Cost to treat bedbugs and garbage removal

Cost to treat bedbugs and garbage removal

Member since 2018 · 7 posts · 4 votes

Hi BP community,

I'm going through a landlord's worst nightmare now, long story short, I have a fully furnished rental property in Florida, previously an AirBnB converted to long term rental. I'm a out of state landlord, the tenant skipped out last month and left me with a damaged, filthy, full of garbage and roaches house. I have a local handyman that helped me hired junk removal company and pest control for the roaches. The junk removal company started the job but stopped when they noticed bedbugs on mattresses. The handyman then quoted me $3500 for heat treatment for the bedbugs. 

I need some advise:

1. Since I'm throwing away everything in the house, except a few pieces furniture that are not damaged, do I still need to treat the bedbugs? doesn't make sense to treat the house then throw all the stuff away, and replacing the carpet and repainting the entire house

2. Is $3500 a fair price for the treatment? they are quoting $1/sf 

3. The junk removal is costing over $750 per dumpster, and they said they need 3 or 4 of them, I also have to pay extra $400+ for labor. Again, is this a fair price?

I'm bleeding money as I write this, the cost is pilling up as I need to repair the damages, and replace all the appliances, they damage the kitchen cabinets also. Help!

Thank you!

0Reply
98 views

Most Popular Reply

Austin, TX · Member since 2019 · 5k+ posts · 5k+ votes
1y

If you want to know if it is a fair price for your area and this time of the year, simply get two or three more bids.

Good luck!

See this reply in the discussion

4 Replies

Jump to latestLatest
  • Austin, TX · Member since 2019 · 5k+ posts · 5k+ votes
    1y

    If you want to know if it is a fair price for your area and this time of the year, simply get two or three more bids.

    Good luck!

  • Michele FischerPro Member
    Rental Property Investor · Seattle, WA · Member since 2013 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    1y

    Agree it is difficult to assess costs when they vary so much by location.

    Keep in mind that some turnovers are sickenly expensive, and that is just the nature of the business.  Evaluate the situation to see if you could have done anything differently to mitigate the loss and implement changes to your processes, but know that this happens and hoepfully just not too close together.  This is the heart of the reason housing isn't mroe affordable, that landlords bear these types of costs every day.

    You could probably find cheaper labor, especially to haul away the junk, but not easily as an out of state investor.  As far as the bedbug cost, I would consider how long you are willing to let the place sit empty.  If you can get all the bedbug containing furniture out of the place and it will sit for awhile (or let it sit while the other repairs are done) you may be able to avoid some cost, but if you want to get a paying tenant in sooner rather than later you will want to bite the bullet and get it well done.

  • Member since 2018 · 7 posts · 4 votes
    1y

    Thank you @Scott Mac and @Michele Fischer for your input.

  • Member since 2025 · 1 post · 0 votes
    10mo

    I paid $300 per unit for heat treatment and had to do some prep myself. Garbage removal cost me around $250 for a small truckload, depending on how much junk you’ve got.

Join the conversationCreate a free account to reply, vote on answers and follow this thread.