Make Readies

What is a reasonable average of turns per week?

That depends on the condition of the turn. It also depends on who is doing the turn - is it one individual or do you have contractors also helping? For most turns, I feel a 3 or 4 day process is about right. In an average week, I expect two turns to be completed if the unit has been returned with normal wear and tear or better than.

I agree with the fact that it should be based on unit condition, how long the previous resident was there, and how much work is done in house.

Here is how I would approach it in the best case:

Day 1 AM: Manager and maintenance manager conduct inspection, calculate what charges are necessary to the former resident's deposit accounting; develop a shopping list of what is needed, order parts and supplies, and develop a plan to turn the unit.

If it is determined that the carpet is to be replaced; have maintenance go ahead and remove it, and prep the unit for painting. Have exterminator treat unit the next day; especially if that day is the day he shows up anyway; otherwise call for a special treatment.
Day 1 PM: preventive pest control.
Day 2 AM: After pest control, prime unit.
Day 2 PM: Paint unit if primer has cured enough.
Day 3 AM: schedule carpet/flooring installation.
Day 3 PM; perform clean and maintenance of all systems to the 'golden question' standard (Looking at the unit NOW, would I want to live here?)

Naturally, this is the best case of how it should go. If you have heavy damage; you could stretch out the work or get additional help/resources for the turn. My last property we were able to turn the unit of a 20+ year resident that was a heavy smoker within 5 days using the same basic process.

For normal wear and tear I am the same way it should be no more than 3 days max. For those that have extensive damage then I had up to, but not to exceed 10 days. I outsourced all of my maintenance to a firm and the way the contract was written there were incentives for all units in a year that were returned within the three days. The clock started once they took the keys.

Now, it is not for everyone and I guess it depends on the size properties and for me it was good because I had a very large community. So, it was cost affective to have a maintenance contract. There was a minimum guarnatee with one year firm and two option years. We had a maintenance review board every year as well to evaluate performance. They were required to have a dedicated quality contro; person and we had quality assurance people to check the work after it was done. Most times any mistakes found were corrected right on the spot.

Our average turn though was 3 days.

I find that this depends on what you consider a turn.

Our method is to do a pre-turn inspection, identifying all the issues with the unit, with an emphasis on "non-standard turn items".

The non-standard turn items (NSTs) are the monkey wrench in determining time. Once these are identified, all I have left is a Standard Turn. The Standard Turn typically, for us, involves painting and cleaning. We combine these two things with the same team.

My Standard Turns take 26.6 hours.

Carpets can typically be cleaned the following day.


Michael

I agree that this is all based on average times; but I would consider 3-5 days after receiving keys as acceptable for completing turns; UNLESS you have a long term resident that left behind significant damage. I had one that took 2 weeks to finish because the prior resident was a 20 year resident and a heavy smoker. The unit also had subfloor damage as well as damage to the shower stall such that the entire thing needed replacement; no amount of elbow grease was able to get it clean. The entire unit needed 2 coats of primer with KILZ to seal in the smoke damage and 2 coats of paint (all surfaces). The walls were so stained; you could tell where pictures were because the walls were the color of the original paint.

It also depends on what work you do in house and what work is contracted out.

You also need to remember that evictions and units where there was a resident death need to be handled differently.