Landlord turnover cleanouts in Salt Lake City

The short answer

Most left-behind unit contents in this valley clear at a quarter truck, $241, or a half truck, $431. A fully furnished two-bedroom that a tenant walked away from is three-quarters, $587. Priced per item instead: a sofa is $126, a queen mattress and box spring set is $143, a standard dresser is $126, a washer and dryer pair is $133 + $128 = $261. Minimum visit $75.

The operational point is not the price, it is that you have the price before you dispatch anyone. Turnover budgets are set in advance and a number that arrives on the day is a number you cannot plan around.

Sort the legal side first

We are not your legal advisor and will not pretend otherwise. Abandoned personal property has a notice and storage process attached to it, and the requirements are specific. Follow your own process, in writing, with dates, before anything is removed — and if you are unsure, get advice rather than guessing.

Once you are clear to clear the unit, the removal part is straightforward and fast. What we can do is give you a fixed number in advance so that when your timeline opens, the booking is already priced.

What Salt Lake rental stock does to the job

Three building types dominate turnovers here and each behaves differently.

• Converted houses in the Avenues and Central City. A pre-war home split into two or three units. Narrow interior stairs, a shared landing, and the upper unit reached by a staircase that turns. Everything is a carry.
• Basement apartments. Very common in this valley — a lower-level unit inside a family home, usually with a side entrance under a window well. Carrying furniture up and out of one takes longer than it looks and is the reason an estimate given over the phone by a less careful operator tends to move.
• Walk-up fourplexes along 700 East, 900 East and the streets below the university. Two or three storys, no lift, exterior stairs that ice from December.

None of that affects the price. There is no stair or walk-up charge. It affects how long we schedule, which is why we ask about access when you book.

The calendar you are competing with

Turnovers cluster, and the clusters are sharp in this market. The last four days of any month are the tightest, because leases end together across the valley. Late April and the first week of May adds University of Utah and Westminster move-out on top of that, and the streets below campus and through the lower Avenues empty in a single week.

June through August is family moving season, which affects the larger units and the single-family rentals out through Millcreek, Murray and West Valley. If your re-let date is fixed, book the clearance a week ahead in any of those windows. Two days' notice at the end of April is optimistic.

A worked turnover

A one-bedroom in South Salt Lake, tenant gone, everything left:

$126 + $143 = $269. $269 + $126 = $395. $395 + $68 = $463. $463 + $208 = $671. Against the ladder, a half truck is $431 and three-quarters is $587. For that mix the half truck almost always holds it, so the booking goes in at $431 and you have saved $240 by comparing.

That comparison is worth making on every unit. Turnover contents are typically many medium items, which is exactly the shape where volume pricing wins.

What to tell us when you book

• Floor, and whether there is a lift.
• Whether it is a basement apartment and which entrance to use.
• Whether appliances are staying or going. Washer $133, dryer $128, fridge $164 — and if the fridge has been off with food in it, say so.
• Whether there are mattresses. There usually are, and they are commonly excluded from bulky collections.
• Who provides access, and whether a manager can let us in rather than you.
• Whether anything is bagged already. Ten bags is $132 and twenty is $259, which sometimes beats a truck fraction.

Managing a portfolio

If you run several units across the valley, the useful thing about published pricing is that it turns a variable cost into a line you can forecast. A one-bedroom turnover is a number you can budget at the start of the year rather than a phone call each time.

Group bookings help too. Two units in the same building, or two in the same week within a few miles, clear faster than two unrelated jobs, and one visit carrying both loads means one minimum rather than two. If you are clearing several, send the list and we will price the whole set up front.

What we leave behind is the same as anywhere: paint, solvents, pool and lawn chemicals, propane, car batteries. Every garage and every utility room has some, and it goes to your county's household hazardous waste route.

Frequently asked questions