What is on an apartment turnover checklist?
A turnover, also called a make-ready or a unit turn, is every task between move-out and move-in, in order: inspection and photos, keys and locks, repairs, paint, floors, cleaning, a final walk and move-in photos. The cleaning crew owns one step in that chain, the last one, so the list below shows the whole chain and then the cleaning in detail.
This page is different from our other two apartment lists. The move-out cleaning checklist is the deep clean a tenant or a cleaner does to an occupied-then-emptied home to get the deposit back. The apartment cleaning checklist is a regular clean for a renter who still lives there. A turnover is what the property manager runs, with trades and cleaners in sequence, and it is where most recurring cleaning work in apartment buildings comes from.
Who does which step depends on the building. A large property has in-house maintenance for locks, drywall and paint, and hires cleaners and carpet companies by the unit. A small landlord may hire one handyman and one cleaner. Either way, put a name next to each step and a date it is due, because the two common ways a turnover goes wrong are a step nobody owned and a clean scheduled before the painter was done.
| Step | Usually done by | Typical timing after move-out |
|---|---|---|
| Move-out inspection, photos, keys | Property manager or leasing staff | Day 0 |
| Trash-out and abandoned property | Maintenance or a cleaning crew (priced separately) | Day 0 to 1 |
| Locks, repairs, alarms, plumbing checks | Maintenance or a handyman | Day 1 to 2 |
| Paint | Painter (certified firm if pre-1978 paint is disturbed) | Day 2 to 3 |
| Carpet cleaning or flooring | Carpet company or flooring contractor | Day 3 to 4, plus drying |
| Turnover clean | Cleaning crew | Day 4 to 5, after floors are dry |
| Make-ready walk and move-in photos | Property manager | Same day as the clean or next morning |
Those day numbers are a target for a unit with normal wear, not a rule. A unit with a full repaint and new carpet takes longer; a unit with a clean tenant and no repairs can turn in two days.
The move-out inspection: what to record before anyone starts
Before a single trade enters, walk the unit against the move-in condition report and photograph everything. Those photos decide what the departing tenant pays for, what the owner pays for, and what the cleaning crew is responsible for.
Record, room by room:
- Every damage item beyond normal wear, with a close photo and a wide photo showing where it is.
- The inside of the fridge, oven, dishwasher and every cabinet, because “was it dirty when we got here” is the most common dispute on a turnover clean.
- Anything left behind, from furniture to food in the fridge. Most states have rules on how long you must hold abandoned property and how to give notice, so follow yours before you let a trash-out crew throw it away.
- Keys, fobs and remotes returned, and what is missing.
- Meter readings if utilities are in the tenant’s name, and the thermostat setting you left.
If you are the cleaning company, ask for these photos or take your own before you start. A time-stamped set of before photos is what lets you charge for a trash-out or a heavy-soil upcharge without an argument. Our move-out cleaning checklist covers what landlords can usually deduct from a deposit for cleaning, which is the tenant side of this same walk.
Deposit deadlines and itemization rules differ by state, often with a set number of days to return the deposit or an itemized statement, so check your state’s law. This page is not legal advice.
Repairs, paint and floors before the clean
Every trade that makes dust, drips or debris goes before the cleaning crew: locks, drywall, caulk, paint, carpet and flooring. The clean removes what they leave behind, so scheduling it earlier means paying for it twice.
Locks and safety items
Rekey or change the locks on every turn, reprogram smart locks and fobs, and test smoke and carbon monoxide alarms with fresh batteries. For HUD-assisted housing, the physical condition standards in 24 CFR 5.703 require units to be free of health and safety hazards, and list carbon monoxide, electrical hazards, fire hazards, garbage and debris, handrail hazards, infestation, lead-based paint and mold among the concerns. Most private landlords use the same list as a sensible minimum even when the rule does not apply to them.
Paint in older buildings
The EPA’s Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule requires that anyone paid to perform work that disturbs painted surfaces in housing built before 1978 be certified, with employees trained in lead-safe work practices. The EPA says about three-quarters of US homes built before 1978 still contain some lead-based paint. For a turnover, that means a cleaning crew should never sand, scrape or dry-sweep paint chips in a pre-1978 unit; leave paint prep to a certified painter and ask the manager whether the building is covered before you bid on “patch and paint” add-ons.
Floors
Carpet cleaning or replacement happens before the final clean, and the crew should not arrive until the carpet is dry, or they will track dust onto damp fibers and leave marks. Hard floors are the exception: the cleaning crew does the final mop after everything else, because every trade walks across them.
Plumbing checks belong here too. Running every faucet, the shower, the toilet, the disposal and the dishwasher before the clean finds the leak that would otherwise soak a freshly cleaned cabinet.
The turnover cleaning checklist, room by room
The turnover clean is a deep clean of an empty unit with every appliance, cabinet and closet done inside and out, plus the things only an empty unit allows: pulling the fridge and stove out, washing walls, and cleaning behind the washer and dryer. Work top to bottom and dry to wet, do the whole-unit tasks first, and finish with the kitchen and bathrooms so the wettest work is last.
Two habits separate a turnover crew that keeps the account from one that loses it. First, a low-angle final walk with every light on, because the leasing agent will show the unit in daylight and see the streak on the stovetop you missed. Second, report, do not fix: a loose towel bar, a slow drain or a burned-out bulb goes on the turnover ticket for maintenance, with a photo, rather than being left for the new tenant to find.
Keep the chemicals simple and never mix them. A degreaser for the kitchen, an acid descaler for the bathroom, a neutral floor cleaner and a disinfectant for the toilet and touch points cover almost every unit. If you have employees, OSHA’s Hazard Communication standard requires labels, safety data sheets and training for the chemicals they use.
For a studio or a one-bedroom, our deep cleaning checklist shows the same tasks in the order pros work a smaller space. The difference on a turnover is that nothing is in the way, so there is no excuse for a corner missed.
Mold, pests, bed bugs and odors between tenants
The things that stop a unit from renting are rarely dirt. They are a musty smell, a patch of mold behind the toilet, roaches under the fridge, or bed bugs the last tenant never reported. The turnover is the one time the unit is empty enough to find and fix them, so build the checks into the list.
Mold and moisture
The EPA’s brief guide to mold and moisture says to dry water-damaged areas and items within 24 to 48 hours to prevent mold growth, that a moldy area under about 10 square feet can usually be cleaned by scrubbing hard surfaces with detergent and water and drying completely, and that larger areas or heavy water damage call for its guide for schools and commercial buildings and a contractor with mold experience. It also advises keeping indoor humidity below 60 percent. On a turnover: check under sinks, around the toilet base, the shower caulk, the window sills and the closet that shares a wall with the bathroom. Clean small spots, dry the area, and report anything larger or anything that comes back.
Bed bugs
Cleaning does not get rid of bed bugs. The EPA’s do-it-yourself bed bug control page says heat treatment with a clothes dryer and protective covers that seal mattresses and box springs can help, that items which cannot be treated can be sealed in a bag for up to a year, that do-it-yourself heat treatments might not work, and that professionals have more intensive, proven methods. In an empty unit, look at mattress-side baseboards, outlet covers, the bed frame screw holes if furniture was left, and the carpet edge. If you find live bugs, shed skins or dark spotting, stop, photograph it, and tell the manager so a pest company can treat before anyone cleans or paints.
Roaches, mice and food waste
Pull the fridge and stove and look at the wall and floor behind them, and check the cabinet under the sink and the toe kicks. Droppings, egg cases or grease trails mean a pest treatment goes on the turnover ticket. Clean the area so the technician can see fresh activity, and leave the traps the technician places alone.
Smoke and pet odors
Washing walls and ceilings, cleaning the HVAC vents and replacing the filter handle most odors. If the smell survives a full clean, the source is usually in the carpet pad, the drywall or the ductwork, which is a replacement or painting decision for the owner, not something more cleaning will solve. Say so on the ticket rather than spending hours on it.
The make-ready walk and the move-in photos
A turnover ends with the same walk it started with: every room, every appliance inside, every closet, every floor, photographed with the date. These move-in photos are the condition report for the next lease and the proof the cleaning crew delivered.
On the walk, the manager checks:
- Every item on the turnover ticket is closed, with the trade’s name and the date.
- Lights, outlets, alarms, faucets, toilet, shower, disposal, dishwasher and HVAC all work.
- The clean against the checklist above, starting with the inside of the oven and fridge and the toilet base, which are the three spots tenants check first.
- Keys: the new set works, the old set is retired, fobs and remotes are programmed.
- The unit is staged: blinds open, thermostat set, nothing left on counters except what the owner wants there.
If you are the cleaning company, send your own finished photos the same day, room by room, with a note on anything you reported. A manager who gets a photo set before they walk the unit stops walking most of your units, and that is when a turnover account becomes a standing order instead of a call every time.
How cleaners price turnover work for property managers
Price turnovers as a flat rate per unit type (studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and so on), with a short add-on list for the things that vary: trash-outs, heavy soil, inside-appliance work beyond the standard, carpet, balconies and same-day turns. Managers want one number they can budget per unit, not an hourly estimate.
Build the flat rate from hours, as our house cleaning pricing guide shows: labor hours for each unit type, times your loaded hourly cost, plus supplies, drive time, overhead and margin. A worked example with hypothetical numbers:
- A standard one-bedroom turnover clean takes two cleaners 2.5 hours, so 5 labor hours.
- At a loaded cost of $24 per hour (wage, payroll taxes, insurance), labor is $120. Supplies and drive time add about $15.
- With overhead and a margin that leaves you $60 on the job, the flat rate lands near $195.
- Add-ons: trash-out $45 per hour per cleaner plus disposal, heavy-soil kitchen $40, carpet cleaning quoted separately, same-day turn plus 25 percent.
Volume is the lever. A property that turns six units a month can get a lower per-unit rate than a landlord with one unit a year, because your drive time and scheduling cost per unit drops. Put the volume tier in writing, and review it each quarter. Use the free house cleaning price calculator to test unit sizes, and the cleaning estimate template to present the per-unit rates and add-ons on one page. The cleaning contract template gives you an agreement for a standing turnover account.
What property managers ask for
- Proof of general liability insurance, and often a certificate naming the property. See our cleaning business insurance guide.
- A background check or a vendor registration, since your crew handles keys to empty units.
- Turnaround: how fast you can clean a unit after the floors are dry, and whether you can take a same-day call.
- Photos of every finished unit and a way to report what you found.
- One invoice per month listing each unit, not one invoice per unit, unless they ask otherwise.
Scheduling turnovers so units do not sit empty
Every day a unit sits between tenants costs the owner one day of rent, so the turnover schedule is the single biggest money decision in a make-ready. With hypothetical numbers: a $1,500-a-month unit loses about $49 a day empty, so a turnover that takes nine days instead of five costs $197, more than the entire cleaning bill.
For managers, three habits keep turns short:
- Pre-book trades at notice, not at move-out. A 30- or 60-day notice is enough time to put the painter, carpet company and cleaning crew on a tentative date, then confirm it on inspection day.
- Order the chain and tell each trade who comes before them. The cleaning crew needs to know the floors will be dry by a given morning; the painter needs to know maintenance has patched.
- Keep one ticket per unit with every step, owner and date. When a step slips, the ticket shows who is waiting on whom.
For cleaning companies, the equivalent habit is a standing arrangement: the manager sends you a list of upcoming move-outs each month, you hold slots for them, and the manager texts you the day each unit is ready. The crew that can take a unit the morning after the floors dry wins over the crew that is cheaper but books a week out. Our guide on getting cleaning clients covers how to approach property managers in the first place, and the cleaning schedule template helps you map a month of turns against your regular route.
Where Broombook fits for turnover work
Broombook is built for residential cleaning companies, and apartment turnovers for property managers are residential work: a flat price per unit type, a client who books repeatedly, and a crew that needs the checklist and the photos on their phone. That is a good fit. We make Broombook, so weigh that as you read.
Each property manager is a client with their units as properties, with access notes and lockbox codes on each. A turnover is booked as a move-out clean with the add-ons the manager chose, and the crew opens a private link on their phone with the checklist, clocks in from the unit and attaches photos as they finish each room, so the finished set goes to you without a separate text thread. The manager gets a confirmation and a reminder, and a receipt after each charge, whether they pay by card on file or you invoice monthly. See features and pricing, or the maid service software page for how recurring residential accounts run day to day.
What Broombook does not do: it is not a property management or work order system for the manager’s side of the chain. The locks, paint and carpet steps live in the manager’s own ticket, and Broombook handles the cleaning step and the record of it.