How it works
Four products. One account.
Common Elements is the always-on industry expo for community associations — vendor hall, professional community, and structured procurement, open 24/7. It complements the management and accounting software you already use; it does not replace it.
The four products
Each solves a piece of the same problem: finding, vetting, and deciding on the people and vendors a community depends on.
The Common Area
An industry-wide forum where boards, managers, vendors, attorneys, and insurance pros compare what actually works. Public threads are readable by anyone, so they double as a learning resource; member rooms (CAM Corner, Board Discussions, Vendor Talk, Legal) sit behind sign-in.
Browse the forumThe RFP Hub
The structured bid room. Post a project once, vendors answer the same typed fields, and the Compare view lines every proposal up so a board decides apples-to-apples. Post openly, blind (shop a replacement without tipping off your incumbent), or invitation-only.
See how RFPs workThe vendor directory
The vendor hall. Verified profiles searchable by service line and service area, nationwide. Verification is credential-backed against the right authority per state - not pay-to-play - and reviews are tied to specific completed engagements and the verified member who wrote them.
Explore vendorsPeople + organizations
Every user has a public profile (visibility you control), every organization has a public page (verified status, credentials, related associations), and the relationships between them - who manages whom, who carries the policy - are first-class data, not a buried contact field.
Browse peopleOne account, every hat
A property manager who runs five associations, sits on her own condo board, and refers a roofer she trusts has, in most software, five accounts. In Common Elements she has one. The context switcher at the top of every page flips you between organizations without re-authenticating; what you can do at any moment is set by your active context, not by which login you used.
That is the “people ↔ memberships ↔ organizations” model underneath: every membership records your role at that org and what it lets you do.
How it comes together
A board treasurer signs in, sees a Compare view of three roofing proposals her management company shortlisted, accepts one in two clicks, and the platform notifies the winning and declined vendors automatically. The selected vendor’s profile gains a completion record other boards can see. Later that week she reads a CAM-Corner thread on reserve-study cadence under her state’s statute, asks a follow-up, and hears back from an attorney whose firm represents three associations in her county.
That is the loop: the forum builds trust, the directory and relationships make people findable, the RFP Hub turns a decision into a record - and the single account means none of it requires logging out to play a different role.
Pick the hat that fits
Free during pilot. Create an account as a board member, management company, vendor, attorney, or insurance pro - each path drops you into a workspace shaped to what your role does.