Turnover repairs before the 1st: a landlord’s punch-list

Why the turnover window is so tight

Every day a unit sits vacant between tenants is lost rent, so the window between move-out and the 1st is unforgiving. The work itself is rarely complicated, it is the coordination that trips landlords up: a painter one day, someone for the sticking door another, a third person for the stained ceiling. Batching the whole punch-list into one coordinated visit is what actually protects the timeline.

The standard turnover punch-list

A typical make-ready list, in the order we usually work it: patch nail holes, dents, and drywall damage; repair any water-stained or cracked ceiling; touch-up or full repaint of walls and trim; adjust or rehang doors that stick and swap worn locks and hardware; re-caulk where it has failed; and clear the accumulated small fixes, a loose towel bar, a cabinet door off its hinge, a scuffed baseboard. We confirm each item as done so nothing is left half-finished.

What we refer out

We keep the line honest. Regulated electrical, plumbing, and gas work goes to the registered trade that holds it, we do not improvise on those. What we own is the repair and finish work that makes up the bulk of a turnover, done cleanly and documented per unit.

Documentation for the deposit

Turnovers and security deposits are linked, so we photograph before and after and note what was done per unit. That record supports a fair deposit accounting and gives you something to show the outgoing or incoming tenant without a dispute turning into your problem.

Where a turnover can go sideways

The two things that blow up a turnover timeline are surprises and coordination. Surprises, a soft spot behind a stain, damage worse than it looked, we handle with the stop-and-call rule: we flag it before growing the scope, so you decide rather than discover it on the invoice. Coordination is the bigger risk, and it is exactly what batching solves. Splitting a turnover across a painter, a door person, and a drywall patcher means three schedules to align inside a window that won't wait. One vendor working the whole list in sequence keeps the unit moving toward rent-ready instead of stalling between trades.

Booking a turnover

Send the unit, the move-out date, and the scope, or just hand us the keys and the list. We slot the punch-list into one pass before the 1st and confirm the work in writing before starting, with any surprise we uncover flagged before the scope or price grows.