After reading BUSY (WI) post regarding "deep cleaning" a long term rental and a QUORA landlord's idea, thought I'd put it to the group for discussion, tweaking or another spin.

Could we consider including in the rent some sort of "cleaning" once a month or some other term we deem? The person on QUORA has it done once a month; the cleaning person is another set of eyes on the property and reports to the landlord. It works for him.

Could it work for any of us? Could it be an offering for an additional source of income? Or include it in the rent. Or for a tenant that needs add'l cleaning help...a pop-up cleaning experience, with proper notice of course!

BUSY (WI): Maybe work with your tenant to deep clean a room at a time, spaced somewhat apart so as not to be a nuisance, unless your relationship is so good they don't mind.

Hmm, I think LL's do enough as it is for tenants. I could agree if they hired their own cleaning person, but if the LL hires it and cleaning is done on a regular basis it gives an avenue to complain/sue for missing items.

I still try very hard to look at the good in a person, but LL'ing has soured me a bit, as I have found quite a few tenants don't tell the truth and will jump on almost anything to not pay rent.

We do this, but only for our furnished per diem houses. We hire a cleaner every other week to deep clean bathrooms, sweep and mop, clean kitchen, change bed linens, etc.

It's included as part of the rent package, and yes, it gives us eyes inside and a high level of awareness of any upcoming problems.

The idea of including some housecleaning services in the base rent really changes the nature of your business from residential rentals to something akin to Hotel or assisted living.

Residential rentals are priced so cheap per night compared to Hotels and assisted living because we don't provide these services.

Providing your tenant with recommendations for good service providers may be useful.

I imagine it would be better as an upgrade rather than included in the use rent - because not everyone would want it.

Just like you can offer yard care, appliances, a ceiling fan, or whatever - for a FEE that is enough to make it PROFITABLE for you.

My personal opinion: regular cleaning would be a hard one to be profitable to me, based on some prices I've seen for housecleaners.

If I could find anyone to clean, and that is a huge if, I'd have to double the price of the rent.

I’m thinking of doing a spring kitchen ceiling wash, as none of my tenants have stepladders, and all like to fry in oil. All my houses have kitchen fans, which helps. Then, in fall, doing a basement ceiling shop vacuuming for spider webs, as I have a long shop vac hose, easy to reach the joists. That can also clue me in to air leaks. Spiders like a it of air flow.

A couple of my tenants DO keep the homes spotless, but only as far as they can reach. I’ve noticed the kitchen ceiling, oh, and the top of the basement stairwell, plus the basement ceiling joists are the three places that could use attention in my long term tenants homes.

Yes, in-home visit did set the expectation with the less-neat tenants, and for my two stellar, super-cleaners, gave them a chance to show off their skills.

From the NOLO tax books, I know that if I offer a regular cleaning service, such as weekly, that could put me in a different type of rental situation, more like how a motel would be treated, tax-wise.

Agree that if I had even a dozen rentals, doing a once a year ceiling wash (kitchen), ceiling vacuum ( basement), and maybe every five years, clean the top of the basement stairwell, that would be too much for me to handle. That’s why those of you with dozens, or even just a dozen rentals use maintenance persons. I’m not criticizing that, I think it’s appropriate. For my handful of rentals, I think it would foster goodwill ( probably have plenty of that already,) encourage tenants to stay longer, which I prefer, and show the tenants and their children how to clean those spaces ( teaching-something I much prefer. Because of our awful, awful welfare policies, we have several generations who have never stayed in one place long enough to do deep cleaning, several generations who have never …. Oh, I’ll stay off the political rant. But, welfare has certainly created a mess for those families where it became a way of life! I saw that in some close relatives.)

I have had a long term tenant ask how to clean something, and admit, in the past, they just moved when it got too dirty. The occasional cleaning I do when I am there to work on a project always has a positive impact on my less-than-stellar cleaners ( tenants). Depression often comes into play, and seeing that the landlord washed the cabinet under the sink whist she was down there mucking about with a leak often gets them motivated to give the rest of the cabinets a wipe-down. And that is one of the good things a person with depression can do to lift their spirits- get a few simple cleaning tasks done.

No, no, no, not trying to make social workers or psychologists out of anyone. Speaking for me, and only for me, it is a good thing to encourage others, lift another’s spirit. Mentor tenants a bit. Not enough of that around, in my never humble opinion.

Never would even consider this.

First, stuff will get broken and/or go missing. Who wants to deal with those accusations - real or perceived?

Tenants are not going to move their stuff and/or pick up their stuff for someone to work around.

How many tenants truly want someone there for xx hours? It's one thing when the plumber is going to be under the kitchen sink or the hvac down at the furnace but all around the place randomly?