Latest / Cleaning Business Life / Move-Out Cleanings Are Not Regular Cleanings | Ep. 202

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Move-Out Cleanings Are Not Regular Cleanings | Ep. 202 · Cleaning Business Life

• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome everyone! I got a little bit of a messy studio.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Got a project here, got a ladder over there.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Bob Ross is way over in the corner with his with my Halloween wig.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: And we're still futzing around with this camera thing.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Can't quite figure out why I have such a blue hue, but I'll just we're all going through the UFO phase in the United States.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm just gonna go with it.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're gonna talk about drum roll prees, move out cleanings and how they're not regular cleanings.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: There is a huge assumption that move out cleanings are just regular cleanings.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's no big deal.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a broom sweep, right?
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: We hear it all of the time.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: And after thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands, I believe I've hit over 20,000 move out cleanings.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Something to think about.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: I you can only imagine that I it's it's black and white with me, right?
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: There's no middle ground.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: When it's move out cleaning is a specific task and things that we're touching.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Regular maintenance is obviously furnished.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's obviously got people who are living there.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a different dynamic.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of moving parts when you're doing move out cleanings.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the biggest mistakes business owners make is treating them like regular maintenance and they're they're pricing them like regular maintenance.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: So when you've done enough of these, the patterns start to evolve over time, right?
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: We come in and we're we're wet wiping the baseboards, the doors, the door jams, the ceiling fans that are accessible by a four-foot ladder.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: These are some of the things that we do in the move out cleanings.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of people have way more than they do.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen videos of influencers who are getting the pot shelves, that's included.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: They're doing wall washing, that's included.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: We actually just try to scale.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: If you are lucky enough to have a cleaning influencer do a move out cleaning for you, bless your heart, because it is a like winning the lottery, because they will do everything, right?
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: We're a bigger company and there's a lot of dynamics over move-out cleanings and what is scalable and what is not.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I often reflect back to McDonald's, right?
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: McDonald's, every single person in McDonald's can work at every single position in the house.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: There's not one person who's just a cashier.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: The cashier can work as a cook if needed.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: And there's this whole ideology behind that.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: So in order to scale, everybody has to be able to do the same things.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the mindset behind the cleaning industry.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: So you're resetting, typically you're resetting the bathrooms.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: The kitchens are usually a big one.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Kitchens can take a long time in themselves without the inside of the appliances.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: There's floors, dust, there's surfaces.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the older houses have built-ins.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Something that you need to ask when you're doing a lot of move out cleanings.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: And even if a client is messy, the home is still being touched consistently, consistent, consistently.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Articulation.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Seashells on the seashores.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: What else do they say?
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: Baby buggy bumpers.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: So move out cleanings are completely different.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: And the and it's a final reset from someone living in the same home for a long period of time.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: The last one that we did, they had lived there over 10 years and it had not been professionally cleaned or maintained in the last eight.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: So, and it was a large house.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Then there in and it was two levels, and and and and and right.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a lot of expectation on how many bodies you should have in a move out cleaning, how many, you know, do it depends on scope and size.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: And you want to make sure that you're hitting production rates.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: And production rates are lower for a move out cleaning because you're you're removing a lot of buildup, a lot of fingerprints, touchy kids, older, older adults, right?
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Cooking messes.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of things that happen when people live in their homes.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: And you're trying to restore the property back to where it needs to be so that it's sellable.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: And we all know that when you have a move out cleaning, they need to make it part of the deal because a lot of people are skipping that step because they don't want to pay.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: But it adds an extra 70 to 100 grand to your home when your home is clean, because then the person can conceptualize what it's gonna be like for them to live there, right?
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: And one thing that I did notice quickly after years of doing move outs is people mentally move out before they physically move out.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: So that, you know, oh, well, I have Shannon's and her team are coming over and I'm not gonna be maintaining this because we'll just catch up later or they'll do it, right?
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: They the maintenance stops and it could be six weeks out, it could be two weeks out, it could be a week out.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Some people are methodical and will keep it up until it's time for the move out cleaning.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Other people just they're they've got packing and movers and mail forwarding and internet connecting and all the stuff that goes along with moving, and and they're just not gonna do it.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: They just don't have it in them.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: So the upkeep slows down, people stop caring because they've already checked out, appliances get ignored, and then grime quietly builds.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Suddenly the cleaner walks into the property and becomes responsible for fixing everything.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: And there is a realistic protocol on what can be expected and what can't be expected.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't maintained your home in eight years or longer, they're not gonna be able to bring it back 100%.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna try, but even out, you can only put down so many chemicals, especially if you're on a well, because you have to treat the septic system.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: There's a whole dynamic with it, but there's only so much you can do to restore the property back to where it needs to be so that you can pass it on to somebody else, right?
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: So there's there's differentiators on why moveouts are are different.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: So moveouts are very detailed heavy.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like you're getting all of the switch plates, you're getting all of the baseboards, you're getting all of the door jams, you're getting all of the doors, you're catching the bathrooms up if they need it.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: You're bringing, you're whipping out your drill and you're charging extra for using the drill inside of the bathroom with the heavy chemical.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: There's insides and outsides of the cabinets.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Some people do pot shelves, others don't.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: There's wallmarks, cabinet buildups, fingerprints all over everything, appliance neglect, hidden dust when you start to pull the furniture out.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: All the dust that got stuck behind the furniture, it's just right there.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Big dust bunnies.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, holy cow.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: So anytime they say, well, it's been professionally maintained, just know that there's still gonna be really large dust bunnies cruising along on the floor.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: There's garbage debris.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes people will leave all of the possessions they no longer want, and they just figure that the cleaners are just gonna be responsible for doing that.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: And that only happens on foreclosures or hoarding cleanings.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's the responsibility of the person, the tenant, or the owner of the house to remove all the debris so that you can just come in and do your thing.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: It is not your job to pack somebody, it is not your job to remove all of the debris.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: We actually will do it, but we'll charge you for it.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: So make sure that you have that clause in your contract.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Then there's hard water buildup.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: It seems to be that there's hard water buildup everywhere when there didn't used to be hard water when I was a kid.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: At least I don't remember that, but I was a kid.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: So then years of deferred cleaning, let's be honest, everybody has a different expectation of what that lifestyle is.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: For us in the cleaning industry, we notice everything, right?
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: For other people who've never been in the cleaning industry, they they don't, they're not gonna see it, right?
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of other things that happen.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: So move out cleanings include the cabinets, the drawers, inside of the appliances, those are usually an upcharge.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, with the exception of the microwave, I think that's the only appliance that we would include.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: We actually charge an upcharge for every refrigerator in every oven.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you have to say per oven, per refrigerator, because what I have found, especially with food being as high priced as it is, some people have three refrigerators in a freezer, and they're like, Well, you said 95 bucks for the refrigerator.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, then they want all four of those appliances done for 95 bucks.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: So make sure you put that clause in your contract.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: There's utility problems.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: We need to have water and electricity when we arrive.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, and it has happened, it still happens once or twice a year, even though it's in the clause.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: It says, you know, the water and electricity need to be on and in working order upon the arrival of the cleaning crew.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: If we arrive, I'm dinging you.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Not because I like to, but because the cleaning techs still need to be paid.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: I save that spot for you.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: We, you know, I can't fill that spot with another spot, so with another person and another job unless it comes in randomly.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: So these are things that you have to consider when you start to do move out cleanings.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: There's also time pressure being done on time.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: We all know that a cleaning tech has, you know, seven, seven and a half hours tops.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: And if your job or the scope of the job takes more than seven and a half hours per person, then you got to be able to rotate in a crew.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: And there's this whole dynamic that has to happen for really large ones or really horrible cleanings.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: There's final walkthrough pressure.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes people will like go, oh, well, there's no one there to walk through.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I need a proxy.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: We require that you have someone to walk through.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason for that, and this is the game changer in the industry, is someone's walked through it, someone's visually seen it, someone approved it.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: They can't say, well, you didn't clean it to my satisfaction because Steve walked it and now I'm not happy with Steve's assessment.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't work that way.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: It says Steve showed up, Steve signed it, Steve was happy.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then that's the saving grace.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: They can't withhold pay from you because that's not held up to their standards, right?
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: There's realtor expectations.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: I can't tell you how many times, if you're a real estate agent, I love you, but I also hate you.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: I mean that in the nicest way.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: It when you're on site with other vendors, don't walk over the cleaner who's on the floor on their hands and knees trying to get up the dirt or the urine or whatever they're trying to do.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Don't ask them to move.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Wait for them.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: Say, hey, when you get a chance, I'd like to walk into this room.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: Don't try to show the house when the cleaners are in there.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: These are all do's and don'ts.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: But sometimes I'm like, are you kidding me?
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like same thing with contractors.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: We prefer to be the only vendor on site.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason for that is because there's too many egos involved, and we're just there to clean.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not there to, you know, they're not there to stroke your ego because you're more important than me, and I have to park at the back of the driveway because all the other builder guys got there at 6 a.m.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: And there's no room for me to cop.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I have to carry all this gear up the driveway, and they're like, yeah, every man for themselves.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: Happens a lot.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Or the worst part about having other vendors on site is they'll come in to use the bathroom and they have dirty hands and they've just dirtied up the walls and the bathroom toilet area because they went to the restroom and they didn't bother to clean it up.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, dude, this was just cleaned.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: So these are things that I've learned along the way.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: Security deposit stress, and I will say this with compassion: if you're scheduling a move out cleaning, they need to give you a 50, 50% deposit of the initial quoted price.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: So if you quoted$500 at a starting price, or$600 at a starting price, or$675, or whatever it is that you have quoted, you get half of that up front.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: That secures their spot on the schedule so that you don't get screwed if they cancel, right?
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: At least it covers, you know, that, and then they just eat it.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: Another thing I noticed after doing these at scale is client expectations dramatically increase during move outs.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: They want like almost freshly painted.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: If they could get away with having us paint it, we would because we're people pleasers, but the clients would expect it.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: So don't have that expectation.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: The house is actually attached to money inspections, deposits, selling, renting, and final impressions.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: And cleaners who are used to doing recurring cleans can sometimes get blindsided by how intense move-out expectations can be.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: And this is very true.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: There is a different form of hoops to jump through when you're doing a move out cleaning.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: This is why we require a final walkthrough.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: And and that's and this is ultimately where the danger starts, right?
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we buff it, right?
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we emotionally price move out cleanings because they look like an empty space and assume less work.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: Or the client says, by the way, I'm gonna have this, this, this, this, and this done.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: And you arrive on site or they arrive on site and none of those items are done.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: So that's gonna change the scope of the job.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: So then it becomes a huge mistake.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: So empty houses often take longer because every flaw is visible, because there's no furniture hiding the hole in the wall.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Detailed work increases, neglected areas become painfully obvious.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: Appliances need restoration level work, cabinets must be fully cleaned, and there is nowhere for the dirt to hide.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: So the dust bunnies go skirtling across, right?
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: After enough moveouts, you start to realize that empty does not mean easier.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: And it's true.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Empty does not mean easier.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: It means there's gonna be more work because there's gonna be more visibility, so they're gonna be able to see more.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I can tell you when you're doing your final walkthrough, if they find one mistake, then they look really hard to find other mistakes.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: So the whole goal is for you not to have a mistake.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: So make sure you go through your punch list or your checklist or whatever it is you're using for move out cleaning so you can make sure that you nail everything that you discussed with the client.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: And move out cleanings can punish disorganization.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: And what I mean by that, there's a lot of disorganization that there's a lot of movement.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: The movers have to come, the utilities have to be on, there's real estate agents, there's builders, there's repo guys, there's plumbers, there's all these people that are coming to make the property ready.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't have any organization on what you do, like I have a checklist, it's move out checklist, things I need for a move out checklist.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's literally PDF.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's very easy and it's it says all of the items that I need.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: So that way, because the cleaning tech isn't typically cleaning, carrying all that stuff around, like an oven cleaning kit, right?
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: Should you have an oven cleaning kit on you if you're doing a move out cleaning?
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, because you want to be able to upcharge for that.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: You don't want to have to send someone to the store to get easy off oven cleaner, SOS pads, thicker gloves, all of the things that go along for an oven cleaning.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: So these are the things I have learned along the way.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: So if you don't have pricing systems, scope boundary, walkthrough processes, utility pricey policies, documentation, deposits, and labor forecasting, you're gonna end up shooting yourself in the foot.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: And documentation is super important, especially with today's society.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone is trying to get something for free.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: So cover your butt by taking before and afters.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: So our cleaning techs on move out cleanings are required to go around and do a short clip video.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have to be long, one to two minutes of areas of concerns.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then they're also required to take photographs.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: And those are the before and afters.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then they did the same thing at the end.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: They're required to take another short video and then after photos.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: That way it you're they can't say, well, this person didn't clean this.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, yes, I did on photo number 57.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: It says it right here.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's timestamped, right?
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: These are things that you can do to help document and prevent problems later on.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: So the lesson isn't don't do move outs.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's and and move outs are absolutely profitable.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: The lesson is that you need to do them in a certain way so that they are smooth for you and that your cleaning techs are not overwhelmed, right?
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because not everyone can do a move-out cleaning successfully.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: It takes a brand new cleaning tech, probably six or seven move out cleanings, to be successful, to be able to do one by themselves or with a partner that they, you know, that they partner up with.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: It takes a lot of them to know the nuances and what to look for and what homeowners look for, what real estate agents look for, all of those dynamics, because they are fundamentally different.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: They're physically, emotionally, operationally, financially, and psychologically different.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: And they're intense, right?
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: And once I understood that distinction, it completely changed how I ran these jobs.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: And and that was just repetition, right?
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: I just have done so many.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: I know what to expect, what to look for, where to go, those types of things.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: And there are so many operational realities inside move out cleanings that no one talks about, honestly.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have not already done so, please check out the move out cleaning systems.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: It comes with my actual contract that I've used over 20,000 times.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: And it also comes with a 70 page plus PDF that you can print out, including a checklist that you can give your clients to help them prepare for the move out cleaning.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I look forward to your questions.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you have them, you guys have a great day.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: Take care.