Latest / Cleaning Business Life / Why Most Cleaning Businesses Lose Money on Move-Outs | Ep. 200

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Why Most Cleaning Businesses Lose Money on Move-Outs | Ep. 200 · Cleaning Business Life

• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Hello everyone, Shannon Miller here from Cleaning Business Life.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: And this actually marks officially the 200th episode.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Episode.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Episode.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, I'm not doing this with Jamie because schedule did not allow that to happen, but we will be celebrating our 200th episode, a couple more episodes down the path.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Right at the beginning of June.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Can't believe that we are halfway through the years, ladies and gentlemen.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to come out and talk about why most cleaning businesses lose money on move outs.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: I have done 20,000 plus.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Move out cleaning successfully.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's really hard to nail.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of moving parts when it comes to move out cleanings.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: They are very labor intensive.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: The profit is great if you price them right and accordingly.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: However, you're going to earn every penny.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: And they're also called make readies.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Depending on what side of the coast, if you're on the East Coast, West Coast, Vase, Vase, right?
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: So you want to make sure that you're understanding what some people are looking for.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they'll say, I need a deeper cleaning, or I just need a basic cleaning.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: We live there for five years.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, oh no, that's a move out cleaning or a make ready.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because you're making the home ready for the next person, right?
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: So, and people think, well, you know, the house is empty.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, how many times?
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I've said this on my soapbox, I don't know, a million and one times.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: I guess I'll say it a million and one more times.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a broom sweep.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a broom sweep, it's not that big of a deal.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: And in reality, it's not.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: You're you're restoring a house or resetting a house back to its original condition as best you can.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: We are not miracle workers.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: All we can do is remove most of the buildup.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: And even then, sometimes it doesn't all remove all the way.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then it becomes a time versus money factor.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: There's always a budget that plays into it.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: So the houses that I prefer doing are empty.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: You have to ask any house that's over that was built in the 60s and 70s, you need to ask how many built-ins there are because closets tend to be smaller, but there seems to be more built-ins.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: And what I mean by built-ins, they're usually wood features that are built right on into the house for storage.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: And when you start to do a lot of those older homes, you'll start to realize that a lot of these homes have built-ins and it adds more time to what you're doing.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: So after years of doing move out cleanings, God, 16 years, I can confidently tell you that just because people assume that move out cleanings are going to be less work, they're not.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a strange psychology around empty houses.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Clients think it's empty, so it should be quick.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's just, you know, it's just a broom sweep.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a broom sweep.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's no big deal.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Just go in there and broom sweep it, all should be good.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: And in reality, it depends on who owns the building, if it's a property management versus a private owner, if it's a private equity firm.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's so many different expectations.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: But empty homes actually expose everything, all of the furniture that sat there and all the dust that fell behind the furniture.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then when they pull the furniture out, or you find the mystery, you know, key that goes to something, or the toy, the dog toys, especially.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: But empty homes, so every every baseboard, every drip mark, every cabinet crumb, every grease trail, every damage blind, neglected appliance, furniture hides the dirt because it's good camouflage, right?
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: It just blends in, the eye sees it all the time.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Empty houses reveal all that dirt.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then suddenly you're standing inside a proper and you're realizing that this isn't a maintenance clean anymore.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: This is actually gonna be some work to get it back to where it needs to be.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: And most cleaners under bid move out cleanings.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: There is a whole system of pricing move out cleaning.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Some of you guys price flat rate, some of you guys will price square foot, some of you guys will have a combo, some of you guys will price hourly, but there's always a budget, air quotes.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: So you want to make sure that you're not pricing emotionally, because every time you price something emotionally, every time I price something emotionally, I regret it.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Every single time.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because they're under bid, then you have to try to compensate, right?
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then people get overwhelmed, and then you're trying to push through, and it becomes this whole dynamic.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: So you you're given a walkthrough really quick, they're panicking about losing the job.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you're comparing yourself to cheap competitors.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: There is no race to the bottom.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Just let them free fall by themselves.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Or worse than they quote over the phone without seeing the property.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Don't see 99.99999% of the properties that we clean.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: There is a method to that too.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: And everything is renegotiable, right?
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: You you can figure that out.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to walk a move out cleaning and be firm on the price.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: There is a process to do these types of things.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: And move outs are dangerous because the scope expands fast.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: It becomes, I can't tell you my time.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: So would you mind cleaning out all of the cubbies in the garage and giving it a quick broom sweep in there too?
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's an add-on charge.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: We actually are not there to clean the garage.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: If you want the garage done, we add another$250 to your bill.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: If you want a same-day move out cleaning, we add an extra$300 onto your bill for the convenience of us showing up and taking care of your problem.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Does that make them irritated?
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but it's not your problem that they waited to the last minute or the cleaner that they air quote hired didn't show up, right?
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: So the scope can expand really fast, or you can walk into things that are really unpredictable, and you're like, how do I, how do I clean that, right?
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: So there's inside of cabinets, drawers, wall marks, garage debris, sticky refrigerators.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: We actually did a move out cleaning.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: The guy was a hunter and he left a carcass inside the refrigerator without electricity.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: It looked like a crime scene.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: It was pretty horrific.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: There's ovens, mineral buildup, trash left behind, utility issues.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: You need to have water, running water and electricity to do move out cleaning.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: This is why we have a show-up fee, and we have a fee for if we show up on site and there is no electricity and water, the clock starts again and we bill you for the 450 bucks or the 550 bucks or whatever the initial quoted price was, and then the clock starts again.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason for that is it's not your fault.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: You guys were prepared, you showed up and you did your job.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: Why should you be punished, right?
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then suddenly the empty house becomes 12 hours of labor.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I can tell you from experience, it's actually more than 12 hours.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: Move out cleanings can be anywhere from 15 to 27 hours, depending on the size and the scope.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: Without appliances, with appliances, there's all kinds of things.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so the real danger is how much labor you're gonna bleed out, right?
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Because you want to be able to finish it in time, especially if you bid it at a flat rate and you walk in and it's way worse than what they described.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's your time to renegotiate the deal.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: And clients have really high expectations that you're gonna be able to.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: What was I?
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Someone told me this is a not a remediation cleaning.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: This is a restoration cleaning.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: This seems to be thrown around a lot.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not a restoration cleaning.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Move out cleanings have nothing to do with restoration.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: You can restore the space, but it's not a restoration cleaning.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: I've been hearing that a lot.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: But realtors, property managers, investors, landlords, private landlords, group landlords, everybody wants hotel level presentation at a discount price.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: Never discount your move out cleanings.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: Never.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna earn every penny.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: Every penny that you pull in, you're gonna earn, trust me.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's a lot of balls in the air trying to make it all be successful, showing up, doing the walkthrough, the whole deal.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of fanfare that has to happen for it to be successful.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then the cleaner always ends up eating labor, right?
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: How many times have we heard, oh, well, so and so didn't show up?
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then you feel bad, and they're like, well, we'll just give you a discount.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: And it ends up being a nightmare because the person has unrealistic expectations.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: They've scopes creeped all over the place, they've added things and they expected not to be charged.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: We actually had it happen this week where it was in the paperwork that was sent over.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: It was in the paperwork that she signed, and she was still mad that she got charged for the oven and the refrigerator.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, they're$95 each.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: Where in the paperwork does it say that we don't charge for that?
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: And she's like, Well, I just assumed.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I don't think so.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, but did you get your oven and your refrigerator chemically treated?
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, Yeah.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: She's like, but it's not perfect.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: I go, it never will be perfect.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: We will not pass the paper towel test.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: That is not the goal here.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: If you're looking for a paper towel test on a move out cleaning, then you're not you're not being billed enough.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Is basically the pro the polite thing that I said to her.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know how you have that internal dialogue and what you say is not what you what you're thinking, and thank God, because sometimes you're just like, right?
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: So you don't want to be the cleaner or the cleaning company that eats labor because you felt sorry for someone, or you, you know, the cleaners always have to take the hit.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know why.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: They always expect us to give everything away for free, and that shouldn't be the case.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: We should give things away for free because we want to.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we should do things at a discount because we want to, not because you're being forced.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Or what does someone tell me?
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you need to do your civic duty and give me a discount.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, yeah, no, we're not cleaning for you.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: So these are just some of the things I've come across over the years.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: One of the biggest lessons I learned is you cannot run, move out cleanings emotionally.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's the biggest thing.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's a very perfunctory evolution of how things get done.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: There's a system, like when, you know, I've taught some of my cleaners when we show up at jobs, we carry a bag, a zippy bag with toilet paper in it and wipes.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because not every house, especially empty ones, has toilet paper and/or wipes.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: You never know what's going on and what you're gonna need those for.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: You should always carry a first aid kit with you in the car.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: You should always carry an oven cleaning kit in a big zippy bag in your car if you're doing a move-out cleaning, because it's it's$95 that you're gonna add on to the bill and you wanna be prepared.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: You're not, especially in some of the properties here, it's rule.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: You could be driving for an hour before you make it back to town, and then it's an hour there, hour back, and it's just like a whole wasted amount of time, right?
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: Just things I've learned to have a move out checklist that I print out and it's given over to the person doing the move out cleaning.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: These are the supplies that you're gonna need for the move out cleaning.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: These are just things to think about when you start to do a lot of them.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: And you're gonna need systems.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: The reason why is because you don't want to get screwed over.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of point A to point B.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of variables that could make it so you don't get to point B.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: There's, and then when you get to C, there's a lot of little baby steps that have to happen before you get to D.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: So you're trying to prevent someone from screwing you over because the probability of being screwed over on a move out cleaning is exceptionally high, like 80%.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it's always the ones that you've been cleaning for for two or three years.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, I'm not gonna take a deposit.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: I trust this person.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: They're the ones that will always screw you over every single time.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like it always always random.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, oh my gosh, I did not see that coming.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then you're scrambling around because you let you they relax.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: They always paid by check.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: So then you're trying to figure out am I gonna get paid the full amount?
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Are they gonna try to debate it?
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, knit what I have found too is they'll do the cleaning and then everything's perfect.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: And at the end, after everything's all done, then they're like they want to renegotiate the price.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, it's not how it works.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: But they try.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: So you'll need deposits, specific scope definitions, like, hey, do you mind wiping out the insides of the cabinets and room sweeping my four-car garage?
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's gonna take an hour and a half to go through all of that, maybe more, depending on cabinets.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's an additional charge.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: We charge for that.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: During the summer, we'll actually squirt out your garage and we bring a fan so that the and we try we try to stay away from the walls so that it dries really fast and we're not causing any damage.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: Utility policies, we need to have running water and electricity when we arrive.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: When we arrive, not after we arrive.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Excuse me.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: When we arrive, the first thing the cleaning tech does is doing the kitchen is gonna walk in, they're gonna turn on the faucet, and they're gonna turn on the electricity.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: If neither one of those is on, then they call back to the office, and there's a procedure for that, right?
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: Then there's the mentioning of the walkthrough expectation.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: So we require that you do a walkthrough with us at the end of the day.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of reasons for this, and I've mentioned it on multiple podcasts.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: When you are there and you're fresh, everything you can see at the end of the day, even after you've had lunch, you're tired.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's physically demanding.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: You're not seeing the same thing.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's why you require a proxy, the actual person, whoever's paying, the real estate agent, whoever it is.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: And they're signing that they agree that everything is to their satisfaction.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes that still gets like, oh my God, well, so-and-so walked it, and now I'm not happy because they found out the price and they can't believe that you guys left one tiny hair in the bathroom.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's on them, should have been there through the walkthrough.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: So we, it's mandatory.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: That is your saving grace.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: I cannot emphasize that enough, is having a walkthrough at the end, a human walkthrough.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then there's add-on pricing.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: As I mentioned, if we were to clean the inside of the oven or the inside of the refrigerator, it's an additional$95.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: I believe Jamie charges a buck$25 per appliance.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: And you want to say per appliance because food is so expensive right now.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: Most people have three refrigerators.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: They have one in the house, one in the garage, and then they have a freezer or maybe two freezers, depending on if they bought a cow or a half cow or a quarter cow.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's all kinds of varieties.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: I've had people go, oh, well, you said it was 50 bucks for the refrigerator.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the four refrigerators.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that kind of sucked, right?
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then you want to document.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: Document, document, document.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: You want before photos, you want after photos.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason why you want those is because it saves your butt should something go down.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: If they can say, well, you damage this, say, well, it wasn't damaged when I left because here's my timestamp photo in my video.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: So we do before photos, after photos, and then we do a walkthrough that we keep on file for a year and then we get rid of it.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Or sometimes there's a clause in our paperwork that we use it for content.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: It just depends on the situation.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: So make sure that you are documenting, documenting, and documenting.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then there are the utility factors, right?
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: There's, I can't tell you how many times.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it took one good time.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: It was from a real estate agent who is not a real estate agent anymore.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: He sucked.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: But we w went over to a house from Prescott into Dewey, which is a good half hour, and it was way back on a dirt road.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: And we arrived, and this is way back when I was cleaning.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: God, this was a long time ago.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: And there was no electricity or water on this property, and he just shrugged his shoulder.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: It was no big deal to him.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't get a deposit.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: He was not being inconvenienced.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I was mad because I had two other people with me that I was paying to be there.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: This is when I had W-2s.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so I ended up borrowing and we ended up Jemmy rigging some hoses, and I borrowed a hose and water from them from the neighbor to finish this job.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: But he was indifferent about whether I completed the job or not, whether I did a good job or not.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't going to be inconvenienced.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't that big of a deal to him.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: When if I had had my systems in place, then that would have been like, okay, you owe me this because I showed up, right?
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it's unpleasant to have to do that.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it still, believe it or not, happens once or twice a year.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: We get someone who didn't have electricity or water.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I'm really sorry, but we're going to have to ding you the 500 bucks.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: And the cleaning techs don't care because I'm like, okay, well, they're going to work on getting the this happens in smaller towns.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what it's like in a larger town.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: But sometimes the city will get the water on right away.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, okay, well, here's 20 bucks, go get breakfast or whatever, or Starbucks.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: And they they already got paid for the first part of the day.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: So now they're going to get paid for the second part of the day when they show up the second time.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: So these are things that I've learned along the way.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: So you need to have functioning outlets.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Having to do a move out cleaning in the heat, especially in the Phoenix area, is a nightmare.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: So you need to decide whether you're going to do that or not.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: Do you carry extra fans with you?
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, I believe they're like 25 bucks at Walmart.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: So you have something to keep you cool because it is hotter down there.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's not as hot up here, but it is hotter down there.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: So you have to think about well, you have to have air conditioning to do move-out cleaning, right?
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: When you don't have those things and expecting the cleaning tech to produce miracles, it just makes it rough on everybody.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody likes to work in trial by fire.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: So at some point I had to make rules, right?
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why I have all these rules is because I got screwed over a couple of times and I'm like, well, okay, we won't let that happen again, right?
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then the second time was also with a real estate agent.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have a lot of nice things to say about real estate agents.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: If you guys are real estate agents, I'm really sorry, don't take it personal.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: I just have not had good experience.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: I can tell you like 20, maybe 30 different bad stories I have had with real estate agents or brokers or property management.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: Nightmare stories, not like little bumps in the road.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: These are like sticking it to you because I can.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I that needs to change.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: The real estate agents are a dime a dozen.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean that in the most nicest professional manner.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: But it when you start to do a lot of business with them, it becomes a whole thing.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't want to get into that.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: I want to go down that rabbit hole.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: So and cleaners are not magicians.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: I think that you have a really high expectation.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: If your cleaner doesn't have air conditioning, they're only going to be able to work a four-hour shift.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then you're going to have to probably get someone else fresh in there for them to work a four-hour shift.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: Heat does interesting things to people, and you don't want anyone having heat stroke.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes occupied homes are easier.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: Regular maintenance cleanings, everything's air conditioning, everything's picked up and put away.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: You just come in and do the thing.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: But move out cleanings usually involve months, if not years, of neglect.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: I actually saw someone doing a remediation cleaning, prepping it for the removal of all of the walls because it was a meth house, but they had to decontaminate it.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: It was pretty labor-intensive.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: You had to tape up the gloves on your body, your back, I call it your body bag, but your suit.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of protocol.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: Your mask has to be on, and it, you know, it's hard to breathe in it.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's a lot of things.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: You're sweating.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: And people mentally check out before they physically leave.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: They're exhausted.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of prep that's involved, getting moving cleanings, getting the mail forwarded, packing, purging while you're packing.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: Where do I put the boxes?
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: Where do I get more tape?
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: So the cleaning company actually does become the final reset button for years of deferred maintenance.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: And like with the move out cleaning that we did this last week, that house hadn't had a good scrub in about eight years.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: And it happens a lot with older couples.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: They get married, one of them gets sick, they try to manage both roles, and they're not physically able to do it either.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: So things kind of go to the wayside.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: So the lesson here is to not do move out cleanings.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: The lesson is to be made aware that move out cleanings, there's a lot of variables that can go wrong, but only when you stop treating them like maintenance cleanings can you actually make some money off of them.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: Move out cleanings require systems, boundaries, leadership, pricing discipline for sure, documentation and operational awareness.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, cleaners accidentally donate labor while calling it hustle.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: You don't want to pay the person that donates to their move out cause for sure.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I I think my notes didn't get stapled.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: And it's windy in here.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, here we go.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a lot of things that I'm passionate about, and I move out cleanings is one of them.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: After all, we've done 20,000 move out cleanings in my area.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: That means over 20,000.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: That means that if there were, I think there's what, 67,000 homes here, I've I've walked a third of them.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: I've walked a third of them, or I've had a representative of my company walk them.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that's been my saving grace.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because really, if you have hustle without structure, it can have a lot of consequences and you can eat a lot of money really fast.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: Move out cleaning has taught me that lesson faster than most anything else in business.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: And you don't want to burn out, especially doing a move out cleaning because they are hard work.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the beginning of the series.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to be a three-part series.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are doing a lot of move out cleanings and you don't have any structure, the move out cleaning masterclass, I'll leave the link inside the show notes.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: I believe I called it the move out system.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now it's not a masterclass anymore.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: There's contracts and homework in there and stuff to do.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that you guys will be really pleased and impressed.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: So it's new and improved.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: If you've purchased the move out cleaning masterclass in the past, you can log in to your New Zendler portal, your student porthole, and you automatically were included with the upgrade.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I look forward to your questions.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: You guys have a great afternoon and have a wonderful week.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: Take care.