MaidBossPro Blog — Quotes & Pricing

Quoting Move-In and Move-Out Cleanings Without Getting Burned

Move-in and move-out cleans can be some of the best-paying jobs a cleaning company does, and some of the worst. The good ones are empty homes with clear expectations and a deadline. The bad ones are homes with two years of grease in the oven, a fridge left running with food in it, and a landlord holding the tenant's deposit until the place passes inspection. The quote decides which kind you get.

What Makes a Move-Out Different

Recurring prices, covered in Weekly, Every-Two-Weeks and Monthly Cleaning Prices, Written as Separate Prices, assume a lived-in home kept up over time. A move-out is the opposite: a one-time job on a home that may not have been cleaned properly in years.

An empty home is easier in some ways. There is no furniture to clean around, nothing to put away and nobody home. But empty also means every surface is exposed. Cabinets, drawers, closets, the inside of every appliance, the floor under where the fridge was, and every wall mark show up. The customer, whether a tenant, landlord or seller, usually expects all of it.

What to Include

Write down what your move-in / move-out clean includes. A typical list:

• Everything in a deep clean
• Inside all kitchen cabinets and drawers
• Inside oven and fridge
• Inside bathroom cabinets and vanities
• Closets, shelves and rods
• Baseboards, door frames, doors and switch plates
• Window sills and tracks
• Spot cleaning walls

Be clear about what is not included. Carpet shampooing, exterior windows, garage floors and trash hauling are common surprises. If you offer them, quote them as separate lines. If you do not, say so on the estimate.

Questions to Ask Before You Price

A move-out quote over the phone needs more questions than a recurring one:

• How many bedrooms and bathrooms, and roughly how many square feet?
• Will the home be completely empty when we arrive?
• How long has it been lived in, and when was it last professionally cleaned?
• Any pets in the home?
• Is the oven heavily used? Is the fridge staying?
• What is the deadline, such as a walkthrough or closing date?
• How do we get in: lockbox, key, door code?
• Who is paying, the tenant, landlord, seller or buyer?

Photos help a lot. Ask the customer to text a few pictures of the kitchen, the oven and the bathrooms. A quick text from the office right after the call, asking for those few pictures, is usually all it takes.

Pricing a Move-Out

Many companies price move-outs by square feet, since size drives the work when everything is empty and exposed. Others use room counts with an adjustment for condition. Example prices for one company might be:

• 1 bed / 1 bath apartment, empty: $245
• 2 bed / 1 bath, empty: $295
• 3 bed / 2 bath home, up to 1,800 sq ft: $395
• Heavy-condition adjustment: priced after photos or a walkthrough

Your numbers will differ. Protect yourself with a condition clause on the estimate: the price assumes normal wear, and heavy grease, mold, pet damage or items left behind may change the price. For very dirty homes, a quick walkthrough beats a guess. When to go see the home is covered in In-Home Walkthrough or Remote Quote: When to See the House Before You Price It.

Access, Deadlines and Who Approves

Move-outs come with logistics. The home may be empty with a lockbox, utilities may be about to shut off, and there may be a hard deadline for a landlord walkthrough. Put all of it on the estimate as entry notes: the lockbox location and code, whether the power and water will be on, and the date it must be done by.

In MaidBossPro, those details go on the estimate along with the cleaning type, bedrooms, bathrooms, square feet and extras. When the customer approves online, the approved estimate becomes the job and the details come along, so the team sees “Move-In / Move-Out · 2 bed / 1 bath · 950 sq ft” with the lockbox note underneath. Nobody calls the office from the driveway asking for the code.

After the Clean

Before-and-after photos from the team's phone are worth more on a move-out than on any other job. If a landlord says the oven was never cleaned, the photos settle it. When the job is completed, the invoice is created from the approved prices, and a card on file can be charged. Landlords and property managers who order several move-outs a month can be set to monthly billing and get one statement covering every address.

For how move-out quotes fit with the rest of your estimating, visit the house cleaning estimate software page.