a normal service call ends up waiting two or three months for money over a missing file number. This card explains who is who, how the house changes hands, where the approvals sit, and how to get paid on the first submission.

The parties, and which one is your customer

• The transferee. The employee being moved. They live in the house, or did. They are rarely the one paying you, though they may be the one who lets you in.
• The relocation management company (RMC). Hired by the employer to run the move, including the home sale. Inside it you will deal with a relocation consultant (looks after the transferee) and, once the RMC owns the house, an asset manager or inventory manager (looks after the property).
• The employer, called the client. Pays the RMC, sets the policy that says what is reimbursable, and often must approve spending above a set amount.
• The broker. A listing agent from the RMC's network who handles marketing and often relays orders and access.

Your customer is whoever issued the work order and will pay the invoice, and that changes with the sale program and the stage of the sale. Get it in writing on every order. See related: Who Is Your Customer in a Real Estate Deal.

How the house changes hands

Two program shapes cover most of what you will meet. Their names vary by RMC, but the mechanics are consistent.

Buyout. The RMC orders appraisals (commonly two), offers the transferee a price based on them, and if the transferee accepts, the RMC buys the house and then resells it. Before it buys, the RMC orders inspections, and its policy decides which findings must be repaired before purchase, credited, or accepted. After it buys, the house is usually vacant and the RMC is the owner, so repair orders come from the asset manager.

Buyer value option, also called amended value. The transferee markets the house and finds a buyer. The RMC then buys the house from the transferee at that buyer's price and sells it on to the buyer, so there are two sales in quick succession. Inspections are often the buyer's, with the RMC reviewing them; repairs may be ordered by the RMC, or by the transferee before the RMC takes title.

Why it matters to a trade: in a buyout the RMC is a sophisticated owner with its own disclosure rules, and RMC programs commonly pass every inspection report they hold to the eventual buyer. Your report on an RMC job is written for at least two readers, the RMC now and a stranger later. Write it accordingly.

The approval chain

Nothing proceeds on a verbal yes. A typical chain for a repair runs like this:

1. The asset manager or consultant receives a finding (often from an inspection you or someone else did).
2. They ask for a bid. Above an amount set by the program, they commonly require two or three competing bids.
3. If the job is above the client's own approval threshold, the RMC sends it to the employer for sign-off, which can take days and is outside the RMC's control.
4. Approval returns as a work order or purchase order (PO) with a number. That number is your authorization and the key to getting paid.

Two rules follow. Do not start on an email that says "go ahead" without a PO number, because an invoice without one is commonly rejected however clear the email was. And bid the scope the finding describes, not a bigger one. If you find more on site, it goes back up the chain as a change, with photos, before you do it. An RMC that receives an invoice for more than the PO will pay the PO amount and send the rest back for approval, which restarts the clock on the difference.

Getting set up, and what each document is for

RMCs onboard vendors before the first order. Expect to supply:

• A W-9, the IRS form that gives them your taxpayer ID for year-end reporting.
• A certificate of insurance, often naming the RMC as certificate holder or additional insured (an additional insured gets coverage under your policy for claims arising from your work). Your agent issues it; check that the limits the RMC asks for are limits you actually carry.
• License copies for trades your state licenses.
• A vendor agreement, which commonly includes an indemnity clause (you agree to cover the RMC's losses from your work), payment terms and invoice requirements. Read the indemnity and payment sections with your attorney before signing; what the clause actually binds you to is a question of its wording and your state's law, and some states limit how broad a contractor indemnity can be.

Keep the agreement's invoice requirements on one page in your office. That page is how you get paid.

Payment terms and the invoice that gets rejected

RMCs typically pay on terms counted from receipt of a valid invoice, commonly net 30 to net 60, through an accounts payable system rather than a person. "Valid" is the operative word. Invoices are commonly kicked back for:

• a missing or wrong PO or file number;
• no transferee name or property address matching the file;
• an amount above the PO;
• missing required attachments (photos, a completion statement, a lien waiver where the program asks for one);
• an invoice sent to the consultant instead of the payables address.

A rejection usually arrives as an automated notice a week or more later, and the payment clock restarts when the corrected invoice lands. Some programs instead pay vendors at closing through the title company; then the job is only paid if and when the sale closes. See related: Getting Paid at Closing Without Getting Stuck.

Worked example: one RMC repair, day by day

A six-tech HVAC shop is onboarded with an RMC whose vendor agreement says net 45 from receipt of a valid invoice. A buyout house is vacant, owned by the RMC.

Day 0. The asset manager emails a request for an HVAC inspection, with a PO for the inspection only.

Day 4. Inspection done. The house had sat empty for six weeks, so before firing the furnace the tech checked the vent connector and flue for nests or debris and ran it with a CO meter at the draft hood; any spillage would have meant shutting it off, tagging it and reporting that first. The furnace's draft inducer motor is failing (loud bearing, intermittent start), and the condenser is past its expected life but running. The tech's report says exactly that, with photos, the furnace's model year, and the reading that showed the intermittent start. It does not call the condenser failed, because it is not.

Day 5. Report and a bid for the inducer replacement go to the asset manager. The bid is above the program's two-bid threshold, so the RMC asks a second shop to bid.

Day 12. Both bids are in. The amount is above the employer's approval threshold, so the RMC sends it to the client.

Day 19. The client approves. A repair PO arrives.

Day 22. Repair done, invoice sent the same day. The office types the inspection PO number on the repair invoice by mistake.

Day 30. Automated rejection: PO does not match. Day 31, corrected invoice resubmitted.

Day 76. Paid, 45 days after the valid invoice landed on day 31.

What it shows. The approval chain took 14 days (day 5 to day 19), none of it under the shop's control. The payment took 54 days from completion (day 22 to day 76), of which 9 days (day 22 to day 31) were the shop's own error. Had the first invoice been valid, payment would have landed on day 67. From first order to money, the job took about two and a half months.

What would change it. Under a buyer value option before the RMC took title, the same repair might be ordered and paid by the transferee, on homeowner terms. In a program that pays at closing, the money would have waited on the resale, which could take months longer on a vacant house, and if the sale fell through the shop would be chasing an RMC that never owed it under that arrangement until closing. A shop that cannot carry receivables for two and a half months should cap how much RMC work it accepts at once, because the jobs are profitable on paper and expensive in cash.

Pricing and capacity

RMC work is usually steady and well organized, but the money arrives late and every job carries office time: onboarding, bids that may not win, approval follow-up, invoice formatting. Two habits keep it worth doing. Price the bid knowing a second shop is bidding, so it carries your real cost and no hope premium. And track RMC jobs separately in your receivables report, so their 45-to-60-day float is visible as its own line instead of making your homeowner collections look worse than they are.

How to check your setup

Take your last three RMC invoices. For each, did it carry the right PO number, the transferee name and address as they appear on the file, an amount no higher than the PO, and every attachment the vendor agreement lists? Was it sent to the payables address, not the consultant? Count the days from completion to payment and from valid invoice to payment; any gap between the two is days you gave away. Then check that your certificate of insurance on file with each RMC has not expired, because an expired certificate commonly freezes payment until it is replaced.

References

• IRS Form W-9, Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification.
• Your vendor agreement with each relocation company: invoice requirements, payment terms, indemnity and insurance sections.
• See related: Who Is Your Customer in a Real Estate Deal
• See related: Getting Paid at Closing Without Getting Stuck
• See related: Working in a Vacant Listed Home