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Fun Facts About Sacramento SUPRA iBox Exchange for Lockboxes
If it’s not bad enough that people knock Sacramento for being a good place to live because it’s within driving distance of better places to go, we also seem to get the short end of the stick when it comes to our SUPRA iBox exchange for lockboxes we purchased through MetroList. I wouldn’t be surprised if Randy Newman writes a song about it.
For starters, for being the 5th largest city in California, we seem to be last on the list for getting the iBox BT LE upgrade. This is a new Bluetooth-enabled lockbox that reads both infrared, apparently, and bluetooth signals. I feel like I’ve been waiting forever to get it. The real estate agents who belong to the Bareis MLS in Marin got their iBox upgrades in January. They also received a 1-for-1 exchange, and their MLS allowed an agent’s representative, with written authorization, to do the exchange.
Not so in Sacramento. Here it is almost Halloween, and our iBox Exchange was just announced for November. The dates are November 17th through November 20, 2014, and it’s by appointment scheduled by your last name, so you know where that puts yours truly, at the bottom on the last day just above the Wisemans. Plus, MetroList is not offering a 1-for-1 exchange. I don’t know why MetroList could not negotiate the same deal with SUPRA that others did around the country. Nope, it’s a 2-for-1 exchange, which means for every two lockboxes we turn in, we get a new iBox BT LE. That’s probably not a big deal for many agents who might own only two lockboxes, but by my estimation, I own roughly 70 lockboxes, and at $108.75 a pop, that’s over $7,600 invested in these lockboxes.
I hand them 70 boxes and I get 35. Thanks for the highway robbery, MetroList.
Look-it, besides Bareis MLS in January, St. Louis MLS got their iBox Exchange in March 2014. Charlotte, North Carolina, finished their exchange a while back, too. But Sacramento, the capitol of California, will be lucky to get it done by the end of next month.
From what I can find, other MLS systems have fully allowed their agents (subscribers) to own the lockboxes upgrades received through the exchange, but our Sacramento MetroList will only “lease” them to us if we exchange them. They’re not yet telling us how much the lease payment will be, as that apparently will be disclosed to us after we stand in line to exchange our lockboxes. We have to pay off the lease in full to own the lockbox. (They do say if we buy and not exchange the new iBox, it’s $115 plus tax and we own it outright.)
MetroList won’t let us send a representative in our place to exchange the lockboxes, either. To participate, I would have to borrow a larger vehicle that can transport my Red Radio Flyer wagon, which I would then use to cart all of my lockboxes into Cal Expo. Or, make 17 trips on foot in four-inch heels.
These guys at MetroList are tough. No 1-for-1 exchange, we’ve gotta go there in person, and when they’re finished beating on us, we don’t even own the lockboxes.
But with the downside of everything, there is always an upside. Sometimes, you’ve gotta squint through rose-colored glasses to find it, but it’s there. The upside is the new containers are much bigger. They are large enough to hold 5 sets of keys and 2 security cards. Can’t quite stuff a remote control in there yet, but a larger capacity is a great benefit. I will no longer be required to slam the lockbox onto concrete to jangle the key loose.
Also, SUPRA says the lithium batteries never need replacement. That’s probably because the batteries are inaccessible and by the time they’re about to expire they’ll come out with a newer iBox and offer a 5-1 trade. From what I could find, the iBoxes in St. Louis are warranted for 6 years but here in lovely Sacramento, we supposedly get a 7-year warranty, with no explanation why we get that extra year over St. Louis. The battery life is extended because it shuts off when not in use. This is good because some of my old 280-series boxes have no juice left at all, and the 530’s and 535’s are getting low.
Another benefit is A Sacramento real estate agent can also use her new iPhone 6 without a key fob to open the iBoxes, but if she uses an ActiveKey that particular device will continue to work. The problem with the eKey systems seems to be that it takes two hands to open the lockbox. One hand is required to push up on the container before engaging with a cellphone held in the other hand. I’ll probably stick with the ActiveKey because it’s been completely reliable for me. They say the eKey will work even if there is no cellphone tower as long as the app has been activated that day, and I can’t remember to do that. I’m lucky enough if I remember to turn on my phone, which I no longer have to do because the iPhone 6 automatically turns on when unplugged.
A pro and con is the fact the lockbox shackle is now completely removable from the lockbox. This means I don’t have to try to wiggle into a small area with the entire box to try to latch it over a pipe, I can just slip in the hook portion to determine if it will fit. The downside is I imagine once it has been released from, say, the gas meter, the lockbox itself will fall on your foot. And then I will stub my toe. Again.
Plus, I have the added benefit of being one of the very last agents in Sacramento to get her lockboxes on the very last day offered, which is also, according to MetroList, the last day all of the old lockboxes will work. It sounds like they expect me to immediately turn around at 5:00 in the evening and somehow drive to all of my dozens of listings to exchange out the lockboxes or the old lockboxes will no longer open. The old lockboxes won’t work when the exchange is finished, says MetroList. I wonder if they thought this through? Other than how to turn our pockets inside out and shake us upside down, I mean.
For an update on this situation, please see my followup piece: How Sacramento MetroList iBox Exchange Affects Home Sellers.
Security Gaps While Selling Your Sacramento Home
The occupant of one of my listings leaves her front door unlocked when agents come over to show. She vacates and doesn’t lock the door because she doesn’t want a lockbox on the house. This procedure is not only unsafe, but it completely baffles the agents who show. The buyer’s agents can’t believe a person would not lock the door.
Because she won’t allow a SUPRA, I have installed a contractor’s box and suggested she put the key inside when she leaves, and then she could lock the house and retrieve the key when she gets home. She refuses. Her thoughts are it is perfectly OK to leave her door unlocked, and she lives in a safe neighborhood. All neighborhoods are safe until security gaps pop up.
Criminy, when it comes to security gaps, there are no safe neighborhoods in Sacramento. Every person is vulnerable no matter where you live. She won’t listen to me, and her actions make me uneasy, like they would cause any Sacramento listing agent to fret.
Then, this weekend, an agent called to say she dropped the key to the home she was showing somewhere in the kitchen and she could not find it. It might have rolled under the ‘frig. If I wasn’t avoiding any strains on my back, I would have dashed over to help her move the refrigerator. This sort of thing could have happened to any buyer’s agent. Although usually they break the key in the door or slip it into their pocket and take it home; they don’t generally lose it somewhere in the house.
I tried to call the seller but my message went to voice mail. The buyer’s agent couldn’t reach the seller, either, which is why she called me. I sent the seller an email and attempted to contact the co-owner as well. Nobody should leave a door unlocked anywhere.
Fortunately, the seller came home and was able to put a new key into the bottom of the lockbox. Then, later yesterday afternoon, another twist happened at her home. A group of strangers showed up on her doorstep holding a business card from a real estate agent. The real estate agent was not with them, they were unaccompanied and alone. The seller let them into her home! Give me a heart attack, why doncha? Never let a stranger into your home without an agent present. Talk about security gaps. Excuse me while I pick myself up off the floor. I swear, my sellers are gonna kill me yet.
Sacramento Real Estate Agents Who Resist Change
Most people dislike change or the unfamiliar, especially certain Sacramento real estate agents, I’m guessing. A while back an agent got his knickers into a twist because I called him to find out why he left my lockbox open. It was pretty easy to figure out who did it because the SUPRA online system stores contact information, including time and date stamp; it tells me when any of my 70-some lockboxes are accessed.
At first, the agent denied the accusation. When pressed and presented with evidence, he became agitated and admitted he probably did leave it open but he had a good reason. (There is never a good reason to leave a lockbox open unauthorized.) His reason was he was confused. He had never showed a home which had 2 lockboxes, one for Supra to open to retrieve the code and the second for contractors, in which the key was stored. So, it was all the listing agent’s fault and not his. Ya gotta love the logic. Sometimes I use this system because it’s convenient for contractors: those people who do home staging, or maybe employees from pest companies, roof inspectors, home inspectors, handyman, what have you, who need access to the home.
It is also required by our MLS. Our MLS forces agents to use SUPRA lockboxes if an agent wants to advertise a listing as having a lockbox. Pretty clever, that MLS business alliance. In other words, a Sacramento real estate agent is not allowed to put on a contractor’s box and state the home is vacant with a lockbox and provide the code. It’s governed and stipulated that way at most associations. Otherwise, agents would buy contractor’s lockboxes because they cost roughly one-third the price of SUPRA lockboxes. They’ve got almost ten grand of my money — $10,000 that could have been invested in an aging barrel of Maker’s Mark, but no, I have lockboxes.
Although I like the SUPRA lockboxes because it allows me to follow up on listings and obtain buyer feedback after an agent shows a home I have listed. It provides greater security for my sellers because only agents can access those boxes. However, if contractors need to access the home, for example, I will also attach a contractor’s box to the property. It allows me to better devote my time to marketing the home, following up on showings and tracking open houses than standing on the front steps waiting for some guy to show up so I can open the door. Yet, two lockboxes are still very confusing for some buyer’s agents.
The biggest problem I see with buyer’s agents is not the fact that they can get confused over lockbox instructions, it’s that they don’t often read the entire MLS listing before taking action. They are so excited that their buyer wants to write an offer, they don’t always take the time to peruse confidential agent remarks or note the type of financing that is offered. They waste a lot of time writing offers that have little chance of acceptance because of this little quirk.
I wish I could digitally manipulate my listings. I would put big red arrows and circles that draw attention to specific information for agents, maybe include a few starbursts.
This morning I received an offer that was sent to the wrong agent last night. Three specific lines in the agent remarks state where and how to send the offer, yet they were overlooked. On top of this, the email from the agent said her buyer had seen the property and was very interested in owning it. Except the property is located in a gated community and there are no showings allowed. It’s enough to make one wonder if the buyer’s agent mixed up the address of the property and perhaps wrote the offer for the wrong home.
On top of this, it was an FHA offer, and the property is not listed with FHA terms and the seller cannot accept an FHA offer because an FHA offer is not allowed on that particular home. That was a lot of work for the agent to go through to write an offer, provide supporting documentation on behalf of the buyer, get the purchase offer signed and then deliver it to the wrong agent when there is no way the offer can even be countered.
All of which could have been prevented if the agent had just given that MLS listings one more glance before writing the offer. Are there attachments to the listings? Long gone are the days when all homes are listed with identical terms. Almost every listing is as unique as the sellers are unique.
My policy as a real estate agent is not to fight change, I embrace it.
Do Not Touch the Sacramento Lockbox Without Permission
I’m thinking about slapping a preprinted notice over my 70-some lockboxes that warn: don’t touch the lockbox without permission. It is never OK for a Sacramento real estate agent to use a lockbox and enter a home without checking the showing instructions in MLS — yet it happens. Unauthorized access happens not because agents think but because some of them don’t think. An agent today explained why he entered a home that is not even on the market, after I emailed him twice to ask for an explanation. He said it was because he lived across the street and the seller told him she was listing with me.
I imagine that news went over well.
So, he decided it was OK to bring over a buyer to walk around the home and trample on private property. Because he knew the seller. It did not occur to him that he had no written agreement with this seller nor permission to be there. Not only did he not understand that he was trespassing, but imagine his surprise when he noticed the lockbox and thought to himself, hey, here I am, a Sacramento real estate agent with a buyer and whoa, I have a display key that will open this lockbox. I will do it.
I know when the agent was there because I check my lockbox showings via the Supra website 2 to 3 times a day.
This agent did not bother to see if the home was listed. Which it is not published in MLS yet. Or maybe he did and he realized it was not on the market and that was simply his flimsy first excuse. Because his second excuse was he figured the seller would receive multiple offers, and he thought for some odd reason that we would give him priority with his offer if he submitted it quickly. And the way to submit a fast offer first was to break into the home without permission. Yeah!
This is winning on so many levels, not.
MLS guidelines allow showing of a home when that home is in active status in MLS and the showing instructions are followed. In some parts of town, and I’m not saying where, I don’t even put a for sale sign in the yard because agents out showing homes will use a lockbox if they can spot that lockbox without looking up the home in MLS to even determine if it’s available to be shown. I’ve had buyer’s agents enter occupied pending sales unauthorized with a naked seller in the shower. Geez, Louise!
MetroList should improve its training for agents and not just hand out lockboxes like they are candy.
All I can say is it’s a good thing that seller didn’t hire this agent and instead chose me. We’ll see what tomorrow brings when this home hits the market.
A Sacramento Lockbox Experience Shed Light on a Bad Agent
When I first moved to Sacramento in 2002, I did not yet belong to MLS. I had not yet reactivated my real estate license because it involved passing the California real estate exam again. The real estate laws in California changed over the past 12 years or so since I had left the state, so it took me a few months to choose an office, take the exam and become an official Sacramento real estate agent who has access to MLS as a member of MetroList.
As a member of MetroList, I also get to buy my own Sacramento lockboxes and secure them to homes that I list, so other agents can gain access if the sellers aren’t home. Lockboxes come in handy for appraisers and after the sellers move out, when the buyers conduct a final walkthrough. It’s very difficult to get into a Sacramento lockbox if you don’t have an display key. The good thing about the infrared communication device on the lockbox is it sends the agent’s information to a website. I check this website every night before I turn off my computer to join my husband for dinner.
The website tells me the name of the agent who used the lockbox, the time and the day, the agent’s telephone number, the agent’s email address and the name of the agent’s broker. It’s also a useful list in case somebody left the lights on by mistake, I can track down the last person to show and ask them to be more prudent in the future. I also email all buyer’s agents who showed my listings that day to ask for feedback and thank them for showing.
When I bought my home in Sacramento, the previous listing agent left the lockbox on the railing and I couldn’t get it off. He never came back to pick it up. I don’t know if it was because he did not want to run into me again or if he simply forgot. I would be mortified if I forgot to pick up a lockbox. Not only that, but lockboxes cost around $100, and I own about $8,000 worth of lockboxes. To get a lockbox off, I had to resort to a reciprocating saw. It took me a good 20 minutes of teeth rattling to saw through the shackle.
It’s much easier to use a display key to open the lockbox. I could have called my own agent to come over and use her display key, but she had done such a lousy job during my escrow. I did not want to ever speak to her again. I vowed I would never do what she did to my own clients. She felt that my husband was her client and forgot all about me. She did not return my phone calls or emails. She never answered her cellphone when I called. We almost did not close escrow because she messed up so badly. As I sawed through the shackle on that lockbox, I thought about her, and how grateful I am that I will never be like her.
In addition to my heros and heroines, whom I admire and aspire to mirror, the bad ones also teach me the paths to avoid, what not to do.
