---
title: "How to price a move-out clean (the job most companies underquote) · BlastoClean"
description: "Move-out and move-in cleans are the easiest job in this trade to lose money on. Here is a scope, a time model and a quoting method that keeps the oven from eating your margin."
url: "https://www.blastoclean.com/blog/how-to-price-a-move-out-clean"
---

# How to price a move-out clean (the job most companies underquote)

September 4, 2026 · 4 min read · The BlastoClean Team

A move-out clean is not a big standard clean. It's a different job with the same name, and
pricing it like a recurring visit with a surcharge is how companies end up sending two cleaners
back for a third afternoon on a house they quoted at $320.

Three things make it different, and all three cost time:

1. **The property is empty.** Everything is visible — inside cabinets, behind the fridge,
   the tops of doors, the floor under where the couch was for nine years.
2. **Nobody has cleaned it recently.** The last four weeks of a move are not a period of
   diligent housekeeping.
3. **Somebody is inspecting it.** A landlord, a property manager or a buyer's agent is going
   to walk that property with a deposit or a closing on the line. "Clean enough" is not the
   standard; *their* standard is.

## Start with a real scope, in writing

Most move-out disputes are scope disputes wearing a pricing costume. Decide — before you
quote — which of these are in and which are extra, and say so on the quote itself:

- Inside all cabinets and drawers, inside closets
- Inside the oven; inside the refrigerator and freezer
- Interior windows, tracks and sills
- Baseboards, door frames, light switches, outlet covers
- Blinds
- Walls (spot-cleaning vs. full wipe-down — these are not the same job)
- Garage floor, patio, balcony
- Appliance exteriors and behind/under the fridge and range
- Wall anchors, nail holes, adhesive hooks and the marks they leave
- Carpet cleaning and any other subcontracted work

The last four lines are where the money is. A garage and a set of blinds can add two hours to
a job that was quoted without them.

## Build the time from the property, not from a hunch

The estimator's method works here better than anywhere: list the rooms, list the tasks you
actually perform in each one, and give every task a realistic number of minutes. For a
move-out, a workable starting point looks something like this — adjust to your own crew:

| Task | Minutes |
| --- | --- |
| Oven interior | 30–45 |
| Refrigerator interior (empty) | 20–30 |
| Kitchen cabinets, inside and out | 45–60 |
| Bathroom, full detail with shower/tub | 45–60 |
| Bedroom with closet, blinds and window | 30–40 |
| Baseboards and door frames, per 1,000 sq ft | 30 |
| Interior windows and tracks, each | 8–12 |

Then multiply for reality. A large kitchen isn't a standard one, and a heavily soiled bathroom
isn't a light one. Multipliers do the arguing for you: size ×0.75 / ×1.00 / ×1.25, condition
×0.90 / ×1.00 / ×1.25 or higher for extreme. A large, heavy kitchen at 60 base minutes is
roughly 94 minutes — which is what it will actually take, and what you should be paid for.

Add travel, supplies and any first-visit surcharge as fixed fees. Then price the total time at
your hourly rate.

## Four rules that protect the margin

- **See it first, or price a range.** A ten-minute video walkthrough is not a luxury on this
  job. If you truly can't see it, quote a range with a written condition assumption and a
  re-quote clause — don't quote a single number into the dark.
- **Put the exclusions on the quote, not in your head.** Carpet cleaning, walls, exterior
  windows, trash hauling and appliance removal are the usual suspects.
- **Charge for condition, out loud.** "This is priced for standard condition; heavy soil is
  re-quoted on arrival" is a normal sentence that property managers hear all the time.
- **Set an expiry.** A move-out price quoted in March should not be honored in September, on a
  property that has had five months of somebody else's life in it since.

## Where the quote should come from

The work above is arithmetic and record-keeping, which is exactly the sort of thing you should
not be doing at 9pm on a laptop after a full day of cleaning.

In [BlastoClean](/), you build the room and task library once — including a move-out task set
with the oven, the cabinet interiors and the blinds already in it — and each new quote is
ticking boxes while you stand in the property. Size and condition multipliers are on every
room; fees, discount and tax come after; the total recalculates on the server as you go, so the
figure on your phone and the figure on the customer's copy can never disagree.

The scope you ticked is what prints on the customer's quote — so "was the inside of the fridge
included?" is answered by the document, not by two people's memories. They accept it from a
private link with no account to create. Switch automatic follow-ups on — they're off until you
turn them on and pick the delay — and a customer who hasn't answered gets a nudge after the
number of days you chose, plus a warning before the quote expires, without you remembering to
send either.

Move-outs are good work: they're profitable, they're one-off, and property managers who like
you come back with the next vacancy. They're only unprofitable when they're guessed at.