cleaning a single-family home between tenants

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Simon W.Business Member
Real Estate Consultant · Lehigh Valley PA & New York City · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 684 votes
1d

Rosina's written standard is the right process. From the accounting side, routine between-tenant cleaning is generally just an ordinary repairs and maintenance expense in the year you pay it, even when it's a big one, as long as it's keeping the unit in rentable condition and not part of a rehab.

Where it gets tricky is when the clean is part of a larger renovation. Then it can get folded into the project cost and capitalized, so I'd keep turn costs and renovation costs on separate invoices.

I'd also track cost per turn per unit. If a clean runs $250 on one house and $450 on another, you see the pattern fast, and it gives you a clean paper trail if you're ever asked about it.

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  • Rosina Persaud
    Member since 2023 · 79 posts · 9 votes
    3d

    John, I cannot point you to a San Diego cleaner — we are in Memphis — but I can tell you how we would find one, because cleaning is where turns quietly slip. Do not hand a stranger a whole-house deep clean first. Test a cleaner the way we test any contractor: small paid steps, one turn, with a written scope room by room and photos when they finish. Build them into the schedule, not after it — our turnovers run on a 21-day system, and the clean sits near the end, after repairs and paint, with a walk-through before keys change hands. The cleaner who documents, shows up on the scheduled day, and passes your walk twice becomes your bench cleaner.

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  • John Brice
    OP
    Member since 2021 · 2 posts · 0 votes
    3d

    Thank you Rosina. Great way to spell it out.

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  • Rosina Persaud
    Member since 2023 · 79 posts · 9 votes
    2d

    Glad it helped, John — turns run smoother when the standard is written down before the clean, not after.

    0Reply
  • Simon W.Business Member
    Real Estate Consultant · Lehigh Valley PA & New York City · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 684 votes
    1d

    Rosina's written standard is the right process. From the accounting side, routine between-tenant cleaning is generally just an ordinary repairs and maintenance expense in the year you pay it, even when it's a big one, as long as it's keeping the unit in rentable condition and not part of a rehab.

    Where it gets tricky is when the clean is part of a larger renovation. Then it can get folded into the project cost and capitalized, so I'd keep turn costs and renovation costs on separate invoices.

    I'd also track cost per turn per unit. If a clean runs $250 on one house and $450 on another, you see the pattern fast, and it gives you a clean paper trail if you're ever asked about it.

    Accounting Properties LLC
    View Page
    CFO LLC
    View Page
    1Reply
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