Ask an operator what turns cost and you’ll usually hear last month’s invoice total divided by a sigh. Make-ready spend is one of the biggest controllable numbers in multifamily — and one of the least instrumented. Here’s the framework we see disciplined Orlando portfolios use to know, not guess.
Why is cost-per-door so slippery?
Because “a turn” isn’t one product. A light refresh after a tidy two-year tenant and a heavy turn after a decade of aggressive living share a name and nothing else. Comparing this month’s average to last month’s — or vendor A’s to vendor B’s — without condition classes is weather reporting. Step one is always the same: a written standard scope, and every unit tagged light / standard / heavy at move-out walk.
The five buckets that make up true turn cost
- Labor & materials — the visible invoice: patch-and-paint, doors and hardware, fixtures, caulk, flooring work.
- Coordination overhead — your team’s hours chasing vendors, keys, and status. Real money wearing a salary.
- Vacancy days — the giant invisible line. Days between move-out and rent-ready are pure lost revenue; at any realistic Orlando rent, a week of avoidable vacancy dwarfs most invoice differences.
- Re-work — callbacks inside 30 days: the paint that didn’t cover, the door that still sticks. Track it per vendor; it’s the honesty metric.
- Move-in tickets — maintenance requests in the first two weeks of a new lease are turn defects wearing a disguise, and they cost goodwill at the worst moment.
How do you benchmark vendors with this?
Three numbers per vendor, same scope, same classes: cost per door by class, average turn days, and re-work rate. Then price the days: a vendor $150 cheaper per door who averages three days slower is not cheaper. This is also where photo documentation earns its keep — a photo-documented turn standard kills the “it was like that” disputes that quietly inflate bucket four.
The bottom line
Write the scope, class the units, track the five buckets, and price vacancy days like the revenue they are. That’s the whole framework. If you’d like a vendor built to be measured this way — volume-priced turns, photo-documented, one consolidated invoice — that’s our make-ready program, and we’ll happily be benchmarked.