ATTACHMENT_B.docx

Closing Agent Service Houston, Texas DU208WR-13-00002

ATTACHMENT B

INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFERORS

1. FAR 52-212-1 Instructions to Offerors—Commercial Items (FEB 2012) is incorporated by reference with the same force and effect as if it were given in full text. Upon request, the Contracting Officer will make its full text available. Also, the full text of the clause may be accessed electronically at this address: http://www.acquisition.gov/far/index.html.

2. FAR 52.212-2 Evaluation—Commercial Items (JAN 1999)

(a) The Government will award a contract resulting from this solicitation to the responsible offeror whose offer conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered. The following factors shall be used to evaluate offers:

Factor 1: Prior Experience.

(b) Options. The Government will evaluate offers for award purposes by adding the total price for all options to the total price for the basic requirement. The Government may determine that an offer is unacceptable if the option prices are significantly unbalanced. Evaluation of options shall not obligate the Government to exercise the option(s).

(c) The Government reserves the right to evaluate the lowest priced proposal first and if it is technically acceptable, then make award to that offeror. In the event that the lowest priced proposal is not technically acceptable, then each successive lowest price offer will be evaluated until an offer is rated technically acceptable.

(d) A written notice of award or acceptance of an offer, mailed or otherwise furnished to the successful offeror within the time for acceptance specified in the offer, shall result in a binding contract without further action by either party. Before the offer’s specified expiration time, the Government may accept an offer (or part of an offer), whether or not there are negotiations after its receipt, unless a written notice of withdrawal is received before award.

3. FAR 52.216-1 Type of Contract (AUG 1984) The Government contemplates award of one or more fixed unit price contracts resulting from this solicitation.

4. FAR 52.217-5 Evaluation of Options (JUL 1990) Except when it is determined in accordance with FAR 17.206(b) not to be in the Government’s best interests, the Government will evaluate offers for award purposes by adding the total price for all options to the total price for the basic requirement. Evaluation of options will not obligate the Government to exercise the option(s).

5. FAR 52.233-2 Service of Protest (SEP 2006)

(a) Protests, as defined in section 33.101 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation, that are filed directly with an agency, and copies of any protests that are filed with the General Accounting Office (GAO), shall be served on the Contracting Officer (addressed as follows) by obtaining written and dated acknowledgement of receipt from:

Hand-Carried Address:

U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Denver Field Contracting Operations, NFWR 1670 Broadway, 25th Floor Denver, CO 80202-4801 Attention: Dawn Resling Mailing Address:

U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Denver Field Contracting Operations, NFWR 1670 Broadway, 23rd Floor Denver, CO 80202-4801 Attention: Dawn Resling

(b) The copy of any protest shall be received in the office designated above within one (1) day of filing a protest with the GAO.

6. HUDAR 2452.209-70 Potential Organizational Conflicts of Interest (FEB 2000)

(a) The Contracting Officer has determined that the proposed contract contains a potential organizational conflict of interest. Offerors are directed to FAR subpart 9.5 for detailed information concerning organizational conflicts of interest.

(b) The nature of the potential conflict of interest is the Contractor having performed or being involved in:

(1) The legal work for the foreclosure action which resulted in the acquisition of the title to the property by HUD;

(2) Any duties under the AM for the property; or,

(3) Previous closing services on the property In any such situation, the Contractor shall be precluded from performing closing agent services for the property. However, the Contractor shall remain responsible for having such work performed. The Contractor shall notify the Contracting Officer or Contract Specialist and Governmental Technical Representative (GTR) not later than one day after discovery of the conflict.

(c) Offerors shall provide a statement which describes concisely all relevant facts concerning any past, present or planned interest (financial, contractual, organizational, or otherwise) relating to the work to be performed under the proposed contract and bearing on whether the Offeror has a possible organizational conflict of interest with respect to:

(1) Being able to render impartial, technically sound, and objective assistance or advice, or

(2) Being given an unfair competitive advantage. The Offeror may also provide relevant facts that show how its organizational structure and/or management systems limit its knowledge of possible organizational conflicts of interest relating to other divisions or sections of the organization and how the structure or system would avoid or mitigate such organizational conflict.

(d) No award shall be made until any potential conflict of interest has been neutralized or mitigated to the satisfaction of the Contracting Officer.

(e) Refusal to provide the requested information or the willful misrepresentation of any relevant information by an Offeror shall disqualify the Offeror from further consideration for award of a contract under this solicitation.

(f) If the Contracting Officer determines that a potential conflict can be avoided, effectively mitigated, or otherwise resolved through the inclusion of a special contract clause, the terms of the clause will be subject to negotiation.

7. HUDAR 2452.215-70 Proposal Content (OCT 1999) (Alternate I)

(a) Proposals shall be submitted in two physically separate parts as described in paragraphs (c) and (d) below. Each of the parts must be complete in itself so that evaluation of each part may be conducted independently, and so the technical and management part may be evaluated strictly on its own merit. Pages within each part, including any exhibits, attachments, etc., shall be numbered consecutively. Proposals must contain enough detail to allow for thorough evaluation and sound determination of whether or not the offeror will be able to perform in accordance with the solicitation’s requirements. Proposals should address this particular solicitation with specific statements relevant to the PWS. The Government considers all unsubstantiated statements such as “The offeror understands and will perform in accordance with the PWS” as being technically unacceptable.

(b) Proposals shall be submitted as specified in paragraph 12 below.

(c) Part I – Technical and Management Information.

(1) Part I shall address, in separate sections, the following evaluation factors:

FACTOR 1: Provide evidence that the offeror has experience providing services related to the closing of residential real property transactions that are the same as, or substantially similar to, the services required by the PWS at Attachment A of this solicitation.

(a) Part II -- Business Proposal.

1. Include a cover letter that shall acknowledge all amendments and include a signature of an officer of the firm.

2. The offeror shall copy the Price Schedule contained in paragraph 4.0 of the solicitation, and complete the Price Schedule by providing the Unit Price for each CLIN, Estimated Total Price per CLIN and Estimated Total Value for each performance period (Base Period plus Option 1 through Option 4). NOTE: Pricing Schedule shall be for each Area and one per proposal.

3. The offeror shall complete the Representations and Certifications provided in Attachment C of this solicitation and include them in this Part II.

4. The offeror shall provide the information required to complete the tables contained in paragraphs 6.16, 8.9, 8.10, and 8.11 of this solicitation.

5. The offeror shall complete the Contract Pricing Proposal Format forms, Attachment H, following the instructions provided with the forms, and include them in this Part II.

6. AS 2102 Limitation on Size of Technical Proposal (FEB 2003).

(a) Offerors shall limit Part I, Technical Proposal, of their initial proposal to 25 pages, except for the information specifically exempted in paragraph (c). Offerors are cautioned that if Part I, Technical Proposal, exceeds this page limitation, the Government will evaluate up through the permitted number of pages only. Pages beyond that limit will not be evaluated.

(b) A page is considered to be one side of a single sheet of 8½” x 11” paper, single spaced, using not smaller than 12 point type font, and having margins at the top, bottom and sides of the page of no less than one inch in width.

(c) The following information is exempt from the limitation set forth in paragraph (a) – Cover sheet and Attachment D, Attchement I, and Attachement J.

(d) Offerors are encouraged to use recycled paper and to use both sides of the paper (see FAR clause 52.204-4).

NOTE: Alternative proposals are not acceptable under this solicitation. Offerors providing statements in their proposals that deviate from the solicitation requirements (e.g., solicitation requires performance within one day of an event and the offeror is proposing to do it in three days) will be viewed as not understanding the requirements of this solicitation. This would be considered technically unacceptable.

8. HUDAR 2452.233-70 Review of Contracting Officer Protest Decisions (FEB 2006)

(a) In accordance with FAR 33.103 and HUDAR 2433.103, a protester may request an appeal of the Contracting Officer's decision concerning a protest initially made by the protester to the Contracting Officer. The protestor must submit a written request for an appeal to:

U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of the Chief Procurement Officer 451 7th Street, SW, Room 5282 Washington, DC, 20410 Attention: Jemine A. Bryon Not later than 10 days after the protestor's receipt of the Contracting Officer's decision (see FAR 33.101 for the definition of "days").

(b) The HCA shall make an independent review of the Contracting Officer's decision and provide the protester with the HCA's decision on the appeal.

9. Evaluation of Pricing

(a) The evaluated price for the solicitation will be established by multiplying the unit price submitted by the estimated quantity for each CLIN for each of the stated performance periods, adding the estimated total price for each CLIN to obtain the estimated total price for each performance period, then adding the total estimated price for each performance period to determine the total evaluated contract price.

(b) While cost will not be assigned a rating during the evaluation, it is a criterion in the overall evaluation of proposals. Proposed costs will be evaluated to determine whether they are necessary and reasonable for the conduct of the proposed contract, reflect a clear understanding of the requirements, and are consistent with the methods of performance described in the offeror’s proposal.

(c) Unbalanced Pricing. A proposal will be considered materially unbalanced if, in relation to the overall pricing strategy, a line item is significantly over or understated as indicted by the application of cost or price analysis techniques. Proposals containing materially unbalanced pricing will not be considered for award even though the proposal has an acceptable total evaluated price.

10. Evaluation and Award

(a) The award shall be made using Lowest Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA) source selection process to the offeror whose proposal is determined technically acceptable for the non-price technical factors with the lowest evaluated price in accordance with FAR 15.101-2. A Technical/Management proposal must be submitted (Part I, as listed in paragraph 7(c) above).

(b) The Contractor shall deliver a copy of the Licenses to the GTR and the CO or designee NLT 5 days after issuance of the preaward notice that it is the apparently successful offeror.

Note: If the offeror does not provide the license required to perform escrow closing services within 5 days of issuance of the preaward notice that it is the apparently successful offeror, the Government may elect to select for contract award the offeror that submitted the next lowest evaluated price and whose offer met the technical acceptability standards for the non-price factors.

11. Source Selection Procedures

(a) The Government intends to award one contract from this solicitation to a responsible offeror using the Lowest Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA) source selection process. Award will be based on the lowest evaluated price of offers meeting the technical acceptability standards for the non-price factors. The following non-price evaluation factor will be used to evaluate offerors: Factor 1 – Prior Experience. The factors shall be evaluated on an “acceptable/unacceptable” basis. In order to be considered for evaluation of the technical factor, the offeror must meet the lowest price.

(b) The Contracting Officer anticipates awarding contract without entering into discussions with the offerers; however, the Contracting Officer reserves the right to engage in discussions if warranted.

12. Submission of Proposals

(a) Proposals are due by 2 pm MST on November 26, 2012.

(b) All relevant information must be submitted in the written proposal documents by the offer due date and time. Please ensure that proposals are submitted timely. Late proposal submissions will be subject to the rules in FAR 15.208

(c) Proposals shall be submitted via email ONLY and shall be emailed to Christopher.S.Stuart@hud.gov. Emailed proposals and attachments shall be legible.

(d) The email shall reference the solicitation number in the subject line of the email.

(e) The proposal shall be accompanied by a cover letter providing the following information:

(i) The RFP number of the submitted proposal;

(ii) The name and address, telephone and fax numbers of the firm submitting the proposal;

(iii) The name, title, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address of the person(s) preparing the proposal; and,

(iv) The name, title, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address of the point of contact for obtaining clarifications, discussions, or making contract award, if different from the name(s) in item (iii) above. If more than one name is submitted in item (iii) above, identify the primary point of contract.

(f) The cover letter shall acknowledge all amendments to the solicitation and be signed by an officer of the offeror authorized to execute contracts in an amount equal to or greater than the offeror’s proposed total contract price (base year plus all possible option periods).

(g) Limit the total email message size to 10 MB or less as a larger message will not be accepted through the HUD email system.

(h) Each block of the Attachment D must be completed.

(i) Parts I and II must be attached as separate files saved in either .pdf, .doc, or .docx format.

(i) The first file shall be saved as “Part I-Technical and Management Proposal of [name of offeror],” address the factors in Section 7(c), above, and include the completed Prior Experience Information form included as Attachment D, Attachment I, and Attachment J.

(ii) The second document shall be saved as “Part II-Business Proposal of [name of offeror]” and include Attachments C, E and H.

(j) Emailed proposals will be deemed received as of the date and time recorded by HUD’s email system as being received in the Inbox at the email address stated in sub-paragraph (c) of this paragraph.

(k) For further information regarding the solicitation, please contact Christopher Stuart at Christopher.S.Stuart@hud.gov. NOTE: Questions regarding the submission of proposals or requirements of the contract must be submitted via email before 6 am MST on November 14, 2012. Answers to questions will be posted as an amendment to the solicitation.

(l) Offerors must acknowledge each amendment when submitting their offer.

(m) The offeror must prepare and sign a letter to each references listed on Attachment D using the format specified at Attachment J. The offeror shall also prepare a "Past Performance Evaluation Survey form using the format specified at Attachment I for each reference to complete. The offeror shall complete the "From" and “Name and Address of Offeror” blocks of each Performance Evaluation Survey form prior to sending it to the reference. The offeror shall then send the letter and corresponding survey form to each of the references. The offeror shall include a copy of each letter and survey form as an appendix to Part I – Technical Proposal. Neither the copies of the letters and survey forms provided by the offeror nor the survey forms received from the references will count towards the proposal page limit.

13. Historical Data for Houston, Texas Area 12. The following table lists historical data for the counties in Texas Area 12, sorted by County, for the period from October 1, 2011, through October 31, 2012. The Offeror is cautioned that HUD does not warrant the information as being complete and accurate. The HUD inventory is subject to many variables and HUD makes no assertions that the estimates provided in the Price Schedule will remain accurate throughout the life of the contract or that future escrow closings will be distributed among counties the same as, or similar to, past distributions.

Escrow Closings Counties of: Angelina, Austin, Brazoria, Brazos, Burleson, Chambers, Colorado, Fort Bend, Galveston, Grimes, Hardin, Harris, Houston, Jasper, Jefferson, Leon, Liberty, Madison, Matagorda, Montgomery, Nacogdoches, Newton, Orange, Polk, Robertson, Sabine, San Augustin, San Jacinto, Shelby, Trinity, Tyler, Walker, Waller, Washington, and Wharton.

Property County Number of Assignments by county from October 1,2011-October 31, 2012

B-6