The Little Blue Box ~ A Home Seller’s Friend

No, I’m not talking about the beautiful little blue boxes that come with treasures from Tiffany & Co..  Though who doesn’t love those?

Today I’m talking about the REALTOR® specific lockbox (iBox) that only REALTORS® (or vendors with a code from the REALTOR®) can use.  In AZ (and many other states), these lockboxes are purchased and monitored through Supra Systems.  Why do you as a seller care what kind of lockbox is on your house?

The other day I walked up to a front door that looked like this:

Yep, door wide open, lockbox open, and key in the door.  My clients and I waited for a few moments thinking there was another showing going on.  Nope, no one to be found.  Just the door WIDE open.  This house was on a cheapy contractor’s lockbox easily purchased at Home Depot or Lowe’s so when I called the agent to let her know she had no idea who was at the house last and how long it had been this way.  I’ve heard nightmare stories where the buyer’s teenage kid watched the agent open the contractor’s box and went back with friends and partied it up at the expense of someone else’s home.

The benefit of an iBox per Supra’s website:

Each time an iBox is opened, both the key and iBox record the date, time and the identify of the keyholder. The information is delivered to Supra’s secure database and can be obtained using SupraWEB. The listing agent can also read the iBox to view recent access information.

The iBox offers the ability to customize showing hours. Another option may be set to require all showings be prescheduled with the listing agent.