Take a look at your contract. In every contract I have read (and used) there is no provision to have the property professionally cleaned unless it is specified by the buyer. Most of the contracts I have seen say "broom clean". What that means is clear of all furniture unless otherwise indicated in the contract and clean surfaces with no debris. Many sellers do take the extra step to leave the house spic and span clean either with professional help or by themselves. This is a personal decision once you meet the terms of the contract.

Even when I sell my own homes I leave the house spotless because I sleep better that way:)

Get another quote. $200 might be reasonable and worth it. No way $1000.

Apparently you have not had quotes to get your home professionally cleaned. No way will $200 cut it. Especially if the carpets are shampooed too.

To the OP... do for the buyers what you would want done for you.

Yeah, I paid $400 last spring in California, but that included help with packing. No need to shampoo carpets unless there are problems which can be improved upon by shampooing.

The price included the following:

Cleaning the baseboards and going over w/Olde English

blinds -- on all the windows & cleaning windows

wiping down the cabinets inside & out, kitchen & bathrooms

cleaning carpets & wood floors

cleaning out the fireplace insert

Stove & microwave

The carpet is 20+ yrs old. I think (hope) they'll be replacing it. Personally I don't see any sense in shampooing it if they're going to replace.

We will wait until the inspections are done -- depending on what they find that needs repairing, (and the costs) we'll decide on the professional cleaning then.

Thanks!!

I wouldn't be surprised if they are going to renovate the whole house before moving in. I would do broom clean and not worry about it if they didn't ask for more.

$1,000.00 for a house cleaning that size house is way out of line. Check around for a local house cleaner. For every house we have sold we had it pro. cleaned. Never paid more then $350.00. I wanted to give the new owners a fresh, clean start in their new home. So they could move right in without having to clean anything. And likewise previous owners have had our new home pro. cleaned.

Is the house really bad? $1,000 seems very high to me as well, even adding windows. Is the company an insurance service like Servepro? Personally, I always do more than broom clean but I would get another quote.

Originally, we planned to run the sweeper, mop the wood floors and wipe down the counters.

Do that ... leave it free of debris and "broom clean". I would clean the drawers and under cabinets and vacuum the baseboards and window sills.

But spiffing like that firm explains is more for LISTING and not for post-sale, when you have to be gleaming.

My guess is that they have plans to rip out the carpeting and do some serious rehab themselves, so don't waste your money of spiffing things that will probably be gone a week after closing.

Throw out the trash. Run a vacuum cleaning over the floors. Empty all of the drawers. Clean out the stove and refrigerator with a vacuum. Anything else is above and beyond and on you.

The quote for professional cleaning wasn't out of line considering it included windows, Old English on the woodwork and carpet cleaning. That's a lot of work and will take a crew the entire day. It's overkill. Broom clean is all that is required or expected.

They made their offer after seeing the house in it's current condition and knowing that the only difference between now and possession would be the possible removal of a few items of furniture. If they required that it be cleaner, they would have asked for it.

It's different from seeing a house where people are currently living there and all of their stuff is still there.

As many others have said, broom clean is the norm and in your case that might not even be necessary since they saw the house already vacant. I'd probably still sweep up any dust bunnies but I wouldn't pay for it to be professionally cleaned.

When we sold our house, the realtor told us to have it "broom swept." I would make sure the old furniture they don't want is out, all obvious debris, sweep/vacuum the floor. Save your money.

Wow, the last four properties I bought were not even broom clean. In fact, so bad that my contractor suggested "dynamite" to clean the gas range.