Price per door is the least useful number in a landscaping bid. What actually separates vendors is proof: of visits completed, of on-time service, of insurance and Texas Department of Agriculture licensing, and of what happens when something goes wrong. These eight questions surface all of it before you sign.
1. How will we know the work happened?
The oldest problem in HOA landscaping: the contract says weekly service, and the board has no way to verify it beyond driving the property. Ask what evidence the vendor produces per visit. The right answer in 2026 is time-stamped photo logs from the crew on site, visible to the board without asking. If verification is "call your account manager," every future dispute is your word against theirs. (This is the problem Greenline's HOA service was built around: every visit logged with photo proof on a live dashboard.)
2. What's your on-time rate, and can you show it?
Any vendor will say they're reliable. Ask for the number: what percentage of scheduled visits in the last twelve months happened on the scheduled day, across their whole book? A vendor who tracks this will answer instantly. A vendor who doesn't track it can't manage it.
3. Who fields resident complaints?
If the answer is "residents call the management company, which emails us," your community manager is the ticketing system. Look for a vendor with a direct channel: residents report an issue, the crew gets it, the manager sees the outcome without being in the middle.
4. How is out-of-scope work approved?
Storm damage, a dead tree, a bed the board wants added: extra work is inevitable. What you're protecting against is surprise invoices. Get the change-order flow in writing: written quote first, board or manager sign-off before work starts, no exceptions. In-scope work should never generate a change order.
5. Are you insured for this, specifically?
Ask for certificates of insurance naming the association as additional insured: general liability, commercial auto, and workers' compensation. Texas does not require private employers to carry workers' comp, which makes verifying it more important here, not less. An uninsured crew injury on association property can become the association's problem.
6. Who holds the pesticide license?
In Texas, anyone who applies pesticides or herbicides to lawns, trees, or ornamentals for hire must be licensed by the Texas Department of Agriculture, and that includes general-use products, not only restricted ones. TDA offers two routes to that license: an agricultural pesticide applicator license certified in category 3A (landscape maintenance), or a Structural Pest Control Service license certified in the lawn and ornamental category. A vendor that only spreads fertilizer does not need one. Ask for the license number, which of the two programs it falls under, and who on the crew actually holds it; TDA's own page on which license is required to apply pesticides to lawns, trees, and ornamentals lays out both options, and its pesticide program overview explains how the two programs divide the work. A vendor spraying your common areas without a license is a liability you inherit.
7. What happens after a hurricane?
On the Gulf Coast this is not hypothetical. Ask: where does our community sit in your storm-response priority, what are the debris-removal rates (get them in the contract, not quoted the week after landfall), and how fast do you typically clear access routes versus complete full cleanup? The same questions apply to the commercial properties most boards' management companies also oversee.
8. What does leaving look like?
Read the term, the auto-renewal window, and the exit clause before signing. A vendor confident in their service will offer a reasonable termination-for-cause path and won't need to trap you in a three-year auto-renewal. Also confirm the scope is seasonal: a 52-week contract should say what happens in the weeks when nothing grows. (Our Houston lawn care calendar is a useful reference for what a reasonable seasonal scope looks like.)
Timing your bid process
Most Texas HOA budgets are set in the fall for the following year. Collect bids in late summer so the board can compare them before budget season, and insist every bidder prices the same written scope, or the per-door numbers mean nothing. Greenline answers all eight questions in writing as part of every proposal for lawn care in Houston and Austin; request a quote and we will send the proof along with the price.