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Lock Boxes - The Key to a Successful Sale

Key Are you wondering why your house or listing hasn't sold? As a successful buyer's agent, I can tell you for a fact that it may be because your real estate agent hasn't installed a lockbox.

Lockboxes come in many varieties, from simple alphabetic or numeric combination models to more sophisticated electronic versions. The bottom line is that they all serve the same purpose, to allow licensed real estate agents easy access to your home to facilitate showings to potential buyers.

Once again this past weekend, the importance of the value of having a lockbox became evident. A good friend of mine who lives overseas was in town for the weekend and was interested in taking a look at summer resort home in the million dollar plus price range. Luxury resort home buyers like my friend and his family are not standing on every street corner, so it is important to capitalize on opportunities to have your house or listing shown to such buyers. As is remarkably typical in my marketplace, there is no lockbox installed at the home. The listing office was closed on Sunday, the only day my client could look at the property, and hence no showing took place.

As a property owner or agent, you may have no idea how many times buyer's agents or qualified prospects are unable to view you home or listing due to the fact that the home is not readily accessible by other licensed real estate agents. Oftentimes, I will be out showing properties to clients on the weekends, and after spending time with my clients it becomes evident that a property which I have previously shown would be of serious interest. Without a lockbox, it becomes very difficult to arrange spur of the moment showings to qualified parties who are oftentimes from out of town, and unable to return for a scheduled showing.

If you are selling your property, insist on the installation of a lockbox on your home. If you have a home listed for sale and are wondering how to get it sold, install a lockbox and make sure your listing is accessible for other agents to show. No matter how elaborate your marketing plan, if agents do not have ready access to your home and cannot easily arrange showings, your property or listing may not sell. Don't lock the door to a potential sale, install a lock box!

Posted by Stefan Scholl - Northern Michigan Real Estate on 06/25/2007 12:04 PM

Comments (6)

lock box

6 Comments on Lock Boxes - The Key to a Successful Sale

JUN

2007

I love Supra lockboxes!!! You'd still have to track down the listing agent in our market to get an appointment scheduled with the seller... but I agree houses with lockboxes make so much sense for a seller. Do you have to run around and pick up keys Stefan or does the listing agent routinely meet buyers agents and their client for a showing?

Stefan, I see lock boxes all over the place, trees, rails, bushes. Ridiculous there is a front door.

Stefan, It's amazing the number of offices that are closed on weekends. They should at least forward calls to cell phone. All new buyers are asked to schedule showings no later than Thursday afternoon, and I've still had some homes I couldn't show.

In Breckenridge, Colorado, it used to be that no one used a lock box. That was when we had the old style SPI boxes with the combo locks. They were called SPI boxes because that is the code that was set at the factory and half the people never bothered to change the combo. So in Breckenridge, you had to stop at every office to pick up keys. Most offices were on Main St, which is notoriously difficult for parking. If you were lucky enough to find a place to park, then you had to walk several blocks to get keys, and then take them all back again when you were done. The best thing was to get the keys ahead of time so your client didn't have to go through the hassles with you, but sometimes the agents didn't want you taking them overnight in case someone else needed to see the home. We always swore that it was a way for Breckenridge agents to keep other agents (7 miles away) out of their market!

Now we have supra keys and Breckenridge uses them....hallelujah! It makes showings so much easier and much better for the sellers. Every home should have a lockbox if it is secure, and if you can hang it on the front door, so much the better.

In my market we have always used lockboxes (at least for the last 16 years). But there are still sellers that wont and in this market that can be the kiss of death.

Maureen: For us, running around and picking up keys is the norm. It can become downright ridiculous. For instance, I sometimes have to drive ten miles each way to the listing office in a neighboring town to get a key to show a home five blocks from my office. Crazy!!!!! Sometimes the listing agent can't locate the key because the last person who showed the home didn't return it. Stupid!!!!! And yes, if I want to scheduled a "spontaneous" or spur-of-the-moment showing, I still will make contact with the listing agent, but at least when I contact them they can give me code on the lockbox to let me in (that is, if there is a lockbox).

Missy: I have fun hunting for them as well sometimes. But if there is no lockbox, that is a real problem.

Gary: I love the attitude, "All weekend showings must be scheduled by no later than Thursday afternoon." Are you kidding me? Get real. Most of my weekend warrior clients don't even let me know they are coming up until Friday afternoon, or just call me on Saturday or Sunday when they happen to drive by something. Are you running a reform school, or trying to sell your house?

Joanne: I think our markets are very similar. Have you ever been to the Bahnhof ski store in Breckenridge? The original store is here in Petoskey. We are a Midwestern ski destination, as well as a summer resort community. I hope and pray we will eventually move to an electronic lockbox system, because the listing agents are not using the manual lockboxes.

Terry: We always seem to be behind the curve up here. As you state, in this market, you really need any kind of an advantage you can get if you expect to sell.

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