Academy/Procurement, Bids & Contracts
RFQs
The document to send once you already know exactly what you need and just want vendors to compete on price.
An RFQ, Request for Quotation, is what you send once your board already knows exactly what it needs and wants vendors to compete on price. Use it for standardized, well-defined work, monthly landscaping, trash pickup, pool maintenance, not for open-ended problems where you still need a vendor to propose how the work should be done.
When an RFQ is the right tool
Send an RFQ once your board can write down exactly what it wants done, how often, and to what standard. The document exists to let vendors compete on one thing: price for a fixed scope.
"An RFQ is used when an agency knows what it needs and is looking for pricing information."
Source: Understand common federal contracting terms: RFIs, RFQs, and RFPs, U.S. General Services Administration
Landscaping, janitorial service, pool maintenance, and trash removal are typical RFQ candidates: the work is standard enough that any qualified vendor can quote it, and the board's real question is simply who charges the least for the same job.
RFQ, RFI, or RFP: pick by what you already know
These three documents answer different questions, and sending the wrong one wastes the board's time and the vendor's. If you don't yet know what solutions exist, for example you've never dealt with electronic gate access and want to understand your options, that's an RFI (Request for Information), a market-research question, not a purchase yet. Once you know exactly what you want and price is the deciding factor, that's an RFQ. When you need vendors to propose a whole approach, not just a price, because the job involves judgment calls about design, method, or materials, send an RFP (Request for Proposal) instead.
"An RFP is used when an agency is seeking a complete solution."
Source: Understand common federal contracting terms: RFIs, RFQs, and RFPs, U.S. General Services Administration
A reroof is usually an RFP question: contractors differ on materials and method, and price alone won't tell you who did the better job. A landscaping contract renewal is usually an RFQ question: the scope barely changes year to year, so price is what actually separates the bidders.
Write the RFQ so the quotes actually compare
An RFQ is only as useful as the scope behind it. If your request leaves out quantities, frequency, or standard of work, vendors will quote against their own assumptions, and you'll be comparing prices for different jobs without knowing it. Spell out square footage, visit frequency, materials, and any performance standard before you ask for a number, the same detail a leveled bid comparison depends on later.
Whether your board is required to send an RFQ, or any competitive solicitation, before hiring a vendor above a certain dollar amount depends on your governing documents and any purchasing policy your board has adopted, not on a general law. Check your CC&Rs and bylaws for a bid threshold before assuming one applies.
Check yourself
Answer before you read the explanation, recalling it is what makes it stick.
Your board already knows exactly what monthly landscaping service it wants and just needs vendors to quote a price. Which document should you send?
Your board wants to learn what gate access systems even exist before writing formal specifications. Which document fits?
Your board is choosing a firm for a clubhouse renovation and wants to weigh design approach, experience, and price together. Which document fits?
Sources
- Understand common federal contracting terms: RFIs, RFQs, and RFPs, U.S. General Services Administration
- How to Compare HOA Vendor Bids and Choose the Best Value for Your Community, Kuester
- Ultimate Guide to Construction Bid Leveling: Process, Definitions, and Best Practices, PlanHub
Related elsewhere in the Academy
Procurement, Bids & Contracts
Once the quotes come back, the next question is how to compare them fairly. Read apples-to-apples bid comparisons next.
Whether your association must use an RFQ, or any competitive solicitation, before hiring a vendor, and at what dollar amount, is set by your own governing documents and board policy, not by a general statute, and it varies by association.