Electronic Lockboxes now MANDATORY in Southern California

This is the best thing I have heard all day.  It's about damn time!  Pardon my French, but I noticed you standing in front of the Eiffel Tower, so I knew you would understand.  lol  Anyway, I'm in favor.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

I'm not sure if it's applicable in Los Angeles, but I'll certainly check it out.

Boy I get my blood boiling when I hear comments like "Elusive Reo Agent".... do you know how many lock boxes and keys and doors I rekey at my expense because agents steal the keys? How did I become the enemy? I have done REO for 13+ years, I have over head like you wouldn't believe, I pay referrals out the ying yang back to the asset companies that the banks created in the first place, and the reason we didn't fight the electronic boxes is because we are TOLD what to do, we don't have a say in it. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?

So many Regular agents go through life with so many assumptions and misconceptions- for one, I belong to 6- SIX MLS's- 3 of which that cover 2 counties- because in our area that is how many Boards there are. SO, GUESS WHAT?....if agents don't belong to the primary board where the house is listed, then they won't be showing that property because they won't have that electronic key because I won't have to give them the combination code. So tell me, who is suffering here?

So yes, I'll have to buy electronic boxes at $100 a pop to satisfy this requirement and clearly 1/3 the agents in our market will no longer have access to 2/3 of the REO inventory. For those slimy REO Agents that play loose with  putting their reo houses in secondary mls's instead of the primaries, cobroke agents aren't going to even have that access with their primary mls keys.

All this has done is punish the reo agents who are operating with integrity and it will help those slimy agents who give reo agents a bad name. But I would ask that you not paint us all with the same brush, because we don't all deserve it and it gets real old putting up with the attitudes from the co-brokes.

Michael,

Nice blog.  Nice reply to Janet.  We use electronic lockboxes and can issue a one day code specific to that Realtor in case they don't subscribe or belong to our MLS system.   I beleive it is a great thing that we can track who was in the home, waht time etc.....

Gerald

Michael ~ wow, the Denver area has attempted to switch to an electronic lockbox system twice in the last 17 years and it fails everytime.  Let us know how successful it is.

I think it's important to have a record of who enters the home. Period. It protects everyone.

Debi

Michael,

We recently converted to the latest, newest lockbox. An email automatically gets generated when anyone accesses it.

So MRMLS is taking it upon themselves to help the masses who are complaining about REO agents OK.

Many of them are not very good, or professional, I agree, so I will spend the extra money to install Supra boxes but now agents will have to 'respect' the REO properties by locking them, turning off the lights, leaving a card etc as I will not give out the code to the combo box, vendors use, and assign the supra so I know for sure who was in there for each property.

 Guess everyone will now have to be on their best behavior which is no problem for me.

I know those boxes make more sense, but as a stager I really like the combo box, easy to get in and out, without having to disturb anyone...good post, lots of info!

I hate the steal the key game! I had this happen recently on one of my short sale listings, but thanks to the electronic key system, I was able to track it down. (They claimed to have forgotten to put it back) Sorry, that door can only be locked with the key and you put in an offer later that day!