Apartment Turnovers Checklist: Why Property Managers Sleep Soundly
Tracy Tucker-Askew is always looking for ways to make apartment turnovers more efficient and more profitable.
As a property manager at Wister Properties, she closely tracks several aspects of the process, which includes time to completion, quality of work and how the task is organized.
“After the 10th day, we are in the red,” says Mrs. Tucker-Askew, who works for Wister Properties in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. “Getting done in a timely fashion is the biggest hang up.”
Regarding apartment turnovers, property managers could lose $385per week of rental income on an average two-bedroom apartment of approximately 1,109 square feet if the turnover is delayed, based on the average rent of $1,543 per month or $18,516 per year.
Although apartment turnovers are unique experiences, property managers need a system that they can hone and scale.
Here is a five-point checklist to ensure your next apartment turnover is a success:
Demand Responses To Your Questions.
There are many moving parts to every apartment turnover, so expect a slew of questions from your maintenance team and your facility cleaning team—not to mention your incoming tenant. To stack the odds in your favor, property managers should build their own team that is highly responsive and able to change course on a moment’s notice.
Mrs. Tucker-Askew says there are several characteristics that she emphasizes when searching for a commercial cleaning company that can manage apartment turnovers. “Involvement, communications, follow up and follow-through and dealing with changes in a timely fashion,” she says.
CNS Cleaning Company, a family-owned, commercial cleaning company outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania since 1983, has developed a special “Punch-Paint-Turn” service that helps property managers fill their apartment turnovers with incoming tenants. An operations manager is assigned to every job and facility cleaning crew members are assigned to each project so there is a level of familiarity and stability that leads to more answers than questions.
Secure Enough Labor For the Task.
Apartment turnovers are about time and quality. Property managers need both ingredients to make the transition from a soon-to-be vacancy to one that filled and generating revenue. To complicate matters, however, there is an existing labor shortage in the industry. In fact, most apartment management professionals rank the staffing shortfall as one of their top challenges.
More property managers opt for outside help, which provides cash-flow flexibility as well as saves management time and payroll expenses. Property managers already spend more than 5% annually on contracted services to backfill positions—even on a temp-basis.
The National Apartment Association reports that the employee turnover rate in the industry was 32.7% before the pandemic, which has made the ongoing challenge even worse.
Assemble A Team That Works Together.
Property managers must make sure their maintenance team is able to work with their facility cleaning team. This element is crucial when it comes to making deadlines—and profit—on apartment turnovers.
As part of the CNS apartment turnover service, their facility cleaning crews begin property inspections by creating a quick to-do, punch list for the property manager’s maintenance team. This organizational tactic aligns the maintenance team with the facility cleaning crews. This unity eliminates confusion and obstacles that can slow down the process.
Develop A Process That Creates Efficiency.
Property managers (62.8%) at apartment complexes rank operational efficiencies as one of their top three challenges, while 10.2% ranked it No. 1. Finding high-quality vendors like a commercial cleaning company and freeing up internal teams from labor-intensive processes were also on the short list of obstacles. Maximizing revenue and profits (47.6%) also was one of the top challenges.
Jeffrey Upmalis, who is vice president of operations and sales at CNS Cleaning Company, says bringing all the team members together—whether they are employees or vendors—improves efficiency at every stage of the apartment turnover process.
“Sometimes, you have to take a step back to move forward,” he says. “If our facility cleaning crews find something that needs to be fixed, we will hit pause and work on another apartment, while the maintenance team does their job. Communication, accountability and teamwork are critical parts of the process.”
Conduct Thorough Unit Inspections.
Unfortunately, apartment turnovers can feel like it’s all about making the deadline. But it’s really about the overall experience that property managers create for their new tenants. After all, net income can be found in tenant retention.
So what’s the quickest way to a positive first impression and beyond? Here it is: Don’t skip a thorough inspection before turning over the apartment to your new tenant.
Even though, the temptation may be great—nobody wants to delay the process—it’s not worth it.
Property managers should have a facility cleaning crew document problems during their inspection and relay the information to the maintenance crew. For example, check for leaky pipes and water damage. Are all the appliances working? Are the drains clogged? Did you replace the filers, the light bulbs and the batteries in the smoke and cardon monoxide detectors? Did you add a fresh coat of paint that matches the rest of the apartment?
In Mrs. Tucker-Askew’s mind, there is only one objective—ok, maybe two—with apartment turnovers: “Making sure that the new tenants are getting what they deserve when they receive their rental,” she says, “and there’s less problems for the management office to deal with.”
(Bill Dunn is president of CNS Cleaning Company, which keeps businesses squeaky clean with the latest technology, special attention to detail and responsive communications. Since 1983, the family-owned company has earned a BBB A+ rating and more than 200 5-Star customer reviews. He can be reached at 215-985-1830.)
CNS Cleaning Company is a family owned and locally operated cleaning company. We provide industrial cleaning, corporate office cleaning, janitorial and porter services throughout Delaware Valley Metropolitan Area since 1983. Our professional cleaners are fully licensed, bonded and insured.
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