Greater Lansing
Rental turnovers & make-ready
A turnover is not really a list of repairs, it is a date. Every day the unit sits empty is rent nobody collects, and the thing that usually costs those days is not the work — it is a second trip for something that could have been seen on the first walk.
What is actually wrong
A turn is not one trade and it is not one visit’s worth of thinking. It is a clear-out, a repair list, paint, a clean, and a record of what state the unit was in when it was handed back — and the thing that makes it expensive is the coordination rather than any single item on it.
This is what this company does most of. Nine in ten jobs in the record are property-manager work orders, and the turn is the shape most of them take.
Where this stops
When it is not a handyman job
This is at the top of the page rather than the bottom because getting it wrong costs you a wasted visit. Insured, and no contractor license is claimed or implied — the Michigan residential builder license is not held.
- No chemical treatment for insects or rodents — that needs a certified applicator. Exclusion, prep and clean-up are taken on.
- Mold: inspection and surface treatment only, remediation referred out.
- New circuits, panels and service upgrades go to a licensed electrician and are named on the quote.
- A W-9 and a certificate of insurance go out with every signed quote without being asked for.
The work itself
What actually gets done
Trash-out and haul-away, including appliances, mattresses and whatever is left in the basement.
The repair list: doors, hardware, screens, blinds, trim, fixtures, the running toilet nobody reported.
Paint and touch-up, from a wall to the whole unit.
Make-ready cleaning, including after the trades have finished rather than before.
A 13-point photo checklist at sign-off, so the state of the unit is recorded before the next tenant walks in.
One invoice for the turn rather than one per trade.
This work sits inside Turnover & Make-Ready, which carries the invoiced price bands for the trade with the sample size printed beside every figure.
What it costs
There is no price list for this, and here is what actually decides the number.
The same three words describe a twenty-minute job and a two-day one. Rather than publish a figure that is wrong for one of them, here is what moves it — so you can work out roughly which end of it you are at before anybody comes out.
How much is left in it. A unit cleared by the outgoing tenant and a unit with everything still in it are different jobs with the same name.
Whether the repair list is known or is going to be discovered. A walk-through first produces a written scope; going in blind produces change orders.
How much paint, and whether it is touch-up or coverage.
Whether the flooring is being cleaned, repaired or replaced.
How fast the unit has to be back on the market, which changes how the days are stacked rather than the hourly cost of them.
How to get a real number
Somebody comes out, looks at it properly, and you get a fixed price in writing with the work set out line by line and the exclusions written down as plainly as the inclusions. Coming out to do that is not charged for, and neither is working out what is wrong. If something is found once a wall or a floor is open, it is priced as a written change order and you decide before the work carries on rather than after it is billed. Materials are supplied at cost with the receipt attached, first-time customers get 10% off labor, and labor carries a one-year craftsmanship warranty.
If this is happening right now
What to do in the next five minutes, and what happens when you ring.
Before anybody arrives
- Send photographs of the unit before the walk-through if you want a scope back faster. Most of the questions are answerable from pictures.
- Say what the deadline is. It changes how the work is sequenced more than it changes the price.
- Flag anything the outgoing tenant reported and nobody looked at. It is usually the item that turns a three-day turn into a five-day one.
Call the business line
(517) 505-7135Answered Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 18:00. There is no out-of-hours line and this page is not going to invent one — outside those hours, leave a message with the address and what is happening, and it is picked up in the morning.
On the call you get asked what is happening, what else in the building is affected, and whether it is still getting worse. That is how it gets decided whether this is our job at all — and if it is not, you get told that on the phone rather than after somebody has driven out.
- No trip charge
- No call-out fee or minimum
- No diagnostic fee
- No charge for a return visit
True across all 84 written quotes this company has issued. Most contractors in this market charge to turn up.
Or send the detailsWhen the right answer is not this company
- You can smell gas
- Leave the building and call the utility from outside. Not us, and not later.
- Water you cannot stop
- Your main shut-off first, then a licensed plumber. Every minute of this one costs money.
- Sewage backing up, or several fixtures at once
- A licensed plumber with a camera. That is the shared line, not a fixture, and a cable down one sink will not touch it.
- Sparking, scorching or a burning smell at an outlet or a panel
- Breaker off, and a licensed electrician. Electrical work here is repair and like-for-like replacement, and this is neither.
- No heat, or heating and cooling equipment that has failed
- A licensed mechanical contractor. That trade is not offered here at all, and knowing that in one phone call is worth more than a visit.
Where this is being asked for
One town has enough behind it for a page of its own.
This work is done everywhere on the coverage list. These are the towns where the enquiry record and the job record both have something specific to say, so they get a page that says it. The rest do not, because a page with nothing true on it is worse than no page.
Questions people actually ask
Can you do the whole turn, or do I need separate trades?
The whole turn, on one work order and one invoice. Clear-out, repairs, paint and make-ready cleaning are the standard shape of this work here, and the sign-off includes a 13-point photo record of the unit’s condition.
Do you work to a property manager’s own work-order system?
Yes. Work orders arrive that way already from more than one manager and are handled in that format, including the acknowledgement and the completion paperwork.
Book a turnover walk
Send the unit address, the date you need it ready, and the move-out report or photographs if you have them. One walk with everything in hand produces one scope and one price, which is what keeps a turnover to a single visit. If you manage several properties, say so — the work prices differently when it is scheduled together rather than called in one unit at a time.