Renovia Buyer Guide: How to create the perfect RFP for your association

Taking the time to carefully craft your Condo or HOA request for proposal (RFP) can help make your bid comparison process more effective and efficient. With our experience in the commercial painting, coating and repair industry, we’d like to share some actionable steps you can use to create your project’s RFP. These include: 

1. Understand the scope of your project
2. Discuss the purpose of your project
3. Provide a description of your scope
4. Highlight the results and outcomes you’re seeking
5. Include a list of non-negotiables or a wish list
6. Share information about your ideal timeline
7. Consider adding a rubric for how proposals will be evaluated

Here are each of the 7 steps explained in more detail:

1. Understand the scope of your project

Understanding the scope of your project before you start creating your RFP is one of the most important steps in this process. This includes identifying all of the painting and repair needs your properties have, so you’re able to properly address them with your project. Other things you need to understand are the colors schemes you’re interested in using and the paint specifications needed for your association.

If you’re feeling unsure about what the scope of your project is, you can always turn to the guidance of trusted industry professionals. You can always connect with them and ask them to come examine the needs of your properties if you’d like a second opinion or aren’t sure where to start. During this step, you may also want to keep an itemized list that you can reference when writing out the details of your RFP.

2. Discuss the purpose of your project

Discussing the purpose of your project is a great way to begin your RFP because it provides your bidding partners with the background information they need. Having these insights can help them better recognize what your association is seeking to gain from the completion of the project, like new appearances or general painting maintenance and repairs. Your potential partners can then use these details to help them best address the needs of your properties in their final bid.

This section of your RFP doesn’t have to be super long. In fact, keeping this portion short and straight to the point is useful to help ensure you’re keeping your project purpose clear and easily digestible.

3. Provide a description of your scope

Providing a description of your scope towards the beginning of your RFP is also critical to make sure you feature what your association’s project entails. This can be especially helpful if certain commercial painting and repair partners don’t offer certain services you need, because upon seeing them in your scope they may or may not choose to bid. For this section, you may consider writing some high-level statements about what’s needed across your properties and pair that information with a bulleted list of specific services.

4. Highlight the results and outcomes you’re seeking

Making sure you highlight the results and outcomes your association is seeking can help your bidding contractors plan for how to best provide you with a predictable and satisfactory outcome. When writing this portion of your RFP, you want to be specific about what the success of your project looks like to your community. By providing this, your bidders will be able to more clearly share with you how their plan of approach will give you the outcome you want.  

5. Include a list of non-negotiables or a wish list

Including a list of non-negotiables can be especially important to make the things you won’t compromise on clear. For your association, this might be where you discuss expectations like:

• Communications. Type and frequency of communications your association requires throughout the duration of the project.
• Resident safety. Precautions that your association requires to be in place when working on properties where residents live. 
• Hours of operation. Times that commercial painting and repair partners can work on

These are just a few examples of details you could bring attention to here, but the specific ones you add to your list will depend on the scope of your project and your association. You can also add a wish list of things you’d like a commercial painting and repair partner to bring to your association’s project. Although having a non-negotiables list in your RFP is more important than having a wish list.

6. Share information about your ideal timeline

You can also share information about your ideal timeline in your RFP to help give your bidding contractors a better understanding of your association’s ideal timeline. Depending on the scope of your project and how much time you estimate, your bidding partners may present alternative timelines based on their experience with similar projects.

7. Consider adding a rubric for how proposals will be evaluated

If you want to provide even more information to your bidding partners, you may want to consider adding a rubric for how your association plans to evaluate proposals. Doing this doesn’t mean you have to share how you’re going to make your decision, but rather what components are most important. While this isn’t a requirement for your RFP, it’s something extra you can add towards the end if you think the information could be useful. 

Does your association have an upcoming commercial painting and repair project?

If your association has an upcoming commercial painting and repair project, our team of industry experts is always available to help. From answering questions you might have about the scope of your project to sharing how we can partner with you to get the predictable outcomes you desire, we’ve got you covered.