Apartment turnover services
The vacancy window is the only free access you get
Once a tenant takes possession, every correction needs notice, coordination and a scheduling window. While the unit is empty it is yours. We assess it against NSPIRE and hand back a scored list your crew can execute before the keys change hands.
Try it
The same deficiency, at three different moments
Nothing about the fault changes. What changes is your access to it, and access is what decides the cost.
—
What it catches
A move-out walk checks cleanliness. This checks score.
Those are two different tests, and only one of them is the one HUD applies. A maintenance supervisor walking a freshly painted unit can confirm it looks ready. What rarely gets caught under move-in pressure are the conditions an NSPIRE inspector will record if that unit is drawn in the sample.
A smoke alarm with a dead battery. A window lock that will not engage. An outlet with a cracked cover plate. None of them affects whether the unit shows well, and each of them is scored.
What most operators miss about turnover is that it is not simply convenient. It is the only period in a unit's life when you have guaranteed access with no occupant present. Once the tenant is established, that window closes and the deficiency stays until someone negotiates their way back in.
We assess vacant units against NSPIRE's published deficiency categories, timed to your turnover window, and return a list sorted by score impact rather than by room.
The difference
What each walk is actually looking for
Both are worth doing. They answer different questions, and only one of them predicts a score.
- Checks cleanliness and damage for deposit purposes
- Flags cosmetic issues for vendor scheduling
- Confirms appliances are present and working
- Works to a general pass or fail judgement
- Ordered by room, because that is how you walk it
- Inspects against HUD's four deficiency severity tiers
- Records smoke and CO alarm status, placement and dates
- Tests outlet condition and protection in wet areas
- Checks window hardware, locks and egress function
- Ordered by score impact, so the list is a work sequence
Standards
The four tiers, named the way HUD names them
Worth being exact about this, because a great deal of published guidance still uses the old UPCS vocabulary. Severity sets both the deduction and the deadline to correct it.
Life-threatening
Immediate risk to residents. Missing or non-functioning alarms, exposed conductors, blocked egress, gas leaks. Found in a vacant unit, this is a morning's work.
Severe
Significant defects affecting health, safety or the function of a building system, without the immediacy above. Heating that will not hold temperature, missing wet-area protection.
Moderate
Defects reducing the condition or usability of a unit, area or component without a direct safety risk. Most of what a turnover crew would fix anyway, if they knew it counted.
Low
Minor defects with limited impact on health, safety or function. Still recorded, still deducted, and the cheapest points on the board to protect.
A standard move-out walk checks cleanliness. An NSPIRE turnover assessment checks score.Sam AmoyelleFounder, REAC Nspire Pros
Inside our engagement
Three stages, one documented standard
From on-site assessment through report delivery, every engagement runs the same way regardless of portfolio size or state.
Every inspectable area, in sequence
Our inspector walks the vacant unit against NSPIRE's published deficiency categories. Life-threatening items are checked first and documented separately, because their clock is shortest.
Sorted by score impact
Within 48 hours you receive a full written readiness report. Findings are sorted by severity tier rather than by room, with explicit remediation notes against each one.
Confirmed before the keys move
After your team addresses the findings, we offer a confirmation walkthrough verifying the unit meets the standard before the new tenant takes possession. The unit is documented as cleared.
Areas we serve
Dispatched nationally, scheduled locally
We serve every U.S. state from our Philadelphia dispatch hub, with 50+ field professionals covering the full national footprint. Dense Northeast corridors, Midwest markets, and the Southeast and Southwest where affordable housing portfolios are growing fastest.
Engagements run to the same standard and the same flat rate whether the property is in Philadelphia, rural Oklahoma or coastal California. Scheduling is built around your vacancy window, and we do not extend your re-occupancy timeline to suit ourselves.
The best time to clear a unit is during turnover.
The second best time is now, before the next inspection cycle opens.
Frequently asked
Common questions, direct answers
If yours is not here, call (610) 200-2836 and a consultant will respond directly.
What does a turnover assessment cost?
Flat rate per unit, with no per-deficiency fees and no variable charges based on what we find. The rate is agreed before anyone steps on site.
Portfolio operators scheduling several turnovers together receive one quote covering the full scope. Call with your unit count and state for a specific figure.
Will it delay our move-in timeline?
No. Scheduling is built around your vacancy window rather than ours. If a unit turns in seven days, the assessment happens inside those seven days.
A single-unit walkthrough is a matter of hours on site, and the written report follows within 48 hours. If we cannot meet your window, we tell you on the first call rather than after you have committed.
Why do this at turnover rather than closer to the inspection date?
Because access is free now and expensive later. Once the unit is occupied, every correction needs notice, tenant coordination and a scheduling window, and some corrections become genuinely disruptive rather than merely inconvenient.
There is also a sampling argument. You do not know which units will be drawn, so the only reliable strategy is that every unit is ready as it turns. Doing it unit by unit as they vacate spreads the same work across the year instead of compressing it into the weeks before a date.
Our maintenance team already clears units. What would you find that they would not?
Usually not more faults. Usually the same faults, classified differently.
A good maintenance lead knows what is broken. What is harder to know, without reading the published standards, is which of those things carries a heavy deduction and which is cosmetic. An alarm past its date and a scuffed skirting board look equally minor on a walkthrough and are not remotely equivalent on a score.
The output is a sequence rather than a list, which is what changes how the work gets done.
Does the report hold up if the unit is drawn in HUD's sample?
The report is not a substitute for HUD's inspection and nobody can promise a result. What it gives you is a dated record of what was assessed, what was found, and what was corrected before occupancy.
That matters in two situations: demonstrating a pattern of proactive compliance, and supporting a challenge where a finding is arguable. Documentation created before the inspection is worth considerably more than documentation assembled after it.
Can you handle a multi-state portfolio on an ongoing basis?
Yes, and that is where the model works best. Standing arrangements mean units get assessed as they turn rather than in batches, which is both cheaper and more useful.
Reporting is consolidated across states so you can compare properties against each other. When the same finding appears across several sites, the cause is usually one specification or one supplier rather than several unrelated lapses.
What if the unit needs more than an assessment?
We will say so plainly. Where a unit's condition is beyond turnover work, or where the same findings keep returning because a component has reached the end of its life, the honest answer is a capital conversation rather than another assessment.