Housing Agency Marketplace
For Agency Users

Tips from 24 years of helping agencies get more out of the Marketplace.

Practical guidance for procurement teams already using the Housing Agency Marketplace — small workflow improvements that save time, reduce friction with vendors, and keep your bid process running smoothly.

Last updated: June 2026·5 tips·For vendor-side tips, see vendor tips →

24 years serving public housing · Family-owned since 2002

Jump ToExtending bid deadlinesPost Bid Deadline NoticeAward Notice & archivingShipping addressesManaging users
01Extending bid deadlines

Extending bid deadlines when responses are light.

A short workflow that often pulls in extra bids when you need them most.

If you’re 24 to 48 hours from a bid deadline and you don’t yet have the vendor responses you need, you can extend the deadline directly inside the Housing Agency Marketplace — the HUD eProcurement software housing authorities have relied on since 2002 — no need to cancel and re-post the solicitation.

How To Do It

  1. 1Log in and open the specific solicitation, then click Revise Dates and Times
  2. 2Update the new dates and times, then click Complete Deadline Revisions — the new date and time will display on the solicitation immediately
  3. 3Send out an addendum notifying vendors of the change
Why send the addendum.When vendors see a deadline extension, some assume there aren’t enough bidders yet — and that creates an opening. They may not win, but submitting their bid often helps you meet your minimum-response requirements.
Why This MattersExtending deadlines instead of canceling and re-posting saves the work of rebuilding the solicitation, preserves your audit trail, and keeps existing bidders engaged rather than losing them in the gap.
02Post bid deadline notice

Use the Post Bid Deadline Notice to keep vendors informed.

A small communication tool that builds vendor trust over time.

Once a solicitation passes its deadline, use the Post Bid Deadline Notice within the housing authority procurement softwareto communicate with the vendors who submitted bids. It’s a quick way to acknowledge their work and signal what happens next.

The two notifications most procurement teams use:

Most Common Notifications

  1. 1Bidder summary — “Here are the bidders along with their pricing that was submitted”
  2. 2Decision timing — “We will be making a decision on the winning bidder(s) on or around [date]”
Why This MattersVendors who hear nothing after submitting bids often assume they didn’t win — and may stop responding to your future solicitations. A two-line acknowledgment maintains the vendor relationship even when they don’t get the contract.
03Award notice & archiving

Use the Award Notice and archive when you're done.

Two quick actions that close out the bid cleanly and keep your workbench manageable.

Once you’ve decided on the winning bidder, send the Award Notice — whether the vendor response was submitted as a hard copy or as an electronic bid submission. Housing agency procurement officers use this to finalize the bidding process and notify all vendors of the result.

Whether you award the solicitation online or not, archive it when you’re done.Archiving cleans up your Buyer’s Workbench so active solicitations don’t get buried.

How To Archive

  1. 1Open the specific solicitation
  2. 2Click Archive this Solicitation
  3. 3You can post a copy back to your draft area from the archive if you need to reuse it
Pro TipMany of the most successful agencies build solicitation templates from their archived bids. Past awards become starting points for similar future bids — saving setup time and capturing institutional knowledge.
04Shipping addresses

Set up multiple shipping addresses up front.

Five minutes of setup that saves you typing on every solicitation afterward.

The cloud based procurement software housing authoritiesuse includes a built-in address manager — don’t rely on retyping the same shipping addresses every time you create a solicitation. Set them up once in the Software Menu, and the Marketplace will give you quick selection on every bid going forward.

Common addresses worth adding:

What To Set Up

  1. 1Your main office address — for documents and services delivered to the agency
  2. 2Warehouse or delivery locations — where physical goods arrive
  3. 3Specific developments where goods or services are provided on-site
  4. 4Any other recurring delivery locations your team uses

Once these are entered, you can set one as the default that auto-fills when creating new solicitations — and you’ll have quick access to the others through a dropdown link.

Why This MattersRetyping addresses introduces errors and slows you down. Pre-loaded addresses also give vendors a clearer picture of where work happens, which leads to more accurate bid responses.
05Managing users

Manage users when your team changes.

For site administrators only — how to keep access current as people come and go.

The Manage Users area in the Software Menu lets site administrators add and remove users as your procurement team changes. When someone leaves the agency or moves into a different role, this is where you update access.

When You Remove a User

  1. 1The system will ask who should take over the departing user’s open work
  2. 2You assign their solicitations to a remaining team member
  3. 3Their access ends and the new owner sees their items in the workbench

When You Add a User

  1. 1Enter their name, email, and role
  2. 2The system sends them an automatic email with login credentials
  3. 3They can log in immediately and start exploring
  4. 4You can train them yourself, or schedule a live training session with our support team
Pro TipWhen onboarding a new user, schedule a 30-minute orientation call with our support team within their first week. New users who get hands-on guidance early adopt the platform faster than those who learn alone.
Why This MattersStale user access is one of the most common audit findings during HUD reviews. Keeping the user list current — adding people promptly when they join, removing access when they leave — is both a security best practice and a compliance requirement.

Have a Tip to Share?

This page is a living resource.

If your team has discovered a workflow that saves time or solves a common problem, send it to us and we’ll add it. Tips from real procurement teams are how this list keeps growing.

sales@internationaleprocurement.com
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