Most landlords lose two or three weeks per turnover. Not because the work takes that long — because the waiting between trades takes that long. The painter comes Tuesday, notices drywall damage, so now you're calling a drywall guy for Friday, and the painter can't come back until the following Wednesday...
A standard one or two bedroom unit is genuinely a five-day job when one crew does everything in the right order. Here's the actual schedule we run on turnover jobs.
Day 1: Walk-through and demolition of problems
Morning: full punch list — the same walk-through we covered in our turnover checklist. Afternoon: everything destructive happens at once. Old flooring that's being replaced comes out. Damaged drywall gets cut back. Broken fixtures come off the wall. Getting all the mess made on one day means every day after is about putting things back better.
Day 2: The wet trades
Drywall patches go on in the morning so mud can dry overnight. Plumbing repairs happen — new faucet cartridges, running toilets, that slow bathroom drain the last tenant never reported.
Day 3: Sand, prime, first coat
Sand the patches, prime everything patched, first coat on walls. Pro tip that saves a day: we paint ceilings and trim in the same pass rather than treating them as separate phases. While paint dries, someone's re-caulking the tub and backsplash and rekeying the locks.
Day 4: Second coat and floors
Second coat in the morning. Flooring goes in the afternoon once the paint is dry to the touch — vinyl plank in a typical unit is a same-day install, which is one more reason we push landlords toward it. Transitions and baseboards go on behind the flooring immediately.
Day 5: Punch list and clean
Every cabinet hinge tightened, every drawer tested, smoke and CO detectors installed fresh, door stops on (drywall's worst enemy is a missing door stop). Then the deep clean, then listing photos in afternoon light. Done.
Why this only works with one crew
Look back at that schedule — day 2 alone touches plumbing and drywall. Coordinate that with separate contractors and each one becomes its own appointment window, its own minimum charge, its own "can't come till Thursday." One multi-trade crew is the entire trick.
Got a tenant giving notice? The best time to call is before the unit empties — walk-through in the last week of tenancy means we start day 1 the morning you get the keys. (365) 360-1416.
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