By Jon Wilson, Director of Vendor Management, with Mike Tamulevich providing the analogies and none of the plumbing skills
When a Resident gives notice, every Owner starts the same clock: will there be damage, and how long will the Home sit empty before rental income starts again. But not every Owner experiences that clock the same way.
Institutional investors have systems, reserves, and full-time asset management teams built to absorb this kind of uncertainty. It’s baked into the model. A five-figure repair invoice is a line item, not a gut punch.
Retail investors don’t have that buffer, and they don’t have that distance either. This is personal money tied to personal goals, and the stress was never really about the number. As Mike Tamulevich, our COO, puts it, “you’re not stressed after the mechanic gives you the estimate; you’re stressed during the drive over when you don’t know what’s wrong yet. Same with a physical. Nobody dreads the appointment itself; they dread not knowing beforehand. Or a leaking pipe in your own house: the “ugh” moment isn’t the fix; it’s wondering what the fix is going to cost and whether you can handle it yourself.” On a side note, I can fix my own leak. Mike still has to call me.
That instinct to wait until the unknown becomes known is exactly what we’re trying to remove from a Turn. The fast way starts while the Resident is still living there.
Engaging the Departing Resident
In the 30 days before a Resident vacates, our goal is simple: get them engaged. A pre-move-out walk in that window does more than confirm the condition of the Home. It gives the Resident a real chance to address anything that might otherwise come out of their Security Deposit, before it becomes a dispute instead of a conversation. It also gives the Owner something almost as valuable: time. Time to mentally prepare, and time for us to start game-planning the Turn before the Home even sits empty.
The 48-Hour Walk
Once the Resident is out, the clock changes speed. We walk the Home within 48 hours, gathering photos and a full condition checklist. Those photos get compared against the Move-In Checklist and Pre-Move-In Photos, so we know exactly what was already there versus what happened during the tenancy. Every state has its own rules on how and when a departed Resident has to be notified about deductions from their deposit, and staying compliant with those timelines isn’t optional. It’s part of protecting the Owner and doing right by the Resident at the same time.
Racing the Clock
From there, it’s a race. Once damages are identified and priced, work gets scheduled immediately. Our team holds itself to a standard of roughly $1,000 a day in completed scope, because every day of work is a day closer to a new Resident and rental income restarting. The goal is to have the Home back on the market within 10 to 14 days of move-out. A final Summary of Damages goes to the departed Resident within whatever window their state requires, and once we’ve confirmed every rent-ready repair with photos or video, the Home hands off to Marketing to find its next Resident.
The Part That Never Shows Up on an Invoice
The thing that’s hardest to put a number on is what happens on the Owner’s side while all of this is playing out. Whether it’s a hundred-Home institution or a single retail investor with everything riding on this one property, what keeps someone calm isn’t the speed. It’s knowing there’s a plan and someone already running it. That’s the difference between a maintenance issue and a spiral, and it’s the part of the job that never shows up on an invoice.