Cleaning is a crucial part of a The Turn Process and is what sets the expectations with your new residents moving in. It’s important to create a great first impression as a clean house will generate more interest from the marketplace and a dirty house will scream that an owner does not care. As with most services, pricing can vary greatly based on the marketplace.
MARKET PRICING
The biggest challenge when it comes to cleaning is that there’s no standardized pricing and there’s a lot of components that can be priced separately. In addition, there’s the time factor of working to get an estimate if one is requested. Here are some items to take into consideration:
Pricing Methods
By the Job: Some companies will provide a bid to clean the property based on what they see and how long they think it will take them to finish.
By the Hour: Some companies will provide an estimated time of completion but charge by the hour. If they underestimate the amount of time that it will take them, they will still run the clock and bill on a per hour bases.
Minimums: Most companies will have some sort of minimum to book the job regardless of whether they are bidding the job or price it per hour.
Comments: Regardless of pricing methods, it is usual and customary for most companies to send two cleaning people to complete the job.
Level of Dirty: From a cleaning vendor’s perspective, they like to see the job before pricing it out as you can have the exact same house where one household left it super dirty, and the same house will take longer to clean versus another household that has weekly or bi-weekly cleaning services in place.
Move-Out Cleaning vs. General Cleaning: Advertised pricing on flyers, emails or websites from cleaning companies most often are priced for occupied homes and tend to be lower amounts. To compare apples to apples one must obtain a pricing for a deep cleaning letting the vendor know that it will occur after moving out. These Move-Out cleanings or Deep-Cleanings include, but are not limited to, cabinets, cupboards, blinds, baseboards / crown molding, showers/bathtubs, shower doors, mirrors, etc.
Additional Services: Common items that can be cleaned but are priced separately are appliances, garages, windows and carpet cleaning. Cleaning windows includes both sides of the glass, the track and screen. Depending on the company they may or may not offer window cleaning services as it sometimes considered a specialty item.
STANDARD PRICING
As you can see from the list above, there are a lot of variables to account for that can make it a challenge to obtain standardized pricing. In addition (and it’s happened to us), large cleaning companies tend to run through different staff which makes it harder to have quality control as the cleaning person that cleans the house today may not be the same person that cleans another house a month from now, this can add a layer of complexity for setting standards. With so many factors to account for, we’ve worked with our cleaning vendor to provide us with Standard Pricing based on the square footage of the home. While every home’s layout is different and additional appliances like a refrigerator may or may not be provided and the level of dirtiness can fluctuate from one household moving out to the next one… the only factor that stays the same is the size of the property. By using one specific vendor for all our cleanings we can negotiate fixed pricing. On some accounts the effort and time required to clean the home to standard may be more, but this is something that they consider when providing us pricing. Through our cleaning vendor they will include a deep cleaning, all appliances, the garage and the windows. For houses that are two levels they will only include the glass on the interior. Pricing is as follows:
Small: If up to 1,000 sq. ft. then pricing is $400.
Medium: If between 1,001 – 1,500 sq. ft. then pricing is $600.
Large: If between 1,501 – 2,000 sq. ft. then pricing is $800.
Quote Needed: If over 2,001 sq. ft. then we will schedule to get an estimate.
WORKING WITH YOUR VENDOR
The goal is to have a clean home that welcomes your residents whether that’s through our vendor or yours. We know that owners may have a working relationship with a vendor of choice and we are happy to work with them. If working with your vendor once you move out we ask that they account for cleaning all appliances including the refrigerator if that’s being left behind, sweeping and hosing down the garage and including the windows.
SPOT CLEANING
Depending on the circumstance there may be a gap of time between when the home was professionally cleaned and when the new residents move in with a good amount of foot traffic in between. This is usually due to leasing as the home may sit vacant for some weeks as the home is being shown. During this timeframe dust will settle, floors may have shown the dirt from showings, cobwebs may appear on the corners and bathrooms may have been used during this timeframe! This poses a problem as we want to provide a great move-in experience, but the home will need a Spot Cleaning to spruce it up. We include a spot cleaning with our services which we do in-house which includes using a cobweb duster, wiping down all countertops, using a dry mop or wet mop of vacuum where needed and… wiping down all toilets!
CARPET CLEANING
Carpet cleaning is virtually always done by a separate vendor as it needs specialized equipment. Pricing for this will also vary by vendor but $80 per room is a good rule of thumb and on the higher end of pricing.
CONCLUSION
We are happy to work with our or your vendor of choice to get the home move-in ready for your new residents!
