Getting it ready for the next tenant
The turnover list, and which parts of it are worth paying somebody to do properly.
A turnover has a deadline, and the deadline is what makes it expensive. The work itself is ordinary; doing all of it in the eleven days between one tenant leaving and the next arriving is not. Most of what follows is worth booking before the old tenant is out, not after.
Split the list in two. There is the part that decides whether the unit shows well — paint, floors, how it smells — and the part that decides whether you hear from the new tenant in week three. The second half is the one people skip, and it is the one that costs money later: a running toilet, a slow drain, a smoke detector nobody has tested since the last turnover.
One honest note about damage. Normal wear is yours to fix and comes out of the rent you have already collected; the rest is a deposit conversation with rules that vary by state. Nothing on this list settles that question — it is a list of what needs doing, not of who pays for it.
What it breaks down into
In roughly the order worth doing them. Each one goes straight to a post with the job already described — change anything you like before it goes up.
- turnover and make-readyThe whole list as one job, for when the gap between tenants is short.
- interior paintingThe single thing that most decides whether a unit shows as cared-for or tired.
- move-in / move-out cleaningA different job from house cleaning — it assumes an empty unit and gets behind the appliances.
- drain cleaning and uncloggingA slow drain is the most common week-three phone call, and the cheapest to prevent.
- smoke and CO detector installationRequired almost everywhere, and the one item on this list with legal weight.
- locksmith servicesRekeyed between tenants, because you do not know how many keys were cut.
The other guides, if this was not the one.