The New World of Bidding

In the wake of pandemic delays and a new focus on deferred maintenance since the Surfside tragedy, many associations have significant projects to bid out to contractors. But the process has changed in the past couple of years.

Gone are the days of the board considering a project, the manager putting out a request for proposals (RFPs) to a handful of preferred contractors, and multiple bids coming in. Instead, boards and managers are scrambling to find contractors who even have the bandwidth to bid on new jobs — even larger scale projects such as roofing, siding, balconies, and windows.

“For the most part, communities don’t have the luxury of having a whole host of contractors to choose from,” says Katie Anderson, CEO of Aperion Management Group, LLC, which manages around 65 associations in Central Oregon. “In some cases, we’re lucky if we have two contractors bidding.

“It’s a tough situation because in most markets contractors aren’t paid for their time to go out and look at a project and bid, so their willingness to do so just isn’t there. I’ve never really seen it like this in the past 20 years.”

Communities may struggle even more to get bids on smaller projects. “I have a community trying to replace about 10 feet of sidewalk from a burst pipe, but the contractor said the project was too small,” says Brad van Rooyen, president of HomeRiver Group-Florida, the management company for about 160 associations in the state.

Read the full article now for advice on navigating the new bidding landscape effectively:

It Ain’t What It Used to Be: 5 Tips for Managing the Bidding Process

Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President