THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 10, 1996 TAG: 9602080267
SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JEANNE MOONEY, SPECIAL TO REAL ESTATE WEEKLY
LENGTH: Long : 108 lines
When Metro Multiple Listing Service Inc. scrapped its lockboxes last summer, Libby Wehmer said goodbye to a security system that had been widely used for five years.
``I thought it was a good one,'' says Wehmer, a sales associate with Womble Realty.
Oh, sure, sometimes the lockboxes rusted and clammed shut. Or they froze and wouldn't release her access key. No matter. Wehmer learned to carry a can of WD40. And if she was lucky, her clients learned to laugh as they waited to get out of the rain and cold and into a home for sale.
Six months have passed since Wehmer parted with those mechanical lockboxes; they worked with combination dials and a key.
Now she and about 4,700 other real estate agents in Hampton Roads use a new lockbox system made by Supra Products Inc.; it works electronically, much like a bank card in an automated-teller machine.
The new lockboxes are a world apart from the older models, Wehmer says. Sellers feel safer and have more control over when buyers can visit their homes, she says. And because Metro MLS and Peninsula Multiple Listing Service Inc. use the same lockbox system, real estate agents can show more homes. Previously, an agent in South Hampton Roads might have referred clients to agents in Hampton or Newport News.
``If I want to go to the other side of the Peninsula, my Supra card is going to get me into properties there,'' Wehmer says. ``It's just a really neat tool. I love it.''
Wehmer doesn't miss the struggles with the vintage lockboxes, either.
``What a pain,'' she says. ``That old system, it was a nightmare.''
Metro MLS upgraded its lockboxes and switched from the model by Multacc Corp. to the Supra model because it wanted better security features, says Dan Hudy, vice president of operations at Metro MLS.
``This is a big leap,'' Hudy says of the Supra lockbox. ``There is no comparison.''
Supra's electronic lockbox system has been available for about five years. About half of the 700,000 Realtors nationwide use it, says Jim Engle, a sales manager in the Salem, Ore., firm.
Locally, agents must pay $80 a year to use the Supra system. And, they must buy their own access card at a cost of $70. The card actually is an electronic key pad about the size of a small calculator. It fits against the lockbox and activates it when an agent punches in his access code.
The Supra model records the name of each agent who activates the shackle, as well as the time and day of use. So if a house key is not returned to a lockbox, the listing agent can find out in minutes who has viewed a property. The information is obtained by transferring data stored in the lockbox to a computer. An agent can then learn by phone, facsimile machine or computer the list of agents who viewed a home.
With the Multacc system, agents had to bring the lockbox to the Metro MLS office where someone literally would bash it open, read recorded numbers and then determine from those numbers which agents had been at the for-sale property.
``It took hours to get the information,'' Wehmer says.
Opening the Multacc box, Hudy says, was the last resort to finding a lost key.
Knowing exactly who viewed a for-sale property is a handy marketing tool, Hudy says. A listing agent can follow up and ask, What can the seller do to entice your buyer?
``You can give it to your owner and say this is how many times your home has been shown,'' Wehmer says of the list of agents the Supra system can generate.
The Supra lockbox, or keybox, offers other features. Among them:
If the home seller works nights and sleeps late in the morning, the listing agent can program the lockbox so it will open only during a prescribed time, say after 1 p.m. Agents couldn't do this with the Multacc lockbox.
The Supra lockbox also can be programmed to open only after an agent has called the listing agent and agreed upon a time to show the property. This feature, dubbed call-before-showing, prevents agents and their clients from popping in unexpectedly on sellers.
Perhaps most assuring is the feature that prevents misuse of an access card, which each real estate agent uses to open the Supra shackle, should the card be lost or stolen. Metro MLS can disable an access card, though it would be difficult for an intruder to crack the PIN code needed to use the card.
If there is a drawback about the Supra system, it is that real estate agents must update by phone each month the code needed to use their access cards. If they don't, their cards don't work.
``I'm not crazy about calling in every 30 days,'' says W. Jerald George, an associate broker with The Prudential Decker Realty. But he says, ``The Supra is far superior to anything we've had so far.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
LOCKBOX LORE
Lockboxes were pioneered about 40 years ago so buyers could view
a property for sale even though the seller and agent weren't
present.
Traditionally, the lockboxes have been clunky-looking shackles
secured to the outside of a home, usually around a door knob.
Lockboxes are designed to store a key that will open the home for
sale. And over the years, the method of getting at that key has
changed.
Real estate agents once used a master key to get at the house
key. Later, they worked a five-tumbler combination dial and used an
access key.
Now, agents in South Hampton Roads punch a PIN number into a
small electronic pad and snap the pad into the shackle. If all goes
well, a small drawer holding the house key pops open. Agents must
update the electronic pad, which is their personal access card, each
month.
KEYWORDS: LOCKBOX LOCK BOX by CNB