Over a thousand public property management contracts went out to bid over the last twelve years. That count comes from a single public source. Considering the number of aggregators and individual posting sites, the real number is higher. In our research California, Texas, and Hawaii accounted for 30 percent of opportunities and 44 states released at least one in the property management sector.
One such opportunity was awarded to a client of ours for 1,215 units on a four-and-a-half-year term. You can read that case study on our website.
For anyone looking to bid in the coming months, here are the twelve stages most bids run through, and the practices we have found that improve the odds of award.
Stage 1. Release
A release starts a clock. The deadline is fixed. The median window from posting to deadline is 25 days, and the shortest on record is one. Cities, counties, state agencies, housing authorities, universities, and special districts each post where they decide to post. We start with aggregators like BidNet, RFP Mart, and state procurement sites. Then we work backward from the markets our clients are looking to work in and register directly with those agencies. Los Angeles posts to RAMPLA. Harris County Housing Authority (Houston) posts to its own site, under a tab called Doing Business. Finding all of it is its own job, done one login at a time, before the release.
Awarded: We search by market and keep a priority list for the firms we work with. Tell us where you'd take work and we'll send what's worth your time. Sign up here.
Stage 2. Bid Decision
Bidding for profit, bidding to keep staff busy, and bidding to add a government authority to the growing list of references; are all strategic objectives, and each one prices differently. Knowing which strategy is in play is what makes the bid decision meaningful. It assigns value to things like door count, margin, transition timeline, and compliance requirements. In a market with fewer opportunities, like AZ, or in a niche like student housing, we bid often, because the pool is thin and one award outweighs the investment. In California we can be selective. We also help clients calculate the value of contracting outside their market. When a bid is geographically out of their normal range, but over 125 units, as long as the client has a track record of operating across multiple locations; it's worth running the profit margin calculations to see whether a bid makes sense.
Awarded: To know whether you're in a market with multiple bids a year or the occasional opportunity, get our National Market Analysis. We researched more than 1,200 solicitations and organized them by state. Get the report.
Stage 3. Question Deadline
RFPs are written by procurement departments, not property management operators. This means there will be gaps in the documentation. The questions deadline is the opportunity to cover the gaps that affect drafting and pricing. Common things we ask about include staffing clarification, both on retaining current staff and on their vision for staffing going forward, the mechanics of funding operational accounts when the RFP is vague on it, and anything that is certainly property management but wasn't covered.
Reading the RFP like a business plan helps identify the gaps. When they're published, we read the other bidders' questions first, and we submit ours as close to the deadline as possible.
Stage 4. Pre-bid Meeting
The pre-bid meeting is the earliest look at the competition. Most moderators ask attendees to put names, companies, emails, and phone numbers in the chat, so the bidder list assembles itself, and that becomes the research list we work from while figuring out where our proposal differs from theirs.
It's also a read on the agency. A five minute call with one slide of RFP details says the contract is an assignment someone was handed. Maps, background, and direct answers to questions say it's something they're building, and that's an organization to partner with rather than work for. Questions asked in the room, rarely get published. It's a great place to ask about current staffing vs proposed staffing, pain points the agency is looking to close, and clarify any missing components.
Stage 5. Document Alignment
More than 230 pieces of information go into an institutional bid, and we sort them into two piles. One pile only exists after we've read the solicitation: the staffing plan for those sites, the transition schedule, the pricing. The other pile describes the firm and is true whether or not a bid is open, so we build that pile before there's anything to bid on.
Here's what we keep current for the firms we work with:
- Certificates of insurance, with carrier and limits
- Resumes for everyone who would appear in a proposal
- Org charts
- Licenses and registrations
- References from the most notable portfolios
When a release lands, we typically need a few more pieces of information, but the time goes primarily to drafting.
Awarded: The full checklist runs 234 items across 18 sections, with a scorecard to find the gaps. Download it and get started.
Stage 6. Draft the Proposal
We start with the addenda and the forms, before the narrative. Before drafting the narrative, we catalog every returnable the solicitation asks for: forms, certifications, appendices, exhibits, addendum acknowledgments, page limits, packaging rules, and delivery requirements.
The items we schedule first come from outside the firm. A notarized form that needs a notary. An insurance broker letter confirming the PM firm can carry the required limits on award comes back on the carrier's schedule. Those are requested early.
The narrative itself builds from our RFP Alignment Package, when possible. Reporting, operations SOPs, and maintenance requirements typically have evaluation metrics and we read them like an evaluator for clarity and consistency.
The full draft typically takes about 10 days. Sometimes a client needs a turn around without the alignment package and we've never missed a deadline.
Stage 7. Pricing Review
The fee schedule names some lines and leaves others open. The open ones are where the margin lives, and we price them deliberately: staffing, general contractor upcharge, technology fees for software, yearly budgeting and auditing, and onboarding fees for compliance audits. Each one is a line we can quote from when an agency asks for something beyond the written scope, and it keeps the deal moving without a contract amendment. We build in enough margin to absorb a few of those asks. We also compare the required insurance limits against what the firm carries today and price the difference into the bid.
Pro tip: Corporate roles that produce work for the portfolio can be priced as a percentage of that person's time. Part-time marketing handled by corporate staff, property accounting, compliance file review. If a director spends a quarter of their time on these properties, a quarter of that salary is a legitimate line in the operations budget. Executive leadership stays in overhead. On anything over 750 units, our default is to include a property accountant, fully burdened.
Stage 8. Submit
Each submission portal has different requirements. Some want the proposal, appendices, and forms all as one document; others require the fee sheet as a separate submission to be evaluated apart from the rest of the bid. I've also seen one California agency portal set up as Q&A of the highlights of the bid.
Agencies occasionally release an addendum pushing back a deadline, but I have yet to see one reopen a submission deadline for a bidder who was late. Websites go down and links break, and the deadline holds either way. We confirm the submission format before drafting and submit 24 hours in advance as internal best practice.
Stage 9. Evaluation
The evaluation rubric is published in the RFP, and it tells you where the points are. A typical distribution:
- Documented Experience, 20 pts
- Proposal Costs, 20 pts
- Financial Capabilities, 20 pts
- Qualifications, 15 pts
- Marketing, 10 pts
- Transition Plan, 10 pts
- SBE/MBE, 5 pts
Three categories carry 60 of the 100 points. Financial capability is documents: statements, bank letter, bonding capacity. Documented experience is evidence: executed contracts, references, unit counts. Both come straight out of the alignment package. Cost is the fee schedule, and part of that score is how the pricing is structured and presented against the scope. We weight the drafting hours to match the rubric and let the package carry the rest.
Stage 10. Interview
The proposal is what everyone is in the room to talk about. We present for 5-10 minutes, structured to the evaluation criteria so the panel can follow along against the rubric they're scoring: executive oversight, operations, leasing, maintenance, accounting, reporting, cost, and the transition plan last. Ending on execution rather than the number leaves the panel with how the work gets done. The rest of the time is Q&A, and we build an internal list of anticipated questions unique to each RFP.
Stage 11. Award
The proposal is not a legally binding agreement. The award starts a contract negotiation, and the first thing we check is whether the pricing structure from the fee schedule transferred into the contract intact. Then five terms:
1. Start dates
2. Indemnification
3. Pricing escalation
4. Insurance requirements
5. Cancellation terms
Indemnification is one we correct as needed. Limiting to the negligence and willful misconduct of a party, so each side carries what it controls has been the cleanest way we've found to align it with our expectations. We aren't attorneys, so our clients should retain legal counsel for contract negotiations. We've seen enough of these to flag a few concerns and the client and their counsel can make the call.
Stage 12. Transition
The transition plan is already written in the proposal. Institutional work shifts and plans change, so we build our transition plans as number of days before start, start, and days after, expressed as -30, -15, 0, 1, 15, 30. From there the work is assignment. We take handoff of pending evictions and legal actions, reconcile security deposits and transition AR and AP balances, and pull open work orders and work order history per unit. We bring on the staff, vendors, and consultants, move each piece to the team that owns it, change the utilities, get the units in the system, and introduce ourselves to the residents.
Awarded: We utilize our customize transitions for firms taking on new portfolios: the -30 through +30 schedule, the handoff items above, and the staffing to execute them. For the transition document and how we run it, email James@AwardedRFP.com.
If you're looking for more information regarding RFPs check out the Resources section at AwardedRFP.com.