Do They Own a Vacuum?

One of the things students look forward to most when going back to their parents’ house is a clean house since during the nine months they are on campus most live without ever breaking out the vacuum.

DTN Resident Manager Evan Shelton said he has seen some pretty disgusting things when performing apartment changeovers.

"You would think these kids do not know what Windex or a vacuum is," Shelton said.

“Some people may disagree with me but cleaning out the showers, especially the hair balls in the drain, is certainly the worst part for me,” Shelton said.

Shelton said, “Some people who move out earlier in the summer leave food in the fridge which obviously expires, that can cause for some gagging when trying to clean that out.”

Mike Vinckier, a leasing agent at Capitol Villa in East Lansing, said, “I have not done a change-over yet but one of the leasing agents told me their worst experience, to put it nicely someone moved out in June and forgot to flush their toilet, they told me the smell was literally toxic.”

“Management places pretty high charges on how the resident leaves the unit in hopes to prevent people making the two weeks worse than it has to be,” Vinckier said.

Flip That Unit

Change-over: A dreaded word for those who work in college campus leasing offices.

College students are required to be out of their leased-residence by a set date leaving the leasing office with a little under two and a half weeks for change-over which requires them to completely flip that unit for the next resident  

Evan Shelton, East Lansing DTN Resident Manager, said, “Change-over is the time frame in-between the previous resident and the new resident when we are required to clean and repair all vacant units.”

Shelton said, “This usually takes us two weeks, we work nonstop. I could be putting in anywhere from 65-75 hours a week.”

Ben Rène, community assistant at Abbott Place Apartments in East Lansing, said, “During change-over, we are responsible for making sure everything is cleared out of the units, letting in venders, such as painters, cleaners, etc., into each unit, determine the damage charges for each unit, collect and organize keys and regular office duties if a resident or future resident comes into the office.”

Shelton said, “A lot of people complain about having to wait until the end of the month to move into their apartment but we have a lot of units to flip in a short amount of time.”

“If people moved in before they were ready they would never ask to move-in early again due to the condition of the apartments are left in,” Shelton said.

Rène said when it comes to the amount of work that the employees of the leasing offices complete, he thinks the pay is much too low for what they are required to do and how quickly they have to do it.