When a landscaping, pool, or janitorial contract comes up for renewal, the responsible thing is to put it out to bid. But "get three quotes" is where most boards stop, and it is why so many end up comparing numbers that have nothing to do with each other — one vendor bid weekly service, another biweekly, a third left out fertilization entirely. A real RFP (request for proposal) fixes that by making everyone bid on the same thing.
Here is how to run one that gets you comparable bids and a defensible decision.
Why a loose "get three quotes" backfires
If you hand three vendors your address and ask "what would you charge?", each one guesses at scope. The cheapest bid usually wins — and it is cheapest precisely because it includes the least work. Six months in, you are paying for change orders to add back everything that was quietly left out.
An RFP flips the process. You define the scope; the vendors compete on price and quality for that exact scope. Now the lowest bid is meaningfully the lowest, because everyone bid the same job.
Step 1: Define the scope of work in detail
Everything downstream depends on this step, and it is the one boards most often skip. Write down exactly what you want done, how often, and to what standard. For landscaping, that means mowing frequency, edging, trimming, bed maintenance, mulch (how many installs, what type), fertilization rounds, irrigation start-up and winterization, and seasonal cleanups. For pool service, it means visit frequency, chemical management, cleaning tasks, equipment checks, and who handles opening and closing.
Be specific about the property, too: total acreage, number of common areas, square footage of amenity buildings, anything unusual. The more precise your scope, the more comparable the bids.
Step 2: Decide what you require from bidders
Beyond price, spell out what every proposal must include so you can compare qualifications, not just cost:
- Proof of insurance at the limits your association requires. State the figures in the RFP itself — your board sets them, usually taking the number its own insurer or lender asks for — and name general liability, workers' compensation, and any coverage specific to the trade. A bidder cannot meet a limit you did not publish.
- Business registration, the trade license the scope requires, and the credentials that go with it
- References from comparable communities (and permission to call them)
- Crew size and whether work is subcontracted
- Response time for problems and who your point of contact will be
- A clear, itemized price broken out by service — not one lump sum
Requiring an itemized price is what lets you see whether a low bid is efficient or just missing line items.
Step 3: Set a fair, clear timeline
Set a window that gives bidders time to walk the property and price it properly, and work backwards from the date your board wants to vote. Whatever you choose, publish it. Include in the RFP:
- The deadline for questions and the deadline for proposals
- Whether there will be a walk-through (for larger properties, a site visit or pre-bid walk-through gets you far better bids)
- When you expect to make a decision
- Who to submit to and how
Send the identical RFP to every vendor. If one bidder asks a clarifying question that changes the picture, share the answer with all of them. Fairness now prevents disputes later.
Step 4: Compare bids on an apples-to-apples grid
When proposals come back, do not just scan the bottom-line numbers. Build a simple comparison grid: scope items down the side, vendors across the top. Fill in what each one included and what it costs.
Watch for:
- Missing scope. A lower price often means a service was left out. Add it back before comparing.
- Vague inclusions. "Full-service maintenance" means nothing without a task list. Pin it down.
- Frequency mismatches. Weekly versus biweekly service is a huge cost driver hiding in plain sight.
- Change-order terms. How is extra work priced and approved? A low base rate with expensive, easy-to-trigger extras can cost more than a higher flat bid.
Step 5: Check references and insurance for real
The lowest qualified bid is only worth taking if the vendor can actually deliver. Before you decide:
- Call the references and ask specific questions: Did they show up consistently? How did they handle problems? Would you rehire them? Any billing surprises?
- Verify insurance directly with the certificate, and confirm the coverage is current — not expired, not "renewing soon." Ask to be named as an additional insured where appropriate.
A certificate emailed six months ago proves nothing about coverage today. Confirm it now.
Step 6: Document the decision
HOA boards have a fiduciary duty to make prudent, defensible decisions. When you select a vendor, record it in the meeting minutes: who bid, what they bid, and why the board chose the one it did. If a resident later asks why you did not simply take the cheapest bid, the minutes answer for you.
A word on how often to bid
Pick a rhythm and write it into your board's calendar, so re-bidding is a scheduled decision rather than a reaction. Set it against the term length of the contracts themselves, and bid early if service slips or the price drifts. Re-bidding constantly churns companies and burns board time; never re-bidding lets pricing creep and performance slide unchallenged. The rhythm your board agrees to is the one it can actually sustain across a turnover of members.
Where a platform takes the grind out of it
Running a clean RFP is real work — writing the scope, chasing bids, checking insurance, comparing line items, and doing it again in a few years. That is exactly the overhead a platform can absorb.
On HOAcrew your board publishes the scope once and vetted independent local companies for pool, lawn, porter and amenity staffing propose against it, so the bids arrive on the same basis and the comparison grid in Step 4 is built for you. Step 5 is already done before a proposal appears: general liability, workers' compensation and the credential that company's trade requires, collected and verified, each certificate read by an admin and filed as the document states it, each expiry date held to a stated renewal window — 30 days for insurance, none for a competency certificate. Once that window closes, the company cannot bid for or be awarded new work until it is current again, and the limits every certificate is measured against are the ones your community set.
HOAcrew is where a board runs this. Vetted independent local companies submit proposals against the scope you publish; your board compares them side by side, selects one, and the contract is between your community and the company it chose. Every company's own invoice arrives in one view, with the visit records beside it — which is also the record that answers a resident asking, two years later, how the decision was made.
The principle holds wherever you run it: define the scope first, make everyone bid the same job, and know what is in a number before you let it decide.