Landlord turnover cleanouts in San Diego

The short answer

Price the truck, not the contents, because you usually cannot inventory a unit you have not entered yet: quarter $241, three-eighths $338, half $431, five-eighths $513, three-quarters $587, seven-eighths $661, full $732. Minimum per visit is $75.

Typical shapes across this county: a stripped studio in City Heights or Ocean Beach is a quarter load, a partly furnished one-bedroom in Normal Heights or Clairemont is a half, a two-bedroom in Chula Vista or El Cajon left in a hurry is three-quarters.

What you get: one visit, photos before and after, one invoice per unit, nothing staged in a common area, and a number you could approve before the tenant's keys came back.

Handle the abandoned-property step first

Before anything is loaded, deal with the legal side. California has a defined process for personal property a tenant leaves behind - written notice to the former tenant, a waiting period, and rules about how the property may be disposed of or sold depending on its value. It is not a matter of judgment on the day.

Do not rely on a summary in an article, this one included. Check the current requirements or ask your attorney or property-management counsel, because the details matter and they change.

What we can do is work to your timeline once you have cleared that step, and document the contents with photographs before anything leaves - which is exactly the record you want if the former tenant resurfaces.

Speed is the actual product

The cleanout is rarely the expensive part of a turnover. The vacancy is.

In San Diego the sequence is tight because everything else is queued behind you: the cleanout, then the painters, then the carpet or flooring crew, then the cleaners, then photos, then listing. Every day the unit still has a sofa in it is a day none of that can start, and in the beach neighborhoods you are also trying to hit a lease-date window that the entire zip code shares.

Which is why single-visit matters more than a marginally cheaper quote. A crew that clears the unit on Tuesday morning hands the unit to the painters on Tuesday afternoon.

What tenants leave, by neighborhood

The patterns are consistent enough to budget from.

Beach rentals - PB, OB, Mission Beach. A sun-faded sofa, two or three mattresses, sandy furniture, a balcony of corroded patio pieces, and a surfboard with a snapped nose. Sofa $126, queen mattress $103, patio table $89, patio chair $30 each.

College Area and University City. Cheap flat-pack furniture, a futon, a mini fridge, and bags. Futon $111, mini fridge $115, 10 bags of debris $132.

Military-adjacent rentals near Coronado, Point Loma and Miramar. Orders move faster than people can sell furniture, so good-condition pieces get left behind whole. Often a complete bedroom or living room.

Family units in Chula Vista, El Cajon, Spring Valley and National City. More volume: a dining set, kids' furniture, a washer or dryer, a full patio, and a garage or tandem space that nobody mentioned.

Downtown and Mission Valley condos. Less volume, harder logistics - freight elevator windows and a vendor certificate of insurance on file.

The three places money hides

• The storage locker. Beach and Mission Valley buildings hand out a five-by-five cage in the garage. It is the single most forgotten square footage in San Diego and it is frequently full.
• The tandem or assigned parking space. Boxes, a bike rack, a broken scooter.
• The patio or balcony. Sun and salt air wreck outdoor furniture here within a few years, so almost every turnover includes some. Patio table $89, chairs $30 each, propane grill $71.

Walk all three before you approve a truck tier, or send photos of all three and have the tier confirmed for you.

Do not stage it outside

The instinct is to carry everything to the alley or the parking area and deal with it after the unit is re-let. Three reasons not to.

Furniture on a public right of way is illegal dumping in California, and the citation attaches to the property - which means the owner, not the tenant who left. In an HOA-governed complex in Carmel Valley, Eastlake or Rancho Bernardo, the association clears common-area items and bills it back through dues, with a letter attached.

And the marine layer ruins the material overnight. A mattress that soaks up fog is refused for recycling, so a $103 item becomes a harder disposal.

Load straight from the unit into the truck. Nothing on the ground, nothing overnight.

Priced examples

City Heights studio, tenant left in a hurry. Quarter truck $241.

Normal Heights one-bedroom, partly furnished. Half truck $431. Itemized instead: sofa $126 + queen mattress and box spring set $143 + dresser $126 + TV 42 to 65 inches $68 + medium junk pile $129 = $592. The half truck wins.

Chula Vista two-bedroom with a full patio and a tandem space. Three-quarter truck $587.

Imperial Beach fourplex, two units on the same morning. Half truck $431 + half truck $431 = $862, one visit, two invoices.

Every total is the literal sum of published prices, which is what lets you approve the number before the door opens.

Running it across a portfolio

If you manage more than a handful of units, a few things make this routine rather than an event.

• Book multiple units on one day. The crew works straight through the building rather than returning three times.
• One invoice per unit. So costs land against the right property and the right deposit.
• Photos every time. Before and after, for the deposit file. Contested deductions in beach rentals are routine, and photographs end the argument.
• Keep a certificate of insurance on file with the buildings that require one - most downtown and Mission Valley properties, and many HOAs.
• Budget from the tiers. A half truck at $431 per unit is a planning number you can put in a spreadsheet, because it does not move on the day.

Frequently asked questions