We use a lock box on properties that are over a half hour away just so we can give the combo out to a ?few select people?. It also works nice for the carpet cleaner, plumber, etc. You do need to be careful who enters your properties. We have had the door left open several times, lost the key but never have had damage done to the units or people moved in. I wouldn?t try this for just any unit, we only have nice units in nice areas with usually good tenants looking. If you schedule a showing once a week, say Saturday at 10 AM and have everybody show up at the same time, this works very nice also. Then you get the tenants to see that many other people also are interested in the unit and they get the feeling of urgency.
Posted by DavidV on February 23, 2002 at 22:38:02:
I’m curious what kind of luck you guys that use lockboxes have had with potential Tenant/Buyers? Anyone ever stolen the kitchen sink? I’m aiming for as much autopilot as i can.
I would never put a lockbox on our rental. Our rental is not in a high class area, and I have heard to many stories of stolen appliances. We advertise on Friday/Saturday paper, we do a one day Sunday open house, usually between 1-4, and say to all callers come then. You can get an impression of the potential tenants. We have a no-smoking policy and when someone is standing there smelling like smoke, you know.
We have a house up FSBO which we have a lockbox on. But we make sure we only give it to realtors that call and give us their info. We don’t give it to looky-loos without agents.
Posted by TRandle on February 24, 2002 at 09:33:04:
David,
I’ve used them for a couple of years. I tried the open house urgency thing and in my opinion, it was a waste of my time.
When I first started with the lockboxes, I didn’t require the prospects to jump through any hoops to get the combo. I didn’t really have any damages, but I did on more than one occasion have some unpleasantness in the restrooms.
I then went to requiring the prospect fax an application and driver’s license prior to receiving the combo. I had no problems after that.
Althought my website still reads that way, I recently went through a period where I had five properties available at once for O/F or L/O and the buyers with cash seemed to dry up for six to eight weeks. I lowered my requirements on the upfront fee and didn’t require the applicant to fax anything. I did request a phone number so I could call them back with the code to get in “once I looked it up”.
I did eventually fill those properties and didn’t have any negative consequences. So, to me the benefit of not having to show the property far outweighs the negatives I’ve experienced thus far.
I’m aiming for as much autopilot as i can.