REALTORS® rejoice! Representing buyers and sellers can require many activities that take up a lot of time. The biggest time-saving systems in our recent era have been email (ok, not that recent, but worth mentioning) and DocuSign or other clickable signature software (goodbye driving across town for a last set of initials!). I am willing to stand up and say that if done right, the recent changeover to the SentriLock lockbox system may go down in the “Time Savings Hall of Fame” for CREB Realtors.
Many of the services we provide for our clients are performed by third-party professionals (photographers, home inspectors, etc). It is common practice that an agent will meet these professionals at the property to let them in since they do not have access to our lockboxes. Furthermore, relating specifically to home inspectors, the CREB Rules state:
“Unless otherwise instructed by the Seller in writing, it is the Buyer’s Representative’s responsibility to provide access and ensure the security of the property during and after the appointment.”
The new SentriLock boxes now enable you to provide a “One Day Code” to someone requiring access to a property (the code is good for 60 minutes). In addition, any seller can give unsupervised access to a person of their choosing, as long as we have this permission in writing. Now a professional can access the keys to the home and, with the seller’s permission, they may enter the property to provide their service. The best part… all of this can happen without you going to the property.
From the perspective of the Seller’s representative, this is easy to understand. In the Seller Representation Agreement, additional terms can be added to obtain permission for the specific company names of your photographer, measurement company, cleaner, etc., to be allowed to access the property with reasonable notice.
From the Buyer’s representative perspective, the biggest time commitment at the property is the home inspection. In the additional terms section of the purchase agreement, you can add a clause stating that the seller gives permission for a specific, certified, insured home inspection company to access the lockbox and enter the property without the buyer’s agent being present. This not only saves you the driving time (potentially an hour or more round-trip), but also the three hours of sitting down and staying out of the way of the inspector. The Realtor can then make the choice to let the buyers have a private meeting with the inspector, free of your influence and biases, or you can attend the last 30 minutes to hear the report and answer questions.
In all of these cases, a seller’s Realtor can provide a One Day Code to the named professionals in the agreement. Since the codes are only good for 60 minutes, two codes can be issued for entry and exit, or the professional can be instructed to leave the box open.
We encourage you to take advantage of this newfound extra time and the opportunity to let your team of trusted professionals do what they do best.
-Written by Lindsey Smith, CIR REALTY – Manager of Operations and Realtor Development
