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Honolulu Going to Electronic Lock Boxes

It is official; the Honolulu Board of REALTORS ® announced that beginning 2008, our members will have the option of upgrading to the newest state of the art electronic lock boxes.

The product and system selected by the Board is the SentriLock, REALTOR Electronic Lockbox. The company is developing a new product to meet our needs in Hawaii. With our many condos and gated areas there is a need for a box that can hold the various types of keys and cards for elevators, gates etc., along with the standard door keys.

Yesterday at a broker's forum held at the Hilton Hawaiian Village (the location of the 2008 CRS Sell-a-bration), our members were introduced to the SentriLock and what the basic implementation plan would be.

It was made clear that electronic lock boxes would not be mandatory. This is a National Association of REALTORS ® directive. The reason we will be able to implement them without requiring everyone to participate is that the box has the ability to operate in a manual mode also.

Honolulu implemented electronic boxes many years ago and it was a failure. This time the lessons were learned and the product is far superior to the previous product. I for one am excited about the new boxes.

Some of their features that I am looking forward to are:

Ability to take manual codes along with electronic smart card
Up to 9 different 1-day codes
Contractor codes
IR port that will work with Treo phone
Illuminated key pad
Agent showing statistics
Metal non-rusting case
Durable replaceable cover
Removable battery
Replaceable battery and low battery warning
Internet based administration

The number of features was mind boggling. I was so impressed I wanted to make the switch yesterday. I guess I will have to wait with everyone else.

I know that we are one of the few major markets to make the switch. What has been you experience with electronic boxes? Do you use SentriLocks?

Posted by Randy L. Prothero - Hawaii REALTOR® on 07/22/2007 03:59 AM

Comments (31)

hawaii, real estate, lockbox, sentrilock, honolulu board of realtors, honolulu, century 21

Originally posted at: Hawaii Randy's Real Estate Opinions: Honolulu Going to Electronic Lock Boxes

This post has been included in Hawaii Information Honolulu County, HI Information

31 Comments on Honolulu Going to Electronic Lock Boxes

JUL

2007

Our board here wasn't bright enough to produce a box that would fit a credit card sized entry pass. We have to slice em and fold em into the box, duh! Sounds like your board is on the ball this time around.

Randy, I'm with Laurie. Smart move on your board's part. Our electronic LBs can fit the swipe cards but they don't have a manual option and they have not been extremely popular here. I've heard from some agents that they won't install electronic boxes as it discourages others who don't have the key from showing the property. Yours wouldn't have that problem. Maybe we outta start complaining.

We use Supra by GE, but it sounds like the vendor you are using has a really good product.

Why is not being mandatory a directive from NAR? Is requiring use seen as anti competitive?

We just got our next generation of Supras in January....

I love electronic but I wish we had some of the abilities Sentra does.

Laurie - We had them before and they bombed. The new board is determined to repeat history. The manufacturer is also being real cool about working with them.

Maggie - Check out the website from this vendor. NAR has a majority share of ownership in this company. I think that is the reason they are so REALTOR friendly.

Todd - We do not have them yet in practice, but what I have seen sold me.

Maureen - I have not read the entire list of rules from NAR, but they were very specific about the association was not to make their use mandatory. Individual companies can. I plan to make them mandatory for anyone joining my team.

Good luck with the Sentrilock boxes we use Supra. I put electronic lock boxes on my occupied listings for extra security for my sellers. I have been using the Master combo boxes on vacant properties. I like that they have a bigger compartment and the unit is encased in light padding that is not removable.

We have these in College Station Texas. They are great but you have to update your key everyday

We use the Supra boxes in Ann Arbor and can get in with our smart phones. palm pilots and electronic keys. It was all well and good, UNTIL data sharing came along. Realtors from outside out board didn't have them so we had to go open the houses of our listings for them. After doing this too many times, I went back to the combo's. Some agents use both so agents can get in.

Truthfully, I love the features and security but not the hassle .Good luck.

We have been using Supra eKeys - OK but expensive. Biggest problem is that they're not compatible with the codes used in nearby counties. To be able to cross over, you have to join other MLSs at extra expense. Many agents are going back to less expensive combos.

I had the electronic lock-box for 3 years, and just switched back to the combo.....not everyone has the electronic ones, and if they can't get in they won't show the property. And the "key" had to be cradled every night to work.......you can imagine how many times this was :)

Randy,

The only problem I had was when they switched us to an upgraded version..they mad us all hand in our keypads which we purchased...now we have to use the new pads and rent them once a year and I lost 100 for buying the other and they would not reimburse if it was more than 6 months,the pricing for the boxes itself are now 95 and they fluctuate like the stock market. Yours are pretty bulky..I guess because you have to have enough room in them for storage:)

we have supra keys too....most realtors hate them....i have even heard of a protest of these things...i hope you have more luck with yours.

Randy, we're in the same boat here, with our condo buildings front door key, storage door key, front door key, electronic pass key. Oye Vey.

Hi Randy, we use Supra. We occasionally run across combos on forecosures and vacant homes. I love how you can track the keys used on it. Sounds like Sentrilock may be a bit better though.

We also use Supra and I really like them. Some of us still use the old combo box...with the unchanged SPI combination.

LOL MOnika. I have one of those combo boxes and forgot the combo. I had to go to home depot and open one to figure out the SPI. Maybe I shoulda just asked the AR gang.

Randy - our primary board uses the Sentilock combo - but the only access is with a Credit card type key with a microchip. It does many of the same things you spoke of - but more than 3 regular keys and a tag and everything gets really tight. I would love to use my Treo.

The board to our South use the Supra - and they too are OK, those you can use a Treo or other IR devise

Then the out of area agents typically use a combo...too many of those for security purposes, I'm afraid.

Make it a Blessed Day,

John Occhi, Hemet Realtor

Sounds like a great investment for us....I love our board...always on top of stuff....even with the new Purchase Contract. Anyway, I presume you'll be at the sales meeting in the am to go over all you have on this right?

James G. - The key compartment on the new boxes is supposed to be even better than the Master boxes, which I also use.

Ginger - The update timing is determined by your Board of REALTORS. I like the short time, because the data is uploaded giving everyone better data.

Missy - These boxes will allow us to set 9 different one day codes for agents who do not have keys. They can accessed the same as the conventional boxes, yet we still get the data.

Brian - That is a big advantage we have. There is only one county for me to deal with. Our island is all in the same county.

Kathy - I am hoping we will not have the same issues. This new box seems to be well thought out. They had good answers to each of those issues.

Neal - The picture you see is their existing box. We are getting a new design. It will have a bigger key box and the rest of the unit will be smaller.

Dave S. - I think the way our Board is implementing the switch was well planned and should avoid the problems other Boards have had. We have the benefit of everyone else's experience including our own from a failed attempt several years ago.

Chris G. - I was quite happy to hear they were addressing that for us.

Stephanie - SentriLock® is majority owned by NAR. They have spent a lot of time getting feedback from REALTORS® in an attempt to address all of the issues from other boxes already in the field. I am excited and impressed.

Monika - I plan to give some of my boxes to my clients for their use, once I lick up the electronics.

Chris G. - I bet you are correct.

John - The new boxes have both electronic smart card or you can issue one day codes to agents without them. That is a feature I really like.

Sally - I will be there. I don't think I mentioned; there will be an initial purchase period where we can pick them up for $29.50 each. Our Board will subsidize them with the money from our MLS fines.

cool!

Sally - I think that will cause a bog percentage of the agents and companies to support the program.

We use Supra - but the same basics - and we all had to switch - I have the software on my PDA - but others use a trio - nice thing about the trio is it does not require updating as it updates automatically. With our - every day you have to update your key - which really helps on knowing about showings.... I love our system - I get an alert each time I update my key telling me of the showings, or I can log on to my listing and see them there.... it is a great piece of information for your client.

Thesa - I am looking forward to the upgrade. I have a Treo and these will be compatible also.

JUL

2007

I'm not sure if yours are the same but we cannot access them before 9am...a few times I needed to get into a few and realized they don't open before 9am:)

We just migrated to Sentrilock a few months ago here in San Diego. I have no particular issues with them. They seem to work well, although they are quite large. You can program your electronic card right on site if it has expired and you forgot to update it. Switching over to the new system was a hassle but change is change.

You can limit the times they can be accessed if you wish, and also set up codes for contractors, etc. You also may request email notifications of showings. The downside is they only update the system when the card owner goes in and updates his or her card (so if I show a home but don't update my card for a week, you will not see my showing on the report until a week later).

Good luck with your classes (read you other blog too). I thought the ABR was quite good. Not sure about e-pro. When I took it 4 years ago it was OK but unless they have dramatically updated it you may find it is just not up to par (there has been quite a bit of discussion the e-pro here on AR). The CRS technology course was excellent, however.

Jeff

JUL

2007

Neal - These has a default which locks them out during certain hours, but it is adjustable from what they said.

Jeff - The CRS technology class I took was the only one I did not enjoy. I felt I could have taught the class without much preparation.

The cards for Sentrilock are supposed to also update as the showing agents update their cards. Their cards are supposed to pick up the showings before their's also.

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