The first turnover I ever did took me 26 days from move-out to a fresh listing, and about 19 of those days were me driving back and forth deciding what to do next. These days I turn a compact unit in 48 hours, and the vacancy loss on a typical 90,000 yen rent has dropped from roughly three weeks, around 60,000 yen, to two days, about 6,000 yen. The difference is not that I got faster with a paint roller. It is that I stopped improvising and built a fixed timetable with a pre-stocked kit.
The move-out walkthrough sets up everything. The turnover really starts at the walkthrough, not the day after. I book it for the evening the tenant hands back keys, walk every room with the move-in photos open on my phone, and photograph each wall, the floor, the water areas, and every appliance. I read the electric, gas, and water meters and note them. Anything chargeable against the deposit I point out on the spot and note in writing, because a dispute two weeks later with no tenant present is one I lose. This 30-minute visit is also when I confirm the exact scope for the next two days, so I arrive the next morning knowing whether it is a cosmetic refresh or something bigger.
The pre-stocked turnover bin
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Every building has a plastic bin in the storage cupboard holding the things that otherwise cost me a half-day shopping trip:
- A part-roll of cushion floor, 1,820 mm wide, in the pattern I use for that building.
- Wallpaper from the same lot as the last renovation, so patched and full walls match.
- A spare lock cylinder, anti-mold caulk, LED bulbs to swap out every socket, and a set of air-conditioner and range-hood filters.
- Smoke detector batteries, felt pads, touch-up paint in a labeled jar, and a fresh set of listing-photo props.
The timetable
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I block the two days on the calendar the moment a tenant gives notice.
- Day 0, evening: joint move-out walkthrough, photos, meter readings, keys collected.
- Day 1, morning: haul any left items to disposal, then start at the back of the unit. Wallpaper first, since it needs drying time. Full walls if the paper is over 6 years old, since its depreciated value is effectively 1 yen and a patch will never blend.
- Day 1, afternoon: lay cushion floor in the genkan, kitchen, and toilet. Re-caulk the bath and sink. Swap every bulb to LED, replace filters, test the smoke detectors.
- Day 2, morning: deep clean from the ceiling down. Ceiling stains, then windows and tracks, then the water areas, then the floor last.
- Day 2, afternoon: swap the lock cylinder, about 8,000 yen and 20 minutes, so no former tenant or contractor holds a working key. Final fixture check, then listing photos in daylight.
- Day 2, evening: unit goes live on the rental portals.
What I do myself and what I hand off
For cosmetic restoration on a compact unit, doing it myself costs about 15,000 to 25,000 yen in materials against the 120,000 to 180,000 yen a contractor quotes for the same scope, and I control the schedule completely. But I hand off anything that breaks the 48-hour rhythm: a full wallpaper run across a 2-bedroom, soft or springy flooring that means opening the subfloor, a water heater at the end of its life, or hard-water scale in a bathroom that needs professional cleaning. A rushed bad job just becomes an expensive job at the next turnover, so I would rather eat a week of vacancy than cut those corners.
The cost of a day, and why speed pays
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On my units a vacant day costs 3,000 to 3,500 yen in lost rent before you even count the agent placement fee waiting at the end. Cutting a turnover from 21 days to 2 saves roughly 60,000 yen per turnover. Across 9 properties I average 3 to 4 turnovers a year, so the timetable is worth on the order of 700,000 yen a year to me versus how I used to work. That is real money for what is really just a checklist and a well-stocked bin.
One safety note
Working a turnover alone means you are on a stepladder with a utility knife and cleaning chemicals with nobody around. Never mix a chlorine bleach cleaner with an acidic descaler; together they give off chlorine gas, and a small bathroom is exactly the wrong place for that. I keep a window open and use one cleaner at a time.
The checklist itself
- Move-out walkthrough photos and meter readings recorded.
- Left items removed and disposed.
- Wallpaper patched or renewed.
- Cushion floor laid in wet and entry areas.
- Bath and sink re-caulked.
- All bulbs LED, all filters replaced.
- Smoke detectors tested, batteries fresh.
- Deep clean top to bottom.
- Lock cylinder replaced.
- Listing photos shot in daylight.
- Unit published on portals.
Getting the listing live before the unit is finished. One thing that shaved days off my turnovers: I stopped waiting for a spotless unit before listing. As soon as the walkthrough is done and I know the scope, I write the listing copy and book the photographer, or shoot it myself, for the afternoon of Day 2. Prospective tenants are looking two to four weeks ahead anyway, so a unit that goes live the evening it is finished is already competing for the next move-in cycle. Holding the listing back a week just to photograph an empty room you could have shot on schedule is a week of vacancy nobody is paying you for.
That routine runs the same on every one of my 9 properties. The checklist is boring and that is exactly why it works. When I follow it I am done in two days; the one time last year I winged it, I was back to two weeks.
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15 years of landlord experience u00b7 3 apartment buildings u00b7 DIY renovations that saved millions of yen. Browse all articles at diytosan.com
