RQ200 ← rq200.com
Contractor coordination

Get your contractor coordination out of the text thread

RQ200 is contractor management software for the hands-on property manager: every job separate and trackable, the contractor talking to the tenant directly, and you directing and approving instead of relaying messages all day.

Today: every call routes through you
Tenant⇄You⇄Contractor
"When can he come?" · "Is 2pm okay?" · "He's asking for the door code." Three calls per repair, and none of them are your actual job.
In RQ200: they coordinate, you direct
You
↓  assign · direct · approve the work
Contractor⇄Tenant
The job carries the unit and the tenant's contact, so the visit gets arranged without you in the middle.

The thread is where jobs go to blur together

If you coordinate your own contractors, odds are the whole operation lives in text and WhatsApp threads. It works, barely, because you hold it together personally: you take the tenant's call, text the contractor, relay the tenant's schedule back, ask for a price, ask again, get a photo of something, and type "done" in a spreadsheet.

Then the questions the thread can't answer start landing:

The day someone asks about that repair, you have nothing. Not because the work wasn't done, but because the record is a scroll.

How RQ200 runs the coordination

  1. Every job is separate and trackable. One repair, one record: description, priority, unit, contractor, cost, photos, history. Three repairs at one building are three jobs, not one blurred thread.
  2. The job carries the unit and the tenant's contact. So the contractor arranges the visit with the tenant directly. The single biggest time-drain (you relaying schedules between two people who could just talk) is gone. You direct and approve; you don't play telephone.
  3. Acknowledgment tracking. When a contractor is assigned, they acknowledge the job, so "did they even see it?" has an answer on the record, and you chase only the ones who haven't.
  4. Photo and video updates while the work happens. You see what they found and direct the job from wherever you are. No drive-by needed. It's verified photo proof, tied to the job.
  5. Submit-for-review: you approve every job. Contractors don't mark their own work complete. They submit it with photos, and you approve or send it back with a note. Done means you said done.
  6. A permanent per-contractor work log. Every job a contractor has done (what, where, when, with proof) accumulates into a record. Who's fast, who needs send-backs, which buildings they know: it's written down.

What your contractors see

Contractors get their own accounts. They sign in from an invite on their phone: no app-store download, and they can add it to their home screen like an app. What they see is deliberately small: their assigned jobs, each with the unit, the tenant's contact, the description, and the photo history in one place. Not your portfolio, not other contractors' work.

That's an easier day than scrolling a thread for the address and calling you to ask which apartment. If you're wondering how to get a crew that lives in WhatsApp to switch, we wrote about it: how to get contractors to actually use software.

Side by side

Coordinating by text

You are the system
  • All jobs blur into one thread
  • You relay between tenant and contractor
  • "Seen" is a guess
  • Prices agreed verbally, argued later
  • Photos in someone's camera roll
  • History leaves when the phone does

Coordinating in RQ200

The system carries the detail
  • Every job separate, trackable, on a unit
  • Contractor talks to the tenant directly
  • Acknowledgment on the record
  • Photo/video proof reviewed by you
  • A permanent work log per contractor

Runs beside your books, not instead of them

By design, RQ200 doesn't do rent, leases, accounting, or screening. If AppFolio or Buildium holds your books, keep it there; RQ200 runs the work beside it, and AppFolio work orders file themselves in with the work-order number, priority, tenant, and unit included. The work-order loop and the photo-proof closing step cover the rest of the system. Comparing against a maintenance-coordination platform? See RQ200 vs Property Meld.

Common questions

How is this different from just texting my contractors?

Texting works until you need to find anything. In RQ200 every job is its own record (acknowledged, photographed, and approved) and the contractor coordinates the visit with the tenant directly instead of through you. The thread has none of that: no per-job history, no proof, and you in the middle of every message.

Will my contractors actually use it?

It's built for exactly that: phone-first, no app-store download. They sign in from an invite and can add it to their home screen. They see only their assigned jobs, with the unit, the tenant's contact, and the history in one place. Most contractors prefer that to scrolling a thread for the address.

Do contractors see my whole portfolio?

No. Contractors have their own accounts and see the buildings and jobs assigned to them, and nothing else.

Does RQ200 replace AppFolio or Buildium?

No, it runs beside them. They keep rent, leases, and accounting; RQ200 runs the contractor coordination and field work. AppFolio work orders even file themselves into RQ200 automatically.

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