The checklist we run through in a rental property before bookings start.
A clean exterior directly affects booking rates, and on the Panhandle there are about 6 months to do the work — October to April. After that, every week of maintenance costs a booked week. Here is the sequence we run through on a rental property before the season starts, in the order that stops one job undoing another.
Why the order matters more than the list
Because half of these undo each other if run backwards. Washing after painting strips a coat that has not cured. Cleaning the interior before the exterior work means doing it twice. The sequence below is 4 to 6 working days on a typical 3-bedroom property, and out of order it becomes ten.
The sequence
- 1. Exterior wash. Siding, soffits, entry, walkways and the pool deck. On a Gulf-front property this is every 6 to 9 months anyway; doing it now means the listing photos are taken on a clean building. See pressure washing.
- 2. Repairs. Anything the wash exposed — opened caulk joints, stucco hairlines, a soft board. Stucco patches need 7 days to cure before paint, so this is why they go early.
- 3. Touch-up or repaint. Full repaints run on a 5 to 7 year coastal cycle. Between cycles, the front elevation, trim and the front door do most of the visual work for a fraction of the cost.
- 4. Interior paint. Walls take the damage in a rental: a walls-only refresh in a 2-bedroom unit is 1 working day. See interior painting.
- 5. Deep clean, last. After the paint has cured, never into it. 4 to 7 hours for a 2-bedroom.
- 6. Photographs. Same afternoon as the clean, before anyone moves anything.
What guests actually photograph and complain about
Not the walls. In our experience it is the same five things every time: the shower grout, the inside of the oven, the sliding door track, the entry walkway, and the balcony railing. All five are cheap to put right and all five appear in reviews.
A grey walkway and a streaked railing cost bookings before they cost maintenance.
Can this be done between guests?
Partly. Washing and interior touch-up fit into a mid-week gap. A full exterior repaint does not — it needs consecutive dry days, which is exactly what summer will not give you.
If you manage several properties, we schedule them as a block through the winter with fixed per-unit pricing: see property management services. Tell us how many doors you have and we will build the calendar backwards from your first booking.
