MaidBossPro Blog — Quotes & Pricing

In-Home Walkthrough or Remote Quote: When to See the House Before You Price It

Every walkthrough costs you a drive, half an hour or more of someone's time, and a day or two of delay before the customer has a price. Every remote quote that turns out wrong costs you a long, unprofitable first visit or an awkward call to raise the price. Knowing which jobs need a walkthrough and which do not keeps both costs down.

The Case for Remote Quotes

A good phone script, covered in Quoting a House Cleaning Over the Phone: The Questions to Ask, handles most residential homes well. Bedrooms, bathrooms, square feet, pets and the date of the last professional clean tell you most of what you need to price a typical recurring home.

Remote quotes are fast. The customer gets a price on the call or within minutes, which matters because customers often book the first company that gives them a clear answer. They also scale: an owner can quote ten homes from the office in the time it takes to drive to one.

Photos and Video in Between

There is a middle ground between a phone quote and a walkthrough. Ask the customer to text photos of the kitchen, the bathrooms, the oven and any area they are worried about. Some customers will happily send a short video walking through the home.

Two-way texting from the office makes the ask easy: one short text after the call explaining which rooms you would like to see and why. Photos catch most condition problems that a phone description misses: heavy soap scum, a greasy range hood, or a home much more cluttered than the customer let on.

When to Go See It

Some jobs are worth the drive. A walkthrough usually pays for itself when:

• The home is very large, beyond the top of your normal price range.
• The condition is heavy, such as a home not cleaned in a long time, heavy pet damage, or clutter that must be worked around.
• It is post-construction on anything bigger than a single room.
• It is an office or commercial space, where layout, floor types and restrooms vary a lot.
• The customer is high-value recurring, such as a large weekly home, where getting the price right matters for years.
• The customer asks for one. Some people want to meet the company first.

What to Look For

Use the walkthrough to collect everything the price and the team need. A checklist helps:

• Confirm bedrooms, bathrooms and approximate square feet.
• Look at bathrooms and the kitchen first. They drive the time.
• Check floors: carpet, hardwood, tile, stairs.
• Note condition: buildup, grease, pet hair, clutter.
• Open the oven and fridge if the customer wants them done.
• Ask about entry, the alarm, pets and rooms to skip.
• Ask what matters most to them. Some customers care most about the kitchen, others about the floors.

Take photos with the customer's permission. They help the team prepare and help you check the price later.

Build the Estimate On the Spot

The best walkthrough ends with an estimate in the customer's hands before you leave the driveway. In MaidBossPro, you can build the estimate from your service list on a phone: enter the cleaning type, bedrooms, bathrooms, square feet and pets, add the extras, and write entry notes like “Garage code in notes, alarm panel by kitchen door, skip the home office.” Send it, and the customer can approve it online while you are still parked out front.

Whatever you saw on the walkthrough stays on the estimate as cleaning details, and when it is approved, those details carry onto the job. The team that shows up for the first clean knows what you know. How that hand-off works is covered next.

Some job types almost always need eyes on them. Move-outs in heavy condition are covered in Quoting Move-In and Move-Out Cleanings Without Getting Burned, and post-construction work is covered in Quoting Post-Construction Cleaning Jobs. For both, a short visit or a good set of photos protects you from a price that looked fine on the phone and falls apart at the front door.

Charging for Walkthroughs

Some companies charge a small fee for walkthroughs and credit it against the first clean if the customer books. Others offer them free for jobs above a certain size and only by phone below it. Either is a reasonable policy. What matters is deciding in advance, so the office answers the same way every time.

For most homes, a good phone script plus a few photos is enough. Save walkthroughs for the jobs where a wrong guess would hurt. For how both kinds of quotes fit together, visit the house cleaning estimate software page.