Turnover cleanouts for Atlanta landlords and property managers

The short answer

Disposal is included, the number is fixed at booking, and we can work the unit unattended with a lockbox or a leasing-office key. Minimum visit $75.

Speed is the whole product

Turnover economics are simple: the unit earns nothing until it is clean, and every other trade is queued behind the cleanout. Painters cannot paint around a sofa. Flooring cannot go in with a bed in the room. The cleaner cannot clean a unit full of bags.

So the cleanout is the critical path, and it is worth treating as such:

• Book from photos. Send pictures of each room, get a fixed price back, approve it. No site visit required to learn a number.
• Unattended access. Lockbox, leasing office, or a property manager letting the crew in. You do not need to stand there.
• Fixed arrival window, so you can schedule the painter behind it with confidence. In this metro that matters — a crew crossing from Douglasville to Duluth is committing to I-20 and I-285, and you should not be absorbing that risk in your trade schedule.
• Same-day and next-day slots across the metro.

Abandoned property: get the process right first

Before anything is removed, be clear on your own position. Disposing of a former tenant's belongings has rules, and they come from your lease, from the applicable Georgia law, and — if there was a dispossessory proceeding — from the process that was followed.

This is not something a removal company can advise you on, and you should not treat a blog post as the answer. Talk to your attorney or your management company and confirm you are clear to dispose before you schedule.

What we can do is support the documentation side:

• Photograph the unit as found, before anything moves.
• Photograph it after, for your file.
• Set aside anything that looks like documents, identification or valuables rather than binning it, so you can handle it according to your obligations.

That record is what protects you if the former tenant disputes it later.

What Atlanta turnovers actually contain

Different property types leave different things, and this metro has all of them.

Garden apartments off Buford Highway, Clairmont, Memorial Drive and Candler Road, and across Clarkston, Chamblee and Tucker. Expect window AC units, a sofa, mattresses, and bags. Exterior stairs, no elevator, everything comes down in the open.

Five-over-ones along the BeltLine, Howell Mill and the Upper Westside. Service elevator, garage staging, low garage clearance that keeps a box truck outside. Usually cleaner, more flat-pack.

Midtown and Buckhead condos. These need a certificate of insurance filed with management and a reserved freight elevator window before anyone touches anything. Build that into the timeline.

Single-family rentals across DeKalb, south Fulton, Clayton and Gwinnett. These are the big ones, because they come with a garage, sometimes a basement, and a back yard. The unit itself might be a half truck and the garage another.

Priced by item when it is light

A typical light turnover: sofa $126 + queen mattress $103 + medium junk pile $129 = $358. That is above the quarter truck at $241 and close to three-eighths at $338, so for anything more than that, take the tier.

Carpet is worth flagging. If the flooring is being replaced anyway, pulling it during the same visit is $71 a room and saves a separate trade day.

The seasonal crunch

Atlanta turnover is not evenly distributed and planning around it is worth real money.

Late July through August is the peak. Georgia Tech, Georgia State, Emory, the AUC schools, Agnes Scott, Oglethorpe and Kennesaw State all turn over, corporate relocations cluster in summer, and a large share of metro leases end on the last day of the month. Every trade you use is booked, and high-rise freight elevators are reserved weeks ahead.

End of any month is a smaller version of the same effect.

If you manage a portfolio, book the cleanout as soon as you have a move-out date rather than after the keys come back. On a large turnover week that is the difference between re-listing on the third and re-listing on the twelfth.

Portfolio work

If you run multiple doors, a few things make this easier:

• Multiple units, one day. If you have turnovers in the same complex or the same corridor, schedule them together — one truck on one street is more efficient than three separate trips across the metro.
• Standing COI. For high-rise and managed properties, we file the certificate with management once and keep it current.
• Documented every time. Before and after photos on every job, so the file is consistent across the portfolio.
• One invoice format. Card payment, receipt, the price that was agreed at booking.

Booking it

Send photos of each room, get a fixed price, approve it, and give us access. You do not need to be there. The unit is clear on a known date so the paint, the flooring and the clean can be scheduled behind it.

Coverage runs across the metro — intown, inside the Perimeter, and out through Marietta, Smyrna, Tucker, Stone Mountain, Duluth, Norcross, Lawrenceville, Douglasville, East Point, College Park and the south side.

Frequently asked questions