What Is the Average Cost of Turnover?

Market rates for a full apartment turnover

• Full turnover, all costs: about $4,000 per turn for multifamily operators
• Make-ready per unit, including repairs, cleaning, lost rent and leasing handoff: $3,000 to $5,000
• Vacancy and rent loss: $1,323 per unit in 2024, the fourth straight annual increase
• Turnover costs rose 17.5% year over year in 2024
• Average vacant days between move-out and new occupancy: 34.4, about $60 a day on the national average rent

Sources: Lula citing Zego's 2026 industry survey; Lula, What Is a Make Ready? (2026); National Apartment Association, Aug. 2025; Lula citing RealPage Market Analytics.

• Washington, DC handyman visit: $218 to $795, $506 on average
• Washington, DC drywall patch: $135 to $385
• Washington, DC door adjustment or repair: $85 to $240
• Washington, DC room painting: $436 to $1,742, $1,198 on average
• Washington, DC vinyl flooring installed: $2 to $14 per square foot. Carpet $3.50 to $11

Sources: Angi, Washington DC handyman prices (Jun. 2026); Angi, Washington DC room painting (Jul. 2026); Angi, Washington DC flooring (Jul. 2026).

Those ranges come from published surveys, not from us. The survey totals count lost rent and leasing as well as the repairs, which is why they run well above any single repair line.

How do turn costs change with the size of the unit?

Size moves the paint and flooring lines most, because both are measured by area. Painting runs about $2 to $6 per square foot nationally, so a 600 square foot unit lands near $1,200 to $3,600, and vinyl flooring in Washington runs $2 to $14 per square foot installed. Wall patching, doors and fixtures follow the damage, not the floor plan. That is why a studio with three gouged walls can cost more to turn than a clean two-bedroom. See the painting cost guide for the sources.

The short answer

An apartment turnover is priced per unit, after someone walks it. Two one-bedrooms on the same floor can need completely different work: one needs a touch-up, the other needs three walls patched, a full repaint and a bedroom of new flooring. You get the price in writing before anything starts.

The damage the last tenant left is one piece of that price. What move-out repairs cost lists it item by item.

What is included in a turnover price

• The walkthrough and written scope
• Wall and ceiling repairs
• Painting
• Flooring repair or replacement where needed
• Door, trim, carpentry and fixture repairs
• The final punch list

Cleaning is not in our scope, so we have no cleaning price to give you, and neither survey above breaks the cleaning share out. Your cleaning team goes in after our ready date, once the sanding and flooring dust has settled, so the unit is cleaned once.

Pricing is the same process in Washington, DC, Silver Spring, Bowie and Alexandria: one walkthrough, one written price per unit.

What moves the price

• Wall damage. A few nail holes is a morning. Door-knob holes, TV-mount damage and gouges down the hallway add time for patching and drying.
• Paint. Touch-ups are cheaper than a full repaint, but only when the walls allow it. If touch-ups would flash under light, a full repaint is the honest answer.
• Flooring. Repairing a few planks costs far less than replacing a room. Whether matching material exists decides which one you get.
• Doors, trim and fixtures. Each item is small. Ten of them are not.
• Access and timing. Elevator booking, parking and a fixed move-in date all shape the schedule.

The Vacancy Clock

Here is the number most turnover conversations skip. Every day a unit sits empty costs you its daily rent. Divide the monthly rent by 30 and that is what each day of vacancy costs, before you have spent a dollar on repairs.

A $1,800-a-month unit costs $60 a day to leave empty, and US apartments sat empty an average of 34.4 days between move-out and new occupancy at the end of 2024, according to RealPage Market Analytics. That is about $2,000 of rent. A week waiting on a painter is $420 gone, so the cheapest quote is not always the cheapest turnover.

We call that the Vacancy Clock. It starts at move-out and stops when the unit is rent-ready. How the lost rent, the repairs, cleaning and leasing pile onto one vacancy is laid out in why turnover is so expensive.

Price your unit's turnover

Send the unit address and move-out date. Every repair the unit needs comes back on one written scope, each line with its own price. The walkthrough and the estimate are free.

How we price a turnover around DC

Unit by unit, after a walkthrough of the empty unit. Each repair gets its own line and price, the estimate arrives 24 to 48 hours after the visit with a link to approve it, and any line your own maintenance staff will handle comes off with its price. The scope names the ready date, so leasing can advertise it. To see how many turns a year your property should budget for, start with the apartment turnover rate.

Where these numbers come from

• Zego's 2026 industry survey, as reported by Lula: about $4,000 per full turn with lost rent, repairs, cleaning and leasing.
• Lula, What Is a Make Ready? (2026): $3,000 to $5,000 per make-ready.
• National Apartment Association (August 2025): vacancy and rent loss of $1,323 per unit and turnover costs up 17.5% in 2024.
• RealPage Market Analytics, as reported by Lula: 34.4 vacant days between move-out and new occupancy at the end of 2024.
• Angi, Washington DC handyman, room painting and flooring prices (June and July 2026): the DC repair rates.