How long does a rental turnover take?

It depends on the unit, and a number quoted before anybody has seen it is a guess. What governs the calendar is usually long-lead material and second trips rather than labor hours, which is why the first walk is the thing worth getting right. A date is committed to once the unit has been seen.

Why does a vacancy cost more than the repair bill?

Because the rent does not appear on the invoice. A unit at fifteen hundred a month costs about fifty dollars a day empty, so four extra days is two hundred dollars that never shows up anywhere in the quote comparison.

Can you work from our move-out report?

Yes, and it is the fastest start. The report plus one walk produces a single scope and a single price, which means one approval rather than three and the long-lead items ordered on day one instead of day three.

Do you handle inspection corrections at the same time?

Yes, and they should be scoped together but tracked separately. A turnover deadline is yours; an inspection correction deadline is the inspector's and has a penalty on the end of it. Mixing the two into one list is how the one with the consequence slips.

Is it cheaper if we have several units?

Noticeably. Most of the cost of attending a unit is attending it, and turnover material is predictable enough to carry. Several units in a week, or a standing arrangement, takes a lot of mobilization out of the price.

Do you do the cleaning as well as the repairs?

Turnover cleaning and make-ready are part of the same service, and it is worth saying up front which parts you want, because a clean on top of repairs is scheduled differently from a clean after them.

The Second Trip Is What a Turnover Actually Costs | Lansing, MI

Count the thing that actually costs money

Ask what a turnover costs and the answer comes back as a repair total. That is the smaller number.

A unit renting at fifteen hundred a month is costing roughly fifty dollars for every day it sits empty. A turn that takes nine days instead of five has spent two hundred dollars of rent that nobody will ever collect, and that money does not appear on any invoice — which is exactly why it gets overlooked when the decision is made on the quote alone.

So the useful question is not what the work costs. It is what the calendar costs, and what adds days to it.

What adds the days

In practice it is almost never the repairs themselves. It is these.

The second trip

Somebody walks the unit, prices the obvious, starts work, and finds the thing that was always going to be found — a soft floor under the vinyl, a door that will not latch because the frame moved, a supply line nobody tested. Now there is an approval to get and material to order, and the crew is somewhere else by the time it lands.

Almost every long turn in this business has a second trip in the middle of it.

Material that was not ordered on day one

Anything that is not on a shelf locally — a specific cabinet, a tub, a particular door slab — sets the completion date, not the labor. If that order goes in on the first visit it runs in parallel with everything else. If it goes in on the third day it is simply added to the end.

Approval sitting in somebody's inbox

A scope that arrives in pieces needs a decision each time. A scope that arrives once gets one decision, and the difference is usually a day or two per item.

What one proper walk should produce

A turnover walk that is worth anything comes back with the things that are not obvious from the middle of the room:

Every door opened and shut and latched. Doors are the single highest-frequency item in a turn and the easiest to miss standing still.
Every faucet and the toilet run, and the cabinet under each one opened. A slow trap leak is found with a flashlight and ten seconds, or it is found when it has taken the cabinet base.
The floor walked, not looked at. Soft spots are found underfoot. They are invisible in photographs.
Window and door hardware tried, including the locks, which are also a habitability item rather than a cosmetic one.
Anything long-lead identified and ordered that day.

That is a slower first visit and a shorter total. The trade is deliberate.

Make-ready and inspection corrections are not the same job

Worth separating, because they are often called in together and they are not the same thing.

A turnover is getting a unit rentable between tenants — repair, clean, paint, make good. The deadline is set by you and your prospective tenant.

An inspection correction is closing out items on a city rental inspection or a housing-authority fail list. The deadline is set by the inspector, there is a re-inspection date, and the scope is already written down on the report with the code references on it.

They arrive together constantly — a unit fails inspection and needs turning anyway — and they should be scoped together and tracked separately, because one has a penalty on the end of it and the other has a vacancy.

What makes a portfolio cheaper than a unit

The work prices differently when it is scheduled rather than called in. Most of the cost of attending a single unit is attending it. Several units in the same week, or a standing arrangement, means a crew is already in the area with the common material on the truck — and the common material in a turnover is extremely predictable. Door hardware, strike plates, wax rings, supply lines, sink strainers, switch and outlet covers, caulk, touch-up paint.

A manager running several units who batches the work is buying the same repairs with far less mobilization in them.

What is not promised here

You will not get a turnaround time on this page, and that is on purpose. A number of days quoted before anybody has seen the unit is a promise made with no information, and the one time it is missed is the time it costs somebody a tenant. What is reasonable to expect is a scope and a price in writing after one walk, and a date committed to once the unit has actually been seen.

What to send

The unit address and the date you need it ready.
The move-out report or inspection photographs, if you have them.
Whether it is occupied, empty or still being cleared.
Whether anything is long-lead — flooring, cabinets, a tub.
How many units you manage. It changes how the work should be scheduled and priced.

Want it walked? Send the address, the ready-by date and the move-out report. One walk produces one scope and one price, with the long-lead items identified on the day rather than in week two. Rental turnovers & make-ready · Inspection corrections · Get in touch.