Old Supra lockboxes become inoperable when they expire in December 2015

We will soon have a crisis in Sacramento regarding Supra lockboxes. Mark my words. Saturdays are always “lockbox Saturdays” for me in my Sacramento real estate business. This means I drive around to my closings from that week and retrieve my lockboxes. I generally do it myself because picking up Supra lockboxes brings closure to me; satisfaction that the home has sold, my sellers are thrilled, and I will get another fabulous review added to my client reviews because those are my two goals for every closed sale: 1) make my sellers ecstatic and 2) get a good review.

The reason the crisis is about to happen was fairly clear to me yesterday. One of the lockboxes I picked up was from a home in Elk Grove that I’ve sold 5 times or more. It was a long listing with its share of complexities and challenges. The box I retrieved was an old Supra lockbox, prior to the two-for-one iBox exchange at MetroList. In another 3 months, though, those old lockboxes will no longer work. That Supra lockbox will expire. It means it won’t open and can’t be removed from the gas meter or wherever the agent stuck it by utilizing a key fob or a display key. It is of no value to me or to anyone.

I brought it home and stuck it on the shelf with my other 26 lockboxes that will no longer work by the end of the year. As I shoved it into the lineup of my sad and pathetic display of expired lockboxes, I realized that MetroList has screwed me out of $1,300. MetroList promised me that I could keep my lockboxes as long as they still had juice in them, and many of those lockboxes are at 70% of power. They could last another 5 years.

As a result, I did not turn all of my lockboxes during the two-for-one exchange at MetroList, only about half of them. The other half I kept. Soon as the exchange was over, MetroList then announced all of our old lockboxes will expire at the end of December. Don’t you love those guys? If I had known they were about to reverse that decision, I would have turned in those lockboxes at the exchange and received $1,300 worth of brand new lockboxes. I trusted them to be truthful. In real estate this is known as a material fact.

Wait, you must be saying, while you may feel empathetic toward me, seriously, what does it mean to you, the consumer, to homeowners in Sacramento? How do these old Supra lockboxes affect you? I’ll tell you. Although I am a real estate agent with a conscience, even I wondered why I was removing an old lockbox that is of no use to me. Sure, I admit it crossed my mind. Why did I drive 30 minutes there and 30 minutes back to my home to pick up a worthless item? Well, like, I said, I have a conscience. I have an ethical responsibility to the buyers who purchase the homes I list.

I’m betting there will be many agents who will say to themselves, screw it. I’m not removing the lockbox. And they’ll abandon the lockbox, leave it there. You know they will. If an old lockbox is not removed by the end of December, MetroList says it will no longer work. If you find an old Supra lockbox attached to your home, there is recourse. First, write down the serial number and call MetroList to report it. MetroList has the ability to look up the agent from the serial number on the lockbox. Then, you can call the agent and / or the agent’s broker. It is that agent’s responsibility to remove the lockbox, even if he has to haul over a reciprocating saw. MetroList is 916.922.7584.