What a weekly pest-control contract should include for property managers

This page is for property managers and regional teams who buy weekly pest control for apartment communities in Austin and Dallas–Fort Worth. It is a buying guide for a contract, not a homeowner article and not a do-it-yourself checklist. If you are writing an RFP, comparing vendors, or explaining to ownership why the cheap monthly spray route keeps generating callbacks, you are the audience.

Heat Wave has served Texas multifamily since 2012. Clients renew at 99 percent. The point of a weekly contract is a defined scope, a response time, a record your regional can audit, and a way to attach specialty work so the route technician is not asked to treat an outbreak with the weekly can.

The buying decision is not whether the community has pests. Every occupied community has pressure. The decision is what you are paying the vendor to own: common areas, interiors on request, make-ready units, exterior perimeter, response time when a resident escalates, and the inspection record that lands in the file after each visit.

A vague contract produces a vague route. The office cannot show a regional what was done in building C last month. Specialty work — thermal bed bugs, intensive roach cleanouts — gets forced onto the weekly visit, which is how outbreaks linger.

Write the scope in three buckets so the desk and the vendor are describing the same work.

Common areas. Trash rooms, breezeways, amenities, laundry, offices, and the exterior perimeter are the weekly backbone. If these are not in the contract, they become extras the first time a resident complains about the trash chute.

Interiors. Occupied unit service should be defined: on request, on a rotating schedule, or both. Say how a work order is opened, how access is handled, and whether the visit is logged to that unit.

Make-ready and vacant. Vacant units need a defined turn treatment before the next lease starts. If make-ready is missing, leasing will keep asking the weekly tech to just hit it between occupied stops, and the file will not show a turn-ready record.

Weekly is the frequency Heat Wave publishes for base contracts: the same technician, the same route, the same day. Recurring problem areas, unit history, and open follow-up work do not have to be re-explained to a rotating vendor.

Monthly or as-needed contracts look cheaper on a bid sheet. They also leave longer gaps between inspections, which is when a German roach kitchen becomes a stack and a bed bug ticket becomes three units. If a vendor bids monthly, ask what happens in week three when the resident is still calling.

Weekly service is scheduled. Escalations are not. Write a response expectation for resident-generated interior tickets and for specialty attach work. A contract that only says weekly does not tell the desk when a roach cleanout or a thermal visit will be scheduled after the route tech flags the unit.

Ask the vendor to state, in writing, how a same-week interior request is handled and how specialty work is dispatched. If the answer is we will see, you do not have a response time.

A weekly contract without records is a truck. Heat Wave already publishes the documentation standard: every service visit logged with date, time, technician, units treated, and products used, available online so site staff, regionals, and ownership work from the same file.

When a resident escalates, or an inspector asks what was done in unit 214 last quarter, the answer should already be in the portal. See the weekly service documentation proof page for the process we already publish. Do not accept paper tickets that live in a binder on site.

A good weekly contract names what it is not. Thermal bed bug treatment and intensive roach cleanouts are specialty attach work. They should be available from the same vendor, scheduled as their own visits, and logged in the same documentation stream. They should not be improvised during the Friday route.

Heat Wave attaches specialty work to the weekly contract, including thermal bed bug treatment — commercial heat to approximately 135°F, typically 4–8 hours, same-day return — and roach cleanouts.

“We had a bed bug situation in three units. Heat Wave handled it in 48 hours with zero resident complaints.”

That is outbreak work, not a weekly spray pass.

If the bid does not separate weekly scope from specialty attach, the weekly tech will be asked to do both, and neither will look like a finished file.

The contract should say who the technician checks in with, how gate and key access works, and how the office receives the day’s list. Multifamily coordination is not a residential appointment model. The vendor should know how to work a turn schedule and a resident notice window without the assistant manager running a second dispatch desk.

Quote on unit count and layout. Send the property address and total units. If you manage a portfolio, send the list. Heat Wave prices Austin and Dallas–Fort Worth communities that way. Austin: (512) 994-0141. Dallas–Fort Worth: (469) 250-8151. Office: 9311 N FM 620 Ste 300, Austin, TX 78726.

A regional can read one page and know: common areas, interiors, and make-ready are each in scope. Frequency is weekly, same technician, same day. Escalation response is written. Records are online and auditable. Specialty attach — thermal, roach cleanouts — is named so the route is not asked to do outbreak work. Access and check-in are defined. Price is tied to unit count.

If any of those lines is missing, you are buying a route, not a contract.

Heat Wave’s base contract is weekly general pest control for multifamily in Austin and Dallas–Fort Worth, with the same technician on the same day, occupied and vacant coverage, and online records. Specialty work attaches at contract pricing. We have served multifamily since 2012. We do not take homeowners.

Send the property address and unit count. Use the quote form on this page or call. The matching money page is the weekly multifamily pest control contract page.

What should be in writing before we sign?

Scope by area, weekly frequency, named technician or route, response time for escalations, online inspection records, and a specialty-attach list so outbreak work is not dumped on the weekly visit.

Is monthly service enough for a community?

A monthly bid can look cheaper. It also leaves longer gaps between inspections. Heat Wave’s published base contract is weekly, because apartment pressure does not pause for three weeks.

Where do the records live?

They should live online, by unit and date, available to site and regional staff without calling the vendor. That is the process on our weekly documentation proof page.

How do you quote a portfolio?

By property address and unit count, community by community, with specialty attach priced so the weekly route stays a weekly route. Austin (512) 994-0141. Dallas–Fort Worth (469) 250-8151.