Guide
Make-ready is the work that gets a property ready for what happens next.
Make-ready is the work that prepares a property for its next use. The term is common in rental and property management, but it applies any time a property is moving from one stage to the next.
It usually isn't one job. It's the collection of paint, drywall, repairs, finish work, and exterior touch-ups that separates "as is" from "ready."
Before a listing goes live. Between tenants. After an acquisition. When a long-vacant property is coming back into use. Before a business opens or a commercial tenant moves in.
Photos and showings expose everything. Typical listing-ready work includes paint touch-ups, drywall repair, minor repairs, pressure washing, a fresh mulch and hedge trim, and the punch-list items a seller has been living with.
A turnover resets the property for the next occupant: painting and touch-ups, drywall repair, minor repairs and appliance fixes, and exterior touch-ups. Every day it isn't ready is a day it isn't rented.
New occupancy or an opening needs a space that looks cared for — interior touch-ups, minor repairs, pressure washing, and finishing landscaping. This is different from tenant improvements or build-outs, which change the space.
Readiness doesn't stop at the front door. A freshly painted interior behind a stained driveway and overgrown beds still isn't ready. Both sides of the property count.
Properties in transition rarely have one problem. Handling the items together means one call to Make It Ready instead of scheduling several vendors, waiting on each one, and discovering the list still isn't finished.
You have a specific task — one repair, one install, one fix.
You're changing the property — layouts, additions, major renovation.
The property has several interior and exterior items to address before it can move forward. More than one thing. Less than a remodel.