How to start a cleaning business that keeps second homes on a schedule

Sole proprietor or LLC?

Start as a sole proprietor if you clean alone and cash is tight; form an LLC once you hold keys to homes that could cost more to put right than you could pay back. The SBA says you are “automatically considered to be a sole proprietorship if you do business activities but don’t register as any other kind of business,” and your personal assets are not separate from the business’s debts (SBA). An LLC keeps your house, car and savings out of a lawsuit “in most instances,” and profit still passes straight to your personal return.

For a cleaner the risk is specific: you are alone with someone else’s things, and the owner may be a thousand miles away. Insurance is the first answer. The LLC is the second.

A tax ID is free: “You never have to pay a fee for an EIN” (IRS).

Do you need a cleaning business license?

Almost never for the cleaning itself. You need whatever your city or county calls its general business registration, plus a sales tax account in the few states that tax house cleaning. Examples from the government pages:

The Texas line surprises people: a cleaner who quotes $150 either adds tax on top or eats it. Search your state revenue department’s site for “cleaning services” before you print a price list.

What does cleaning business insurance cost?

Insureon publishes what its cleaning customers actually pay (Insureon):

A janitorial bond repays the client if someone working for you steals. Clients know the word, so most cleaners buy one even with no employees.

What “care, custody and control” means. General liability has a hole exactly where a cleaner works. Insureon’s glossary calls it “an exclusion in general liability and commercial auto insurance policies that bars coverage for someone else’s property that is damaged while in your care, custody, or control” (Insureon). The vase you were dusting was in your care, so the basic policy may say no. Ask the agent by name for a care, custody and control endorsement (some carriers call it voluntary property damage) or bailee coverage. If you also hold keys to empty homes, home watch insurance covers the same gap from the other side.

How much should you charge for house cleaning?

In 2026 a standard clean of an ordinary home bills $118 to $238 per visit, and a cleaner charging by the hour lands between $30 and $55. Public sources, read September 9, 2026:

The trap is pricing like an employee. Housekeepers on Care.com list an average of $21.34 an hour (Care.com, March 30, 2026); a business at that rate pays its own insurance, supplies, gas and tax, plus the unpaid hour of driving around every paid one, and goes under by spring.

Hourly or flat? Quote hourly for a first visit and for deep cleans, where you cannot see the work until you are in it. Quote flat for every recurring home, because the owner wants one number and you get faster at a house you know. A second-home turnover is a third thing: you are resetting a house for arriving people, often to a deadline, so price it like Thumbtack’s vacation rental line ($179–$257) and say in writing what it includes.

A worked target. Say you want $60,000 a year before tax over 46 working weeks: $1,304 a week. At a flat $160 per recurring clean (inside both HomeAdvisor’s range and Thumbtack’s every-two-weeks range) that is about 8 cleans a week, two a day for four days, with the fifth day for turnovers and paperwork. At $45 an hour it is 29 billed hours. Off the top come insurance and the bond (about $817 a year at Insureon’s medians), supplies, gas and the 15.3% self-employment tax below.

What do supplies and startup cost?

About $250 to $1,200 in supplies bought new, and far less if you already own a good vacuum. Housecall Pro’s startup guide (updated May 4, 2026) lists the kit this way (Housecall Pro):

Where do the first recurring clients come from?

From the people who already hold the key, not from lead marketplaces. A marketplace sells the same request to several cleaners at once and prices you against strangers; the second-home owner is not in town to shop, so they ask whoever already looks after the house. Start there:

• Home watch operators. A home watch company walks through empty homes on a schedule and is asked “do you know a cleaner?” every week. The National Home Watch Association keeps a public directory of accredited providers; find the three nearest you and offer to take their turnover calls.
• Realtors. The buyer of a second home needs someone every few weeks from the day they get the keys. Ask the agent to hand over your card at closing.
• HOA and community newsletters. In a snowbird or lake community the newsletter reaches exactly the owners who leave for six months.
• The neighbor with the key. Every street has one, and they are tired of letting people in.
• Small landlords. An owner with two or three rentals wants one cleaner who knows the codes, not a stranger every turnover.

Pick a radius you can drive twice a day, not a market. The absent owner cares more that you can come tomorrow than about anything on your website.

What paperwork prevents arguments?

Three pieces of paper stop the three arguments every cleaner has: “you didn’t do the oven,” “that was already broken,” and “I never agreed to that price.”

1. A checklist per house. This house has the dog bowl, the guest bath cleaned only before a stay, the thermostat set to 78 on the way out. Start from the cleaning checklist template and edit it per home; the owner initials it once and the argument about what “standard” means never starts.
2. A one-page agreement. Price, what is included, what is extra, how you get in, how you get paid, how either side stops. The cleaning contract template is one page on purpose; five pages do not get signed by email. For keys and codes add a key holder agreement.
3. Photos. Before you touch anything, photograph what is already damaged. After, photograph the rooms. For an owner who is not there, the photos are the visit: without them your invoice is a claim, with them it is a record.

Paper and a photo roll work for three or four houses. Past that, software that keeps each home’s checklist and photos in one place earns its fee; the cleaning software comparison and the Jobber pricing breakdown cover the usual choices. House Matters is built for the absent-owner client list: each home with its own cadence, a checklist with a photo on every item, and the owner’s report as a link that needs no account. It is first three client homes free and $19 a month after, with no per-user fee. It does not do crew dispatch or Airbnb calendar sync, so a team turning short-term rentals at volume should look elsewhere.

How do you get paid, and what does each way cost?

Zelle costs nothing, Venmo’s business profile takes 1.9% plus 10 cents, and a card invoice costs about 3% plus a few cents wherever you send it. From each company’s own page, read September 9, 2026:

Zelle suits the client you see every other Tuesday. The absent owner needs an invoice with the photos, because the invoice is the only place they see the house. Use one method per client and put it in the agreement.

What about taxes?

You pay income tax plus a 15.3% self-employment tax on profit, you pay four times a year, and your miles and supplies come off the top. From IRS pages read September 9, 2026:

• Quarterly estimates. Sole proprietors “generally have to make estimated tax payments if they expect to owe tax of $1,000 or more” (IRS), due April 15, June 15, September 15 and January 15 (IRS). Underpaying brings a penalty even if you get a refund.
• Self-employment tax. “The self-employment tax rate is 15.3%,” 12.4% Social Security and 2.9% Medicare, owed once net earnings reach $400; half of it is deductible (IRS). Move 25% to 30% of every payment to a separate account the day it lands.
• Mileage. 76 cents a mile from July 1, 2026 (72.5 cents for the first half of the year) (IRS). Keep the log; a phone app is enough.
• Home office. The simplified method allows $5 per square foot up to 300 square feet, a maximum of $1,500, for space used only for the business (IRS).
• Everything else. Supplies, insurance, the bond, software and the license all go on Schedule C.

Cleaning business startup checklist

• Choose sole proprietor or LLC; file the LLC if you chose it ($50 AZ, $125 FL, $300 TX)
• Get a free EIN from the IRS and open a separate bank account
• Get the city or state business license if yours asks (Seattle: $73 a year)
• Check whether your state taxes house cleaning (Texas yes, Florida no)
• Buy general liability (median $59 a month) with the care, custody and control endorsement
• Buy a janitorial bond (median $9 a month)
• Set a flat price per recurring home and a separate turnover price, in writing
• Write the per-house checklist, the one-page agreement and the key holder agreement
• Photograph existing damage before the first clean at every house
• Introduce yourself to the three nearest home watch companies
• Set aside 25% to 30% of every payment; put the four estimate dates in the calendar
• Start the mileage log on day one

Questions people ask

Do you need a license to start a cleaning business?

Usually no license exists for house cleaning; you need your city or county’s general business registration and, in states that tax cleaning (Texas does, Florida does not), a sales tax permit. Washington charges $50 to open a business and Seattle $73 a year for a small one.

How much does cleaning business insurance cost?

Insureon’s median for general liability is $59 a month ($705 a year), and 79% of its cleaning customers pay under $100 a month. A janitorial bond adds a median $9 a month.

How much should I charge for house cleaning?

Between $118 and $238 per standard visit, or $30 to $55 an hour solo, in 2026 figures from HomeAdvisor, Thumbtack and Housecall Pro. Charge flat for recurring homes, hourly for first visits and deep cleans, and price turnovers separately.

What does “bonded and insured” mean?

Insured means you carry general liability, which pays if you damage the house or hurt someone; bonded means a janitorial bond that repays the client if someone working for you steals. Most solo cleaners carry both because clients ask for the phrase.

Sources, read September 9, 2026

1. How much does cleaning business insurance cost? — Insureon
2. Care, custody, and control (CCC) — Insureon glossary
3. How much does house cleaning cost? (June 19, 2026) — HomeAdvisor
4. House cleaning prices — Thumbtack
5. How much to charge for house cleaning: 2026 prices — Housecall Pro
6. Cleaning business start-up costs (2026) — Housecall Pro
7. Fees — Florida Division of Corporations (Sunbiz)
8. Schedule of fees, limited liability companies — Arizona Corporation Commission
9. Form 205 instructions, LLC certificate of formation — Texas Secretary of State
10. Business licenses, 2026 fees — City of Seattle
11. Standard mileage rates — IRS
12. Estimated taxes — IRS