Security vs. Faster Sale Decides Box Use

Thousands of homeowners each week must decide whether to allow a broker to place a lock box on their listed house.

A lock box is a device that contains the key to a house and can be opened only with a special key carried by members of the Multiple Listing Service or with a combination known only by them.

For a homeowner who needs to make a sale as quickly as possible, and who for work or other reasons may not be at home much of the time, a lock box could mean the difference between an immediate sale or a much longer listing period.

But the question of security for houses on which a lock box has been placed has concerned homeowners and brokers ever since the concept was first implemented in the early 1960s. While in the majority of cases the use of a lock box has expedited the sale of a house, there also have been cases where lock boxes have been used to burglarize a house.

The National Association of Realtors and state realty associations have now become involved in the issue, studying and recommending certain procedures that are designed to minimize the security risks. Special committees and study groups have been formed to focus on the problem and make their recommendations to boards of realtors and MLS operations.

During this time marketing needs and the demands for effective lock box devices continue to grow. The Sonoma County, Calif., Multiple Listing Service has voted to buy newly designed lockboxes for use by its members. To enter the box, a broker must satisfy a two-step process:

1-- Use a special key that cannot be duplicated.

2-- Enter his “personal identification number.”

The new lock box, designed and manufactured by Supra Products Inc., records the number of each broker or salesperson who enters the house and, at the same time, automatically marks identification numbers on a tamper-proof foil tape as an added security measure.

More Sophisticated

The Sonoma County MLS, based in Santa Rosa, Calif., is one of the first such boards in the United States to use this new generation of lock boxes. An even more sophisticated lock box now being designed by Supra, the largest manufacturer of such devices, uses a system of computerized “electronic access control.” It will soon be appearing on the doors of MLS-listed houses.

The new state-of-the-art device contains an electronic chip that remembers the 57 most recent accesses and identifies the broker or salesperson, board of realtors, or MLS, including the precise time and date of entry.

With this type of documentation and control, homeowners will probably feel more secure in permitting the use of a lock box on their listed house.