Hire a Professional: Cleaning Service

Your rental property should be cleaned thoroughly between tenants. That’s pretty obvious, but also hard to do. It’s a lot of work to clean a place completely, so should you hire a professional cleaning service to help you? We’ll give you the information and let you decide for yourself.

Why you should hire a professional

Why should you hire a cleaning service? What do they offer you that you can’t do yourself?

• You don’t have to spend your time on it: Do you really want to spend all the time it takes to clean it yourself? No, probably not. The time saved alone can be worth it.
• Cleanliness adds to the longevity of the unit: A thorough cleaning gives you more chances to spot things that need maintenance, as well as keeping potential issues from cropping up. The cleaner it is, the less opportunity there is for big issues like mold to crop up without you noticing.
• Cleaner units are more attractive to tenants: This point could make up for any costs the cleaners charge. A cleaner, more attractive property can get better tenants and won't sit empty for as long, which means more money in your pocket.
• They have more knowledge and experience than you do: How often do you completely clean an entire house or apartment? Professionals do so all the time. With greater knowledge and experience, they’ll do the job both faster and better than you can.

So, if you decide to hire a professional cleaning service, what should you look for? How do you go about finding the right service for you?

Determine what services are needed

You can’t get a company to sign on if you don’t know what you need to be cleaned. Also, take this opportunity to take care of other things - is there any preventative maintenance you need to do? Is pest control a possible issue? Do you need to make changes to get the building up to code? Is there anything better off being replaced than trying to clean it? You may need a lot more than cleaning, and now is the best time to figure that out, not while a tenant is living there.

Get recommendations

If you know any other landlords, now is the time to reach out to them. They probably know a number of the cleaning companies in the area and are doing exactly what you’re trying to do. Use their recommendations as a starting point for your research into who to hire.

Schedule an in-home estimate

You can explain the place in exhaustive detail, but nothing beats actually going there and looking around to give an estimate of how much this is going to cost. They can get a good look at the place to let you know with greater accuracy how much it’ll cost and when they can get it done.

Determine how they guarantee their work

What is their customer service like if there’s something wrong with the job they did? Are they licensed and insured? Do they offer a guarantee for their work? You’re probably going to pay a lot of money for them to handle a crucial part of your business, so make sure that if things go wrong, you have some recourse.

Stop if the company makes you feel uncomfortable

Do you have a gut feeling that something’s wrong with the company you’re looking to hire? Then there’s probably a good reason not to hire them. You may find out that there was something you missed. Even if there isn’t, you don’t want someone you’re uncomfortable with to handle such an important task. It’s best to make a low-risk bet here, so avoiding a company that makes you feel uncomfortable is probably the best move to make.