The Ugly Truth About Move-In Move-Out Cleans

The Ugly Truth About Move-in Move-Out Cleans, Angela Brown, Savvy Cleaner
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Wanna know the ugly truth about move-in move-out cleans? Many new house cleaners think working with realtors will give them leverage when bidding a cleaning job. They assume since the homeowner is moving, they HAVE to have a cleaning service.

Wanna know the ugly truth about move-in move-out cleans? Many new house cleaners think working with realtors will give them leverage when bidding a cleaning job. They assume since the homeowner is moving, they HAVE to have a cleaning service.

The challenge with move-in move-out cleaning is determining who pays. And bidding a cleaning job is every time occurrence. So, you’re always starting the sales cycle over.

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Hey there, I’m Angela Brown, and this is Ask a House Cleaner. This is a show where you get to ask a house cleaning question, and I get to help you find an answer. You can find this and 400 other answered questions in this series on our YouTube channel.

Move-in Move-Out Cleans Can Be Confusing

The Ugly Truth About Move-in Move-Out Cleans, Family and Real Estate AgentMove-in and move-out cleans can confuse a lot of cleaners especially those new to the business.

Let’s suppose realtor contacts you and asks you to do move-in move-out cleans so they can serve their buyers or sellers.

If you want to do move-in and move-out cleanings, you have to decide who the best person is to send those flyers to.

Well here is the ugly truth about move-in, move-out cleans.

    If You’re Just Starting Out

The Ugly Truth About Move-in Move-Out Cleans, Man Tired from CleaningIf you’re just starting out in the house cleaning business, don’t do these cleans. Here’s the reason why: you have to be super savvy to do them. There is a whole bunch of stuff you need to learn and do before you do move-in move-out cleans.

If you do one here and one there, it’s not going to kill you. But don’t have it be your general business.

Here’s the reason why: move-in, move-out cleans are a onetime deal. Somebody moves out, and now they’re gone. You don’t get repeat business from them because they’re not moving out again.

So, you went and you did a walk-through, you built a relationship with the customer, for what? To do one job. Now they’ve moved away, and now you have to go back and find a whole new customer. You’ve got to do a new walk-through, and build new rapport, and you have to start the whole process all over again. It is going to kill you on time.

Scale Back First

The Ugly Truth About Move-in Move-Out Cleans, Woman Cleaning Oven, Upsell CleaningScale back first when you start your cleaning business. Go super small and super smart. Start with cleans every two weeks. Don’t do any upsells, don’t do any deep cleans, don’t do any Spring cleans.

You’re going to be doing a deep clean on the front of every job. But just don’t only do deep cleans and don’t only do move-in, move-out cleans. There’s a lot of work that’s involved and lots of confusion.

Who Do You Work for in Move-In Move-Out Cleans?

The Ugly Truth About Move-in Move-Out Cleans, Empty Home with Real Estate AgentThe biggest question in move-in move-out cleans is who do you work for?

Are you working for the customer or the realtor? And a lot of times, stuff falls through the cracks, where it’s not clear who the person hiring you is.

Who is the person that’s going to pay you for this job? And a lot of times, people will move out, and then you never see the money because they’ve disconnected their phones and they moved.

You don’t have a forwarding address, you don’t have their new phone number, they’re just gone. Okay? So, that’s a common problem.

Common Problems with Move-in Move-Out Cleans

The Ugly Truth About Move-in Move-Out Cleans, Plug in OutletOftentimes the power is disconnected. So, you can’t even go in and clean because you can’t plug in a vacuum, you can’t plug in any of your electrical equipment.

And then sometimes the lights are off or the water is off. It makes mopping super hard because you don’t have any water to wash your sponges and your cloths out with.

There’s a lot of weird stuff that happens. You don’t want to get into a situation like that if you’re a new startup business.

Have Money Coming in from Regular Jobs

The Ugly Truth About Move-Ugly Truth About Move in Move Outs, Woman Vacuuming, Biweekly CleaningHave money coming in on a regular basis. Go do a walk-through. You walk through their house, you meet them, you build rapport. Then they love you, you start the job, and you come back week after week after week. It’s recurring money.

So, you’re not reinventing that sales cycle all over again, keep it simple and smart until your calendar is completely full. And once your calendar is full, then you can get creative and do upsells.

You can do other kinds of cleans that will bring in more money. You can also hire more people, and expand your business. But if you’re just getting started, it can be foolish to go after the one time clean because move-in, move-out cleans are a lot of work!

Have Regular Hours for a Regular Job

The Ugly Truth About Move-in Move-Out Cleans, Empty HouseOn a regular job, you might spend four hours. However, on a move-out clean you could spend 10, 12, or 15 hours just getting the house ready to sell.

Then they’re going to come in, and all they see is every little scratch on the wall or scratch on the floor. This is because the house is empty, there are no distractions.

Then they want you to come back and fix it so the house looks brand new again. But the truth is a house that has had people in it for years is not going to look brand new.

The Ugly Truth About Move-in Move-Out Cleans, Painting Wall in HouseIt’s going to need to be repainted and stuff sanded down. It needs a lot of work.

So, please don’t do that, especially if you’re a new startup business. Focus on where the money is because you want to get your business up and off the ground so that you can move forward.

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