Richard Joseph Spinelli plans turn week at Sandhills Real Estate in the spring, because a plan written in August is a plan written in a hurry. The company turns all of its units inside the same two weeks, and the checklist below is the one that runs in every building. It is organized by the days before and after the outgoing group leaves, since the day the keys change hands is the only fixed point.
Before the keys change
| Window | What happens | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| Spring | Renewals settled, so the company knows which units will actually turn | Leasing |
| Spring | Trades booked for the turn window, by building, before the calendar fills | Maintenance |
| Early summer | Parts and standard fixtures ordered and put in storage a short walk from every door | Maintenance |
| Two weeks out | Outgoing groups given the move out standard in writing: what to remove, what to leave, when the walkthrough is | Leasing |
| One week out | Incoming groups given a move in window and the name of the person who will meet them | Leasing |
The single most useful line in the table is the first one. A company that does not know in April which units will turn cannot book trades, cannot order parts and cannot promise an incoming group a date.
The day the keys change
- Walk the unit with the outgoing group, note damage and missing items against the move in record, and collect every key.
- Photograph every room the same day, before any work starts.
- Open the punch list: repairs found on the walkthrough, plus the standing items the unit standard requires between every tenancy.
- Change what is always changed between groups, without waiting to be asked.
The days between
This is where a walkable footprint earns its keep. Trades move between buildings on the same streets, so a job that finishes early in one building starts early in the next, and a surprise in one unit, which old buildings supply reliably, does not eat the travel time of every job behind it.
- Systems first: heat, plumbing, electrical, locks.
- Then the rooms five people share: kitchen and bathrooms, checked against the written standard.
- Then bedrooms: doors, closets, windows, one working outlet at least.
- Then cleaning, after the trades and never before.
- Then the inspection, by someone who did not do the work.
Before the incoming group arrives
- The inspection is signed off, or the unit is not shown as ready. A unit that is nearly finished with a promise attached is the outcome the whole checklist exists to prevent.
- The move in record is prepared: what is in the unit, in what condition, with photographs.
- Keys are cut and counted.
- The welcome is scheduled: the person who will answer the group’s calls meets them at the door.
After the incoming group arrives
- The welcome walkthrough covers the repair channel, the heat, the laundry, the trash schedule and the house rules, once, in person.
- Anything the group notices in the first week is treated as part of the turn, not as a new request.
What the checklist assumes
It assumes the outgoing group leaves on time, and some do not. It assumes the trades booked in spring are still available in August, and some are not. It assumes the building holds no surprises behind a wall, which prewar buildings rarely honor. The company keeps the list anyway, because the alternative is improvising the busiest two weeks of the year, and a small team does not have the hands for that.
The point of a checklist is that it is the same in every building. Thirteen assets on a few blocks turn as one operation rather than thirteen separate scrambles, and the incoming groups never learn how close it came.