Combos are becoming the norm even when they cost the same. I’m not sure why, but you make an excellent point about security, although we do use a showing service for all our listings.

On the other hand, I have heard of homes accessed even with an electronic lockbox.

Very few Realtors are using the Supra box anymore and we were one of their first clients. When IDX came in and boards around us didn’t use electronic lockboxes, it died a slow death.

Supra is “suppose” to be coming up with a solution but as time has gone on, more agents are turning in the lockboxes.

I showed 10 houses a couple of weeks ago. Only one required my E-Key.

To answer your question, not very. An REO agent in our market rarely puts an electronic lock box on, wait a sec… never. If you show one of their properties you know the combo is the same for all 150 of the agents listings. And if you just happen to be on that email list for investors that the REO agent shoots out before the property hits the MLS, well then you know all those investors might know the code.

Last weekend while showing some a property in the $1.2 mil range there was a push button lock box sitting on a bench outside the listing. The email notification didn’t have the lock box code so I took a stab at the number, first try and got it.

What’s a lockbox? Ha, ha.

Seriously, I’ve been in the biz for 30 years. I remember the days and have worked in markets (Aspen) where you had to go to the listing agents office to pick up keys. I remember when we used the boxes with the long medal key and you had to move the metal tabs to line up with your key code.

In our market we use the electronic boxes and if we need to put on a combo for REO vendors, repair people, we do that too.

Enhanced security and safety for the seller should completely and obviously overwhelm the desire to save a few dollars for the agents.

Cheers

Then there are the areas (Marion Ohio), that still use the practice of no lock box at all. You have to drive across town, pick the key up from the listing agent. Then drive across town to the showing, then drive back again to the listing agents office to drop the key off.

I guess my point is, it depends on the property, location, and custom’s and practice of the local area.

Good post buddy, glad to see you on AG!

“cheap for cheaper’s sake at the consumer’s expense is wrong.”

Amen to that statement.

Matt Wilkins — Welcome to AG! Awesome article! I look forward to reading more of your articles in the future!

Combo boxes are archaic at best. Electronic boxes and their logging capabilities are a step into the future. Why would we want to go backwards. You said it – cost. What’s next to get the axe? MLS because it’s too costly to maintain membership? Should we go back to having books in the office, just so a broker doesn’t need computers in the office? Do we make homemade, handwritten signs to put in the lawn of our listings while we try to squeeze every last penny out of our commissions? I’ve asked this before a million times in regards to other companies. What ever happened to the concept of “the cost of doing business?”

I often ask this most with my local electric company. Why should I pay more for electric power generated by wind – a free natural resource? Sure, there is a cost to building the wind farms, but why I am paying for something they will eventually profit off of. Building your own business is your job, not mine.

There our many costs associated with being an agent. I don’t like paying any of them. But they are concrete costs that help generate my income. They are the “cost of doing business.” Knowing how and where to allocate those costs is key, but cheap for cheaper’s sake at the consumer’s expense is wrong.