Almost always, yes — and at JAS you are never charged to find out the price. What differs between companies is how you get to the number. For a home, you leave your number and we call you about your quote — nobody needs to visit. An office does get a walkthrough first, and out of it comes a scope of work and a price in writing.
The real question is rarely whether the price itself costs money. It is what asking costs you: a Saturday morning in your living room with someone selling a plan, a phone number that will not stop calling, or a figure that changes once the team is already at the door. Those are three different risks, and it is worth knowing which one you are being offered.
That’s how the number gets built. If you’d rather just see yours, tell us about the place — bedrooms, bathrooms, and the ZIP — and we’ll write back with a price.
Estimate, quote, invoice — three different words
On this site they are not synonyms, and the difference is deliberate. A first figure worked out from your details is an estimate — it moves as the details change. The confirmed number we call you about is the quote. The invoice arrives after the completed visit, for the quoted amount.
The Terms put the order in one line: you request a quote first, and only then request a time. They also say what a booking is in the meantime: “A booking is confirmed once we verify the payment method on file and confirm your slot — until then it is a request, and we will tell you either way.” There is no payment at booking.
Does someone have to come to the house?
For a home, no. You send your home’s details on our quote page — or call, text or WhatsApp us — in Spanish or English end to end, and we call you about your quote. Then you pick a window and we confirm it.
When something does not survive being typed — a kitchen that has been shut for months, a balcony crusted with salt, a room that quietly became storage — there is a place to attach it instead of booking a visit: show us the messiest areas, up to 8 files, videos up to 3 minutes. A photo of the window track tells a pricer more about the hours than fifteen minutes of conversation.
In a high-rise market like our home base of Miami, that matters more than it would in a subdivision. In a tower, sending someone to “come see the place” is not ringing a doorbell: buildings want vendors registered at the front desk, many associations require a certificate of insurance on file before a crew passes the lobby, and some assign the service elevator by reservation and time slot — the conditions our apartment and condo guide lays out. That is two lobby appointments before anyone has cleaned anything.
What you will be asked, in order
Six screens. Contact details come last.
- 01 · Property — What are we cleaning — and your ZIP code.
- 02 · Clean — Which kind of clean, filtered by the property you picked.
- 03 · Details — Bedrooms and bathrooms for a home, square feet for a commercial space.
- 04 · Add-ons — The extras priced separately — oven, refrigerator, interior windows, laundry.
- 05 · When — A date and an arrival window: morning, midday, or afternoon.
- 06 · Contact — Name, email, phone and address — asked last.
The ZIP sits on the first screen for an honesty reason: the area adjustment is part of the price, so a number worked out before anyone knows where you live is already bound to change. With the ZIP in hand, the number we call you about is yours. The bands are broken down to the ZIP in our Miami house cleaning cost guide.
“A price that only exists if someone comes to your house isn’t a price. It’s a sales appointment.”
An office does get a walkthrough — and that one is free
A commercial space is not priced with bedrooms and bathrooms. The commercial page publishes the process in four steps, and the first is headed, in those words, “Walkthrough at no cost”: we walk the space with you — square footage, layout, restrooms, floors, access rules, and the hours that work for your team. Step two is a “written quote in one business day”: “You get a scope of work and a price in writing — the task list, the frequency of each task, and what it costs. Nothing starts until you approve it, and the price you approve is the price you pay.”
That does not mean walking in blind. The size ladder — each size band with its typical duration — sits on our office cleaning in Miami page; on our Miami-Dade rates, office cleaning starts at $185 per weekly visit up to 1,000 sq ft — and the FAQ sums it up: “Office pricing is a scoped quote — tell us the square footage, restrooms, and frequency, and we confirm it in writing.” The row-by-row breakdown lives in how much office cleaning costs. The exact number comes out of the walkthrough.
A renovation just handed back is the other job that gets a closer look: post-construction cleaning starts at $650 and gets a reviewed quote, because fine construction dust and whatever the contractor left behind do not fit a template.
When the number can legitimately change
An honest quote is honest about its own limits. The Terms publish it this way: “Quotes reflect what you told us about the property. If the scope on arrival is materially different (for example, additional rooms or heavy build-up), we will re-quote with you before doing extra work — never silently.” That last word is the one that matters: the problem was never that a price can move, it is finding out from the invoice.
In humid coastal markets — Miami, where we operate, is the extreme case — what moves the hours most is condition, and condition is climate. Humidity, salt air and year-round pollen leave film, grit and dust faster than in drier places, and the A/C runs twelve months a year, so vents never get an off-season. A unit closed up through hurricane season — June through November — or between short-term guests is not the same unit as one in daily use. Our residential cleaning page says it plainly: tell us up front in your booking notes and your quote reflects reality, with no surprises at the door.
There is one limit no quote crosses. A cleaning visit is not remediation, and the Terms reserve the right to refuse or stop service where conditions are unsafe for our team — mold, infestation, or biohazards. If that is what you suspect you have, the right call is to a specialist, not to a re-quote.
How to compare two estimates without guessing
Three questions separate a comparable number from a decorative one. Does the price include supplies and equipment, or does the crew arrive empty-handed? Is it per visit or per hour — and if per hour, how many hours and how many people? What exactly happens if the scope at the door does not match what you described? The full set of criteria, insurance and background checks included, is in how to choose a good house cleaning service.
A reference point helps: on our Miami-Dade rates, the JAS standard clean is summed up as “Starting at $189 · 2–3 hr · 28 items”. Price, duration and scope on the same line. If the other estimate carries only the first of those three, you are not comparing two prices — you are comparing a price with a number.
Quick answers
Do house cleaners charge for estimates?
Not at JAS: nothing is billed for pricing a job, and nothing is charged at booking either — the Terms say we invoice after each completed visit. If a company you are comparing does charge, that is a fair question to ask before you hand over an address, along with whether the charge is credited against the first clean.
Does someone have to visit my house to give me a price?
For a home, no. You send your home’s details on our quote page, or call, text or WhatsApp us, and we call you about your quote. If a room is in unusual condition you can attach photos or short video instead of scheduling a visit: up to 8 files, videos up to 3 minutes.
Is the first estimate the final price?
It is deliberately called an estimate until we confirm it; the confirmed number we call you about is the quote, and that is the number the invoice uses. It only moves afterward under one published condition: if the scope on arrival is materially different, we re-quote with you before doing extra work — never silently.
How long does an office quote take?
The walkthrough is scheduled by message or call, and the written scope of work and price usually come back within one business day. For a rough sense of scale: in Miami-Dade, our market, our rates start at $185 per weekly visit up to 1,000 sq ft.
Do I have to pay anything to hold the date?
No. There is no payment at booking, and a booking stays a request until we verify the payment method on file and confirm your slot — we tell you either way. Cancelling or rescheduling is free up to 24 hours before; inside 24 hours a $25 fee applies.
The short version
Pricing a clean should not cost you money, and for a home it should not cost you an afternoon either: you send your details, we call you about your quote, no visit, optional photos when they help. An office gets a walkthrough because square footage, restrooms and access decide the work. Either way the sequence is the same — estimate, quote, then an invoice after the completed visit — and any change is discussed before, not discovered after.
This guide is part of the JAS operating playbook — written to answer in public the question the rest of the industry prefers to answer on a phone call.