For HOA, condo, and co-op board directors
Better board decisions, less guesswork.
Most volunteer boards make six-figure decisions in an information vacuum. Common Elements gives you vendor reviews from other associations, a structured RFP process, peer judgment from directors who have already done what you’re about to do, and the math behind compliance.
Free during the launch period. No card required. Independent of your management company.
What boards get on day one
Three things every board is short on.
Trustworthy vendors, a way to compare them, and a clean paper trail when the next board asks why you chose what you chose.
Compare vendors with real reviews
Verified profiles, licensing on file, and reviews tied to real associations — not anonymous Google ratings. You see who actually finished the job, on time, on budget.
Structured RFP process
Post the project once, send to the vendors you choose, receive line-item bids that compare apples-to-apples. The bid record becomes part of your board’s documented procurement trail.
Board-adoptable governance tools
Reserve funding, SIRS, milestone inspections, quorum, special assessments — the math comes out board-ready. Vote on the motion, attach the worksheet.
The platform for board governance
Your board’s decision toolkit.
The numbers, the templates, and the paper trail you need to adopt resolutions confidently.
Reserve Study Builder
Walk through a 30-year funding plan together. Component lists, useful-life assumptions, and percent-funded math come prefilled. Adopt the result with a board vote.
Budget Builder
Draft the operating budget in the same place you discuss it. Export a clean adoption packet for the annual meeting.
SIRS + milestone tracker
Track Phase 1 due dates, SIRS findings, and remediation timelines per property without spreadsheets. Compliance does not get lost between meetings.
Quorum + meeting tools
Run a quorum check before the meeting, document the motions during, export the minutes after. The artifacts are board-package ready.
Talk to other boards
Someone else already solved this.
The Common Area forum is the peer room directors actually wanted — not another Facebook group, not another email chain.
Ask another board
Every condo board in Florida has wrestled with deemed-approved ARC. Every HOA in Texas has wrestled with FCC OTARD. Find the boards who already solved your problem and ask how.
Peer community for directors
Board presidents talk to board presidents. Treasurers talk to treasurers. A real community of fiduciaries, not a Facebook group full of bad legal advice.
Statute reference in plain English
Look up the chapter and section you need without paying a lawyer to summarize it. Citations, plain-language commentary, and the exact statutory text side by side.
RFP Hub
Apples-to-apples bid comparison.
Post your project once, send it to the vendors you choose, and receive structured proposals that line up against the same fields. The Compare view puts every bid side by side — line items, exclusions, timeline, references. Your treasurer presents a clean recommendation, not a stack of mismatched PDFs.
- Public RFPs reach every qualifying vendor in your area.
- Private RFPs go only to the vendors you invite.
- Every bid is a permanent record in your board’s file.
Post-Surfside compliance
The personal liability is real. The tools help.
Boards are not lawyers or engineers — but they are on the hook for SIRS, milestone inspections, and a wider set of fiduciary duties than ever. We help you do the math and keep the record.
SIRS — FL §718.112(2)(g)
Structural Integrity Reserve Studies for three-story-plus condos. The calculator surfaces the funding shortfall and the assessment math; the tracker keeps the deadlines visible.
Milestone inspections — FL §553.899
Phase 1 and Phase 2 inspections, remediation timelines, and the document trail. Your engineer’s report uploads in one place the whole board can find.
Deemed-approved ARC + meeting compliance
Statute reference plus checklists for the most common board-liability traps. The platform won’t replace your attorney — it will help you know when to call one.
Common questions
What boards ask before they sign up.
Do we have to switch management companies to use this?
No. Common Elements is independent of whoever runs your books. Boards self-managed, fully managed, or anywhere in between can use it. The vendor directory, RFP hub, forum, and tools work the same regardless of what your management company runs.
Our manager already has a vendor list. Why would we need this?
Because your manager's list is great for routine work and limited beyond their territory. For a re-roof, a paint cycle, a paving project, or a structural engineer for a milestone inspection, you want bids from vendors outside that loop. Boards that ran an RFP through Common Elements typically receive bids from vendors they had never heard of — often the winning proposal.
We are a small board of volunteers. Is this overkill?
It is built for volunteers first. The RFP template asks the right questions so you do not have to invent the spec. The reserve and SIRS calculators do the math so the treasurer does not need to be a CPA. The forum lets you ask a question that another board already answered.
What about owner privacy and association data?
The board controls what is public. Your association profile, your forum posts, and your RFP record are visible at the level you choose. Owner records, ledger data, and ARC submissions are not on the platform — those live in your management company's software, where they belong.
What does it cost?
Free during the launch period for associations, managers, and verified vendors. When paid tiers arrive, the baseline board toolkit and community access stay free. Pro features (advanced RFP analytics, longer document retention) become an opt-in upgrade, not a gate.
Get your board out of the information vacuum.
Ten minutes to claim your association, invite the other directors, and start with vendor reviews from peers who have done what you’re about to do.