The truth of the matter is, you generally don’t have much of a choice when it comes to which Realtor safe to use. The local Realtors Association typically chooses one type of safe deposit box, which essentially has a monopoly over that local area (e.g. Phoenix, Las Vegas, Detroit, etc.) that does not use a real estate agent safe. real estate at all. While you can pressure the Association to choose a particular type of real estate agent safe when the contract arises; the decision would ultimately be theirs, not yours. Using any lockbox in addition to the chosen lockbox system would not make sense because other real estate agents would not carry access keys or cards to access your listing.

There are currently two providers of real estate agent safes: Supra and Sentrilock. Supra is manufactured by GE Security, Sentrilock is an independent company; however, Sentrilock received venture capital funding from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). NAR feared that without a strong Supra competitor, Supra could exploit its market position by raising prices, providing inadequate service, etc. When a local Association of Realtors decides on a safe contract, they invite both companies to bid. Businesses try to display their prices (by safe deposit box and user fees), technology (e.g. access logs, live key updates, real-time information), equipment (e.g. illuminated keyboards), phone support smart phones like iPhone and Android, and customer service. .

In addition to not using a real estate agent safe, the other option is to use a mechanical contractor safe found at any hardware store. While they don’t have many features that you would find in a real estate agent safe, they do allow a basic way of granting others access to your property. They’re cheap, too – typically around $ 30, while some real estate agent safes cost upwards of $ 100 with lots of added costs (usage, insurance, training, etc.). Some associations, perhaps driven by their safe deposit box companies, have also taken steps to eliminate this option. The first rule they can implement is to make sellers only be able to opt out of using a Realtor safe by putting it in writing. The following rule may require that anyone using a mechanical box have a real estate agent box on the property as well. The final rule would be to simply ban mechanical safes altogether. When fining the real estate agent or removing the listing from the MLS, the rule has real force.