Can you imagine your life without a lock box on every one of your listings?

Well here in New York City this is my reality.  Manhattan apartments that are on the market for sale do not have a lockbox on the door.  When I have told this to agents who work in different states they look at me and are shocked. 

So rather than plopping that lock box on the listing and walking away checking up with whoever shows the property this is what happens in Manhattan.  It's very simple, but it can be very time consuming.  We personally show every one of our exclusives (listings) to either agents or direct buyers that call us. 

What happens if I have three listings in three different parts of the city?   What happens if I have ten, twenty, or 50 listings all over the city?  A lot of running around and "showing" is what happens.  Typically we will try to schedule as many appointments in a series on one day.  Agents will confirm for appointments relentlessly.  When you spend 45 minutes on subways during rush hour to find out nobody is coming you develop a certain amount of impatience and insistence to confirming the appointment. 

What can also happen is that you show the apartment to an agent and their customer and they walk in and out of the apartment in a flash with nothing be said.  A complete waste of time because a lack of prequalification from the buyers agent.

But don't get me wrong I feel there are some definite advantages to an agent's life without lockboxes.  Being at every showing of the apartment I can provide better feedback to my seller because I hear the pros and especially the negative comments from the buyers and agents coming through the apartment.  It also helps because as the listing broker I know the apartment and the building better than a buyer's agents would and can sell the apartment better and answer questions better ultimately providing better service to my seller.

So let me ask you, what would you do if tomorrow morning your lockboxes were gone and you had to show all your listings?