Get bids.
Hold the vote.
Keep the record.

That is what the console is for. Vetted local companies submit proposals on the services you ask for; you compare them, put them to a board vote, contract the one you pick, and every visit, photo and invoice that follows sits under your community. The board holds the account, signs the contracts and pays each invoice — nobody signs on your behalf. If your board later decides it does want a professional firm, you can share the community with vetted management companies and read their proposals the same way. That part is a secondary offering; the vendor platform is the product.

Yes, and you don't run a second copy of anything. Your manager works the same community record you do — the same vendors, work orders, invoices and proof-of-work photos, under one subscription. What differs is how much of it each of you is handed: your manager holds the account and everything that comes with running it; your seat is scoped to what a board governs — the service orders behind and ahead of you, the schedule, the proposals and the votes on them, and a ticket queue that lands on whoever runs the community. It is one community underneath either way, so nothing has to be re-entered, re-approved, or reconciled between you.

Not on its own. If nobody has put your community on HOAcrew yet, you sign up as its representative — a board member who holds the vendor relationship is exactly that — and you get the whole console: the RFP board, the side-by-side bids, the mapping tool, the invoices, all of it. If your community already has an account, whoever holds it adds you a board seat instead, so you never end up with a second, empty copy of your own community. A seat is scoped on purpose: the service orders behind and ahead of you, the schedule, the proposals and the votes on them, and a ticket queue that lands on whoever runs the community. Not the invoices, not the account settings, not the API — that is the difference between governing the work and holding the keys to the money, and most boards want exactly that line drawn.

No — and it should not have to be. The account belongs to the community’s main contact, which on a self-run board is usually whoever holds the vendor relationship: you request service, review proposals, approve the work, and pay invoices from one login. At turnover you hand that login to the next person instead of forwarding a year of email. If you want the rest of the board in, you can give each of them their own seat: the service orders behind them and ahead of them, the schedule, the proposals and the votes on them, and a way to raise a ticket with you. The vendor list and messages are yours to switch on per seat; the invoices and the account settings are not switches at all, and simply stay with you. If the community’s account is yours, it is the Board Seats tab in your console — you add their email, tick what they may see, and send them the link it gives you. If it is somebody else’s, they issue the seats.

Whoever signs for your community. That is the board on plenty of associations, and on plenty of others it is the president or the treasurer acting as an officer, or the community manager acting on the association’s instruction — HOAcrew does not assume. The person signing types their name and, if they want it recorded, what they are signing as: “Board President”, “Treasurer”, “Senior Community Manager”. Both go onto the signed agreement beside the date, so a year later the document says who committed the community and in what capacity rather than leaving a name nobody can place. HOAcrew records the title as stated and notes what its own records showed at that moment; it does not read your governing documents and does not confirm who is authorized to commit the association — that stays with you.

Pool maintenance, lawn and landscaping, porter and common-area cleaning, and amenity or gate staffing. You pick the services your community needs and receive proposals from local companies for each one.

You have the record before you have the conversation. Every visit, photo and missed date is time-stamped under your community, so the board raises it from evidence rather than from a homeowner’s recollection. If it does not improve, invite replacement proposals and move — those companies are already vetted, so it is days rather than a search and a re-bid mid-season.

Requesting proposals is free, and you see each vendor’s own price for the service up front — the figure it asked for, which is the figure the board pays — before you commit to anything. Sales tax and payment processing appear as their own lines. Start with a quote for your community to see what your services would run.