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Guides

How to price the work, and how to get it.

No theory. This is how I price make-readies, trash-outs, and turns in eastern North Carolina, and how I got into the vendor systems that hand them out. Put your own numbers in place of mine — that's the whole point.

How to price apartment turnover cleaning

The whole method, start to finish: what a turn actually includes, what an hour of your crew really costs you, the five things that move the price, and a worked two-bedroom example you can follow with your own numbers.

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How to build a property turnover bid calculator Next up

What goes in a bid calculator, what it has to tell you back, and how to lay it out in a spreadsheet without breaking it.

  • Why a calculator beats a price list
  • The inputs you set once: wages, burden, mileage, dump fees, target margin
  • The line items every turnover bid needs
  • The math behind each line
  • The three numbers it has to show you back
  • Sheet-by-sheet layout in a spreadsheet
  • Testing it against three jobs you've already done
  • Mistakes that make a calculator lie to you

Make ready cleaning pricing: what to charge, and how to hold it Next up

Building a make-ready price sheet you can hand a property manager, and what to say when they ask you to sharpen the pencil.

  • Make-ready, turnover, standard clean: getting the words right
  • What managers mean when they say "make ready"
  • Pricing by unit, by square foot, or by hour
  • Building a price sheet you can hand over
  • Pricing add-ons: fridge, oven, blinds, walls, carpet
  • Vacant, occupied, and "worse than described"
  • Raising prices on an account you already have
  • Holding your number under pressure

How to get property manager cleaning contracts Next up

Who actually decides who gets the turn, what to have ready before you call, and how one job becomes a standing account.

  • Who actually decides who gets the turn
  • Finding the management companies in your market
  • What to have ready before the first call
  • The first contact: what to say in sixty seconds
  • The follow-up that gets you into the vendor system
  • Vendor onboarding: insurance, W-9, portals
  • The first job is the interview
  • Turning one turn into the standing account

How much to charge for an apartment trash out Next up

Why trash-outs price by the load instead of the hour, and how to size a load before you've touched anything.

  • What a trash-out actually is
  • Why it prices by the load, not the hour
  • Sizing loads on the walk-through
  • Dump fees, tipping minimums, and the weight surprise
  • Heavy and special items: mattresses, appliances, tires, paint
  • Labor: how many people, how many hours
  • Building your trash-out price ladder
  • Photograph everything, twice

Free — no strings

Start with the one-page checklist.

Forty things to confirm before you put a number in front of a property manager, including the profit check at the end. One page, built to be printed.

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