Are you talking a weekly job or just cleaning to sell? Where do you live - prices are all over the place.

A business service will always be more, I've found. The workers get maybe 1/2 of the hourly fee you pay. An individual who is an independent contractor keeps all the money you pay.

I suspect you get a better price from an individual than a service. The price depends heavily on where you live. Generally you are charged an hourly rate that depends on the size of your house, and how "clean" you want it. For example, are you deep cleaning before moving in/out, or just doing everyday cleaning?

One thing we do, to reduce costs, is have the cleaner only do the heavily used parts of the house (not the guestroom or the basement). Probably not useful information, but in a small Canadian city we pay $20/hour.

Check Yelp for your area -- that's where I found mine.

Services often bond and insure, do background checks, make sure that you get the same type of 'cleaning experience' every time with a list of things that are done for the basic cost and a list of extra services at extra cost.

It can be a good idea to check with your friends and acquaintances 'word of mouth' to find either an individual or service who has performed well in the past.

My sister has cleaned houses for 20+ years. She charges $20/hr and most of her jobs are 3-4 hours.

Charges depends on the size of your house and how clean you want it.

It would probably depend on where you live also, and may depend on if they supply the products or if you do. I have had some cleaners charge $40 an hour and do an ok job and others charge $20 and do a fantastic job in half the time.

You could try a groupon to check out a few different companies and see how they do and they would also be able to give you a better estimate of the fee for ongoing service after they have cleaned your home. Also easier to just not call them back if they don't do a very good job.

I would never consider an individual person for liability reasons.

We had individuals, who both charged $70 for our 2000 sf home (not super dirty and we are very neat) every other week. But they would forget things or not do a great job. After the second girl got a full time job, we had to find someone new. We ended up with a local company. They charged $110 but do a much more thorough job and use 2-3 girls each time so they are pretty fast. When they miss something, I leave a note and next time it is fixed.