An apartment make ready checklist is the ordered list of tasks that takes a unit from the outgoing resident's keys to a signed-off, leasable home: inspection, trash-out, repairs, paint, flooring, cleaning, final walk and release to leasing. Run in the right order with the trades booked in sequence, a standard turn on a conventional unit takes five working days. Run in the wrong order (the cleaner arrives before the painter, the flooring crew arrives before the plumber has finished under the sink), it takes ten, and the difference is vacant days that nobody budgeted.
This apartment make ready checklist is laid out as the five-day sequence, with the reason each trade sits where it does, the inspection and punch-list steps that decide whether the unit is ready, the rule for releasing it to leasing, and the turn board that tracks every unit through it. It is the operational counterpart to our earlier post on where the vacant days actually go, which explains why turns drift; this one is the plan that stops them drifting. For the student housing version, where the same sequence runs across every unit in the same week, see the turn week plan.
The five-day sequence
The table assumes a standard turn on an occupied-to-vacant conventional apartment: paint touch-up or a single-colour repaint, carpet cleaned or LVP replaced in one room, minor repairs, no capital work. Heavy turns (full flooring, appliance replacement, damage repair, pest treatment) add days and are flagged at the move-out inspection, not discovered on day three.
| Day | Stage | Tasks | Who | Done means |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day 0 (move-out day) | Move-out inspection and scope | Walk the unit with the move-out inspection form against the move-in record; photograph every room and every charge; classify the turn as light, standard or heavy; create the work orders for each trade; order any parts or flooring not in stock; schedule the trades for days 1–4 | Maintenance supervisor or inspector | Inspection filed with photos; turn type set; every trade booked with a date |
| Day 1 | Trash-out, strip and repairs | Remove abandoned items and trash; pull damaged carpet, blinds, shelving; complete plumbing, electrical, HVAC and appliance repairs from the inspection list; replace smoke and CO detector batteries or units; check water heater, HVAC filter, GFCI outlets, caulk at tub and sinks | Maintenance technician; junk vendor if needed | Repairs complete and tested; unit empty and ready to paint |
| Day 2 | Paint and drywall | Patch and sand; prime stains; paint walls, ceilings and trim as scoped (touch-up or full); replace outlet and switch covers after paint; re-hang doors and closet doors | Painter | Paint complete; no touch-up remaining; unit dry for flooring |
| Day 3 | Flooring and countertops | Install or repair LVP, tile, carpet; carpet clean where retained; countertop and cabinet repairs or resurfacing; re-install baseboards and transitions | Flooring vendor; carpet cleaner | Floors installed or cleaned and dry; baseboards on |
| Day 4 | Clean, install and pest | Full clean top to bottom (appliances inside and out, cabinets, bathrooms, windows, tracks, light fixtures, vents); install new blinds, bulbs, drip pans, toilet seats, shower heads, air filter; pest treatment if scheduled; re-key or reprogramme locks | Cleaner; maintenance technician; pest vendor | Unit clean to the published standard; all consumables installed; locks changed |
| Day 5 | Final walk, punch list and release | Quality walk with the make-ready checklist; punch list corrected the same day; photos of every room for the leasing file; utilities confirmed on; status set to ready and leasing notified | Maintenance supervisor and leasing | Signed-off checklist; unit marked ready; leasing can show and move in |
Two rules keep the five days at five. The trades are booked on day 0 for fixed days, not "when you can", and a trade that cannot make its day is replaced, not waited for. And each day's work is released to the next by a status change on the work order, so nobody drives to a unit that is not ready for them.
Trades in order, and why
The make ready process fails most often through sequencing, and the order above exists for physical reasons that do not bend.
Repairs before paint, because plumbing and electrical work opens walls, and a painter who paints around an open wall comes back twice. Paint before flooring, because drips and overspray land on the old floor, not the new one, and because baseboards are painted more easily before flooring goes in and re-installed after. Flooring before cleaning, because flooring installation produces dust and offcuts and a cleaned unit would need cleaning again. Cleaning before installs of blinds, bulbs and fixtures, because the cleaner needs clear windows and fixtures to clean, and the new items should not be handled again after the clean. Pest treatment with or after cleaning, because treatment needs clear surfaces and time to settle before occupancy. Locks last, so that the trades who need access during the turn are not carrying keys to a re-keyed unit and so that the new resident's key is the only one that works.
Vendor sequencing unit turn crews follow is the same logic applied to scheduling: each trade is booked with a start time on its day and told which trade precedes it, so that when the painter's day slips the flooring vendor is warned before they load the van. On a property turning several units a week, the trades run as a rolling sequence: the painter is on unit B on Tuesday while the technician is repairing unit C and the cleaner is finishing unit A.
Heavy turns break the sequence deliberately. A unit with water damage, a full flooring replacement or a kitchen refit is scheduled as its own project with its own days, and is not allowed to consume the crews booked for the standard turns behind it.
Inspection and punch list
Two inspections and one punch list bound the turn.
The move-out inspection on day 0 is the scope document. It compares the unit against the move-in inspection record (which is why the move-in record matters; our move-in checklist guide covers what it should contain), photographs everything, prices the resident's damage from the published charge list, and separately lists the make-ready work that is normal wear and the landlord's cost. It produces two outputs: the deposit statement, which has a statutory deadline in most states, and the work orders for the turn.
The final walk on day 5 is the quality gate. It is done by someone who did not do the work, against the same checklist the vendors were given: every room, every fixture, every appliance operated, every window and door opened, every outlet tested, hot water confirmed, HVAC run in both modes, smoke and CO detectors tested, and the standard of clean checked in the places residents look first (the oven, the bathtub, the top of the fridge, the window tracks).
The punch list is what the final walk finds, and the rule is that it is corrected the same day by the trade responsible. A punch list left for "when the technician is next in the building" is the most common reason a five-day turn becomes an eight-day turn. Where the vendor's work fails the walk, the vendor returns at its own cost, which is why the standard is attached to the vendor contract with photos.
When to release to leasing
The unit is released to leasing when the final walk is signed off, the punch list is closed, the photos are on file, utilities are confirmed on and the locks are changed. Not before.
Releasing early, to let leasing show a unit that is "nearly done", is a false economy. A prospect who tours a unit with painter's tape on the trim and a missing blind rates the property on what they saw, and a resident who moves into a unit with an open punch list files three maintenance requests in the first week and remembers it at renewal. The one legitimate early release is for pre-leasing: the unit is shown from the move-out inspection photos or a comparable ready unit, and the move-in date is set to the day after the scheduled final walk with a buffer.
The reverse failure is the ready unit nobody told leasing about. The status change to ready should notify the leasing team automatically and appear on the availability list the same hour, because a unit that sat ready for four days while leasing thought it was still in turn is four days of vacancy with no one at fault.
Turn board and status tracking
The turn board is the live view of every vacant unit and where it is in the sequence: unit, move-out date, turn type, current stage, trade assigned, scheduled day, actual completion, days in turn so far, target ready date, and the next resident's move-in date if pre-leased. It is the document the maintenance supervisor runs the morning meeting from and the one the property manager checks when a move-in is at risk.
On paper or a whiteboard the board works for one property with a handful of turns; it stops working when the supervisor is not standing in front of it. The unit turn checklist and the board have to live in the same system as the work orders, so that a trade closing its work order moves the unit to the next stage without anyone transcribing it.
In RIOO on NetSuite, the move-out inspection is captured on mobile with photos and generates the turn work orders in sequence, one per trade, from a template for light, standard or heavy turns. Each work order carries its scheduled day, the assigned technician or vendor, the checklist for that stage and the contracted price; closing it releases the next. The turn board is the live status of every vacant unit across the property or portfolio, with days in turn counted from move-out and a flag on any unit whose target ready date is past or whose move-in is inside the remaining days. Resident damage from the inspection posts to the departing resident's ledger against the deposit; landlord make-ready cost posts to the unit's turn cost, so the average cost and days per turn type are reports rather than estimates. Sign-off on the final walk sets the unit to ready and notifies leasing. See service request and task management for the work order side and vendor management for the vendor scheduling and invoice matching, and the single and multifamily page for the operating model.
Frequently asked questions
Q1. What is on an apartment make-ready checklist?
The tasks that take a vacated unit to leasable, in sequence: move-out inspection and scope, trash-out and repairs, paint and drywall, flooring, cleaning and installs (blinds, bulbs, filters, consumables), pest treatment, re-keying, and a final quality walk with a punch list before release to leasing. Each stage has its own checklist for the trade doing it.
Q2. How long should a unit turn take?
A standard turn on a conventional apartment (touch-up paint, carpet clean or one-room flooring, minor repairs) takes five working days when the trades are booked in sequence on the move-out day. Light turns take two to three days; heavy turns with full flooring, appliance replacement or damage repair are scheduled as separate projects and take longer.
Q3. What order should trades go in on a unit turn?
Repairs, then paint, then flooring, then cleaning, then installs and pest treatment, then re-keying, then the final walk. Each stage has a physical reason to precede the next: repairs open walls that paint must cover, paint drips on old flooring not new, flooring produces dust that cleaning removes, and locks are changed last so trades keep access until the unit is done.
Q4. When should a unit be released to leasing?
After the final walk is signed off, the punch list is closed, the unit is photographed, utilities are confirmed on and the locks are changed. Showing a unit before that lowers conversion and moving a resident into one raises first-week maintenance requests. Pre-leasing is done from photos or a comparable unit with the move-in date set after the scheduled final walk.
Q5. What is a turn board?
The live list of every vacant unit with its move-out date, turn type, current stage, assigned trade, scheduled and actual dates, days in turn and target ready date. It is the maintenance supervisor's daily control document and works best when it is generated from the turn work orders rather than maintained separately.
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