hiring maids and cleaners, a crapshoot?

[Mike Franco]

I read a bunch of reviews on Yelp of a bunch of cleaning referral agencies. Most are bad, and clean worse than you would yourself.

So I searched on craigslist, and there are some other small time maids who charge much less than big agencies like Molly Maid, merry maid, weekend maids, etc.

I figure the craigslist maids can only be as bad as the big agency maids.

I haven't had to hire a crew for move-out cleaning in years, but this time, I have to, because my tenants are college kids who have never done a chore in their lives.

A long time ago, I hired mollymaid, and the maid dumped waste water into the sink, clogging it up. Didn't have the common sense to dump it in the toilet or outside.

What's been your experience?

[Steve Babiak]

I get referrals from other area investors. I attend my REIA's trade show to meet any tradespeople (including janitorial) to see if there is any potential for working with them in the future.

Hiring any person / business to do work always has that hit-or-miss risk; the above are just two approaches I have taken to try to get better odds.