Never clean your own house when you sell it. Ever.

The Hawaii real estate purchase contract asks sellers to clean their home after they move out, have it cleaned professionally, or pay for a cleaning credit. Let me state my case for NEVER cleaning the house yourself, and NEVER have it cleaned either.

I always tell my sellers that it's best to just pay a credit in escrow for whatever amount it will cost to get the house cleaned. For your average 1800sqft 3bedroom home in Oahu, that might be around $400. In my experience, the level of "clean" of a home is far too subjective to leave it to chance.

I have had sellers who spent all day, even several days, cleaning their windows, doing their floors, etc, only to hear on the day of closing that the buyer is not satisfied with the clean-ness of the house. This is very discouraging to say the least, because then the seller has to pay for a cleaning after he has already spent hours cleaning it himself. Some buyers will just have a much higher standard than you will. I recently sold a Colony in the Hawaii Kai Peninsula and the seller did his best to clean it thoroughly, only to have the buyer complain that it wasn't clean enough. I personally ended up paying an additional $300 on behalf of the seller.

On the other hand, I once hired a cleaning lady for a house in Mililani, who charged me $400 to clean the house and then did the worst job cleaning I have ever seen. After she spent about 4 hours on the house, she left without mopping the floors, scrubbing the sinks, or dusting anything. I threatened to tell everyone what a crappy job she did, and she gave me a partial refund. The buyer was very unhappy, even though I gave her a $200 credit for cleaning.

The only way to be absolutely certain that a house is cleaned the way the buyer will want it to be is to actually have the buyer clean it. So the way to do that is through a cleaning credit. At closing you give the buyer about $400 and they get the house cleaned whenever they want. That way you move out at your schedule and leave the house empty but not cleaned. The buyer cannot complain no matter how dirty the house is because you have given him $400!

Also, it makes your moving day that much easier. You don't have to worry about anything except getting out of the house. This will save you a lot of headache, time, and worry.