The One-Page Website Recommendation Memo
If you have been asked to look into a website, what you actually have to produce is a document someone senior reads in ninety seconds and signs. Here is that document, with the structure already written. Fill in six blanks.
Why one page. The person approving this is not evaluating web design. They are deciding whether a known amount of money buys a known outcome on a known schedule. Everything that does not serve that decision makes approval slower, not faster.
Memorandum
To: [APPROVER NAME AND TITLE]
From: [YOUR NAME AND TITLE]
Date: [DATE]
Subject: Recommendation to approve a website for [PROPERTY NAME]
Recommended action
Approve a one-time expenditure of [$AMOUNT] with [VENDOR] to design and build the website for [PROPERTY NAME], with work beginning [DATE] and launch targeted for [DATE].
Why now
[For new construction:] Our certificate of occupancy is targeted for [DATE]. Industry guidance places the first web presence twelve to eighteen months before completion, and our property management company is not scheduled to be selected until [DATE]. Waiting for the management company to handle this removes roughly [NUMBER] months from our pre-leasing runway.
[For an operating property:] [PROPERTY NAME] currently has no website of its own and appears only as a listing on [MANAGEMENT COMPANY SITE / ILS]. Prospective residents searching the property by name do not reach a page we control.
Cost
The [VENDOR] proposal is for a fixed fee of [$AMOUNT], all inclusive. This includes [SCOPE SUMMARY IN ONE LINE]. The first year of hosting and support is included. Beginning in year two, ongoing hosting and maintenance is [$AMOUNT] per month. There is no subscription for the build itself and no annual re-approval required.
At [UNIT COUNT] units, the one-time cost is [$AMOUNT] per door.
Cost of not doing it
A vacant unit at our average rent of [$RENT] costs approximately [$RENT DIVIDED BY 30] per day. The proposed expenditure is equivalent to [NUMBER] vacant days. Across [NUMBER] annual turns, the investment is recovered if it reduces time to lease by [NUMBER] days per turn.
Alternatives considered
- [VENDOR B]: [$AMOUNT], [one line on why not]
- [VENDOR C]: [$AMOUNT], [one line on why not]
- Defer to the property management company: removes [NUMBER] months of pre-leasing runway and, if built on their platform, the site does not transfer to us if we change managers.
Terms worth noting
- The domain and the finished site are owned by [OWNING ENTITY], not the vendor.
- The site connects to our existing [PMS] rather than replacing it. Applications and resident payments are unaffected.
- No long-term contract. [NOTICE PERIOD] notice to end ongoing services.
Requested approval
Approval to proceed at [$AMOUNT], charged to [BUDGET LINE].
Four things that speed this up
Name a fixed number, not a range. A range reads as an unfinished question and gets sent back. The single most useful sentence in a vendor selection memo is a fixed fee stated as all inclusive.
Find out which budget line it comes from before you write. On a development project, marketing is frequently a capitalized line in the sources and uses rather than an operating expense, and the approval question is usually whether the spend is already budgeted rather than how large it is. A request that fits an approved line moves quickly. One that requires a reallocation can hold up a construction draw.
Answer the operational objection before it is raised. The question you will get is whether this breaks applications or payments. The line about connecting to the existing system rather than replacing it is there for that reason. Keep it.
Attach the quotes. Three comparable bids and a one-line reason for each rejection is what turns a recommendation into a decision. The scope of work template is what makes them comparable.
Need the numbers for the memo?
Tell us the property and we will send a fixed price and a written scope you can paste straight in.