What This Covers
One unit or a standing list across several properties, both are normal calls. A short punch list between tenants is worth phoning in on its own, and it does not have to wait until enough items pile up to feel like a full trip.
Punch List
- Door and hardware repair, hinges, strikes, and hollow core swaps
- Drywall repair, anchor holes through door knob blowouts
- Blind replacement where sun has made the slats brittle
- Window and door screens re-meshed or replaced
- Cabinet doors and drawer slides reset or replaced
- Baseboard and door trim replaced where it got chewed up
Surfaces
- Patch and paint on the walls that took the damage
- Full unit repaint between tenants
- Vinyl plank and transition strips where flooring has lifted
- Tub and shower caulking pulled out and redone
Handover
- Rekeying and lock swaps before the next tenant moves in
- Smoke and CO alarms, battery units checked and replaced
- Weatherstripping and door sweeps against wind and dust
- Left behind furniture and debris hauled out
How a Turnover Usually Goes
Most turnover calls start with a list. Carpet in the back bedroom, a door that will not latch, walls that need something done to them. The list is real and we work from it. It is not what decides how long the unit sits empty. What decides that is the order the work runs in, and what the list leaves off, because the walkthrough usually happens before anyone pulls a blind down or looks under a sink.
Rentals here take the same beating the houses do. Long dry summers turn the blinds on the south and west windows brittle, and blowing dust off the surrounding farm ground packs window tracks until the screens stop sliding. Hard water is the quiet one. It scales aerators and showerheads and leaves crust across the bathroom, so a unit reads as neglected when nothing is broken. Big day to night swings work at drywall seams over a winter.
Then there is the honest part. Spot patching only disappears when the existing finish still matches. If it does, repainting the walls that took damage is enough and the rest of the unit can stay as it is. If it does not, patched spots read as patches under the lights at a showing, and you pay for that in days the unit sits empty. We will tell you which one you are looking at, and if something crosses into a licensed trade we say so instead of working around it. You hear the reasoning either way, not just the answer.
Questions
Turnover Questions
What landlords and property managers usually want settled before they hand over a unit, answered straight.
How long does a turnover take once the unit is empty?
A cosmetic turn is usually measured in days rather than weeks. Patch, paint, hardware, blinds, a flooring section, a rekey. That kind of list moves because none of it is waiting on anything else to finish first.
What stretches a turnover is what nobody saw at the walkthrough. Water damage under a sink, a subfloor that has gone soft, a flooring run that was discontinued and has to be matched. Water damage is also where a licensed plumber gets called in, and that is their schedule, not ours. You will hear a realistic window before we start rather than the one you want to hear, and if something moves it you hear that from us first. Turnovers bunch up here through late spring and summer, so the calendar is tighter then than it is in the cold months.
Does the whole unit need repainting, or can you patch and touch up?
It depends on how the last paint job was done, not on how bad the walls look. If the unit was rolled in a common flat white and that color is still on the shelf, a patch and a touch up disappear into the wall. If it was painted years ago, or in a sheen that catches light, touch ups flash and read as repairs under the lights at a showing.
Some of it you can leave. Scuffs behind where a couch sat, a mark inside a closet, ordinary hallway wear, that is rarely what anyone stops on at a showing. A wall that looks repaired rather than painted is. We will walk the unit with you and say which walls actually need the roller, and if a full repaint is the smarter call across the next couple of tenancies we will say that too.
Can you do the whole list, or will I need to line up other trades?
Most turnover lists are one trip. Drywall, paint, doors, hardware, blinds, screens, trim, flooring patches, locks, alarms, caulking, and hauling out whatever got left behind. Those are the items that fill a real turnover and that is the work we do.
The line is where a job becomes a separately licensed trade. Circuits, panels, and hardwired devices go to a licensed electrician. Supply and drain line work goes to a licensed plumber, and anything on gas goes to a licensed gas fitter. Structural questions go to a structural engineer and a roof tear off goes to a roofer. We do not work around that line, and you hear about it at the walkthrough rather than after a wall is open. Once your trade is finished we can close the drywall back up and paint it.
Can you work off my list without me being there, across more than one property?
Yes, and that is how most of it runs. Send the punch list, set up access with a lockbox or a key handoff, and we work through it in the order you rank it. If something turns up that was not on the list, you hear about it before we do anything about it, not after.
Standing lists across several units work the same way. Owners and managers with more than one property tend to keep a running list, and we work it in whatever order you set. Occupied units need more coordination, because a tenant has to be home or agree to access, so those get scheduled differently than an empty one. Photos of what we found and what we did come back to you, which helps later if the condition of a unit turns into a conversation.
Ready to get it done?
Tell us about the project, or call and talk it through.