Outcomes Automation / Services / RFP support
Right-of-way RFP support, starting with a free bid/no-bid read
Cities, counties, transportation departments, and utilities buy acquisition, title, appraisal management, and relocation work through RFPs, RFQs, and statements of qualifications, and each one is scored its own way. Send the solicitation and a written bid/no-bid read comes back within one business day, free. If you pursue it, the response is quoted per solicitation, typically $2,500 to $12,000.
Free bid/no-bid read · In writing, within one business day · Responses quoted per solicitation
What the bid/no-bid read answers
Written within one business day of receiving the solicitation
- Can the firm meet every pass/fail requirement?
- Licenses, minimum years of experience, named staff with credentials, insurance limits, required forms. One missing item can make a strong response non-responsive, so these get checked first.
- How will it be scored?
- The evaluation criteria and their weights, set against where your record is strong and where it is thin.
- Does price count, and how?
- Some agencies score the fee by formula. Others open only the top-ranked firm's sealed cost proposal and negotiate from there, and the two call for different fee proposals.
- What will the response take?
- Page limits, required sections and exhibits, the questions deadline, and the due date, so the effort is visible before anyone commits to it.
- Bid or pass?
- A recommendation with the reasons written out, so the decision rests on the document instead of a hunch in the week it is due.
Two right-of-way RFPs, read side by side
Public city solicitations, read for this page
The same work gets bought very differently from one agency to the next. Here is how two city RFPs for right-of-way acquisition services, one from California in 2024 and one from Louisiana in 2019, asked for the same kind of firm.
| California city, 2024 | Louisiana city, 2019, sewer program | |
|---|---|---|
| How price counts | Quality-based selection. The cost proposal goes in a separate sealed envelope and is opened only for the firm ranked most qualified, as the basis for negotiation. | Price is worth 20 of 100 points, by formula: the lowest responsive fee gets all 20 and the others are prorated. |
| Scoring | Staffing 15%, qualifications and sample projects 35%, approach 25%, scope of services 25%. | Experience and capacity 25, personnel 25, understanding of the need 20, fee 20, approach 10. |
| Length | Cover letter 1 page, staffing 2 pages, sample projects 5, approach 5, resumes up to 2 pages each. | Transmittal letter up to 4 pages, then the city's own exhibit forms. |
| Experience asked for | A table of similar projects showing each one's change orders as a percentage of the original contract, and any claims. | Five years of municipal acquisition work and named minimum staff, including licensed appraisers (one with the MAI designation) and acquisition agents holding a Louisiana broker's license. |
| Fee format | Hours and hourly rates for each team member, expenses, and subconsultant costs, following a Caltrans sample cost proposal. | Unit prices by role and task and lump sums for program management, with an expected first year of about 750 parcels. |
| Other paperwork | DBE commitment and good-faith-effort forms, with the DBE goal set on each task order. | The city's Fair Share program requirements, incorporated by reference, plus its own affidavits. |
A firm answering both would lead with different experience and write two different fee proposals. Working that out early is the first job of the bid/no-bid read.
If the answer is bid
Quoted per solicitation, typically $2,500 to $12,000
What you send
- The solicitation, with any addenda. For the compliance half, nothing else is needed.
- For the narrative half, a short packet only you have: capability statements, two or three past wins, key resumes, current certifications, and your org chart.
What comes back
- The bid/no-bid read first, in writing.
- A compliance matrix mapping every requirement to the place in the response that answers it.
- An outline and a writing schedule set against the due date.
- The drafted response, reviewed against the evaluation criteria before it reaches you.
Timing is set by the solicitation and agreed in writing before work starts. Proposal work is quoted separately and is not covered by the free pilot, the next-business-day target, or the retainer.
Written by someone who prices the work
I have written proposals and grants for more than twenty years, including energy-sector bids and government RFPs. For more than eighteen months I have also run a document desk that prices scopes of work every week for a land-services firm under a utility MSA. The approach section and the fee schedule get written by someone who has priced the tasks they describe.
The read comes from me, not from a pool of writers. If a solicitation is outside what I can do well, the read says that too.
RFP support questions
Do you help with RFQs and statements of qualifications?+
Yes. An RFQ or a statement of qualifications usually scores staff, experience, and past projects rather than price, so the read focuses on whether your project history and named staff match what the evaluators score.
How fast is the bid/no-bid read?+
In writing, within one business day of receiving the solicitation. It is free whether you bid or pass.
What does a full response cost?+
It is quoted per solicitation, typically $2,500 to $12,000 depending on size and complexity, and agreed in writing before work starts.
Is proposal work part of the free pilot or the retainer?+
Neither. The pilot and the retainer cover scopes of work, cost estimates, and change orders. Proposal work runs on the solicitation's schedule and is quoted on its own.
Can we send the solicitation before signing an NDA?+
Public solicitations can come first. An NDA is available on request and gets signed before any confidential files, such as past proposals or rate sheets, arrive.
Send the solicitation for a written bid/no-bid read
Free, in writing, within one business day of receiving it. Use the form and choose the RFP option; I reply, usually within one business day, with where to send the documents.