Good morning folks!
My question. Is there any way to have the Supra Box service without belonging to a realtor association? I have had one for 2 years and use it quite often but it goads me that with belonging to the association for over 2 years and a yearly fee of $165.00 with no business from this association plus rental of box that this seems to be a steep price. I have not solicited to realtors since January of last year and I do not want to be associated with them.
There is no way that I am aware of that you can obtain a key for independent use. Many RE Associations limit the use of Supra Keys to RE Agents only and deny access to Affiliate Members.
We maintain service for the use of the keys by our Office. The convenience outweighs the expense incurred.
There are many costs of doing business. Supra Key Rental and Professional Affiliations are part of your fixed operating expenses.
I have a Supra key and in our area the ones provided to inspectors are not allowed to access a house unless the realtor provides a Call Before Showing (CBS ) code to the inspector that is keyed into the Supra before using it to open the lock box. The code is for a specific box. Therefore an inspector cannot just use the key to access any house.
At first I was offended at being thought less trustworthy than Realtors but on second thought, I don’t want the liability of what would happen if I lost a key that could access any lock box.
If I had a Supra key that could unlock any lockbox in the city, it would carry tremendous liability. I don’t want that. Paying to be an affiliate in the Realtor association is annoying if all I want is a Supra key but it is the Realtors listing and their client. If I was them I would want to have control over who entered my client’s house too.
I’ve had mine for over a year and use it frequently, but it is the electronic type. The whole idea as I see it is it records whoever has entered the building using the “key” including the time and day. It also has your own private “code” that must be entered in order to open the key box. Therefore, I’m not worried about someone using it if I was to “lose” it.
I simply could not be in the home inspection business without the Supra Key. Who wants to want/count on a realtor to show up and let you in. It is particularly handy with radon work as well. If you count your time worth anything at all it is CHEAP!
We were allowed to have them in Colo, but Idaho does not.
It’s kind of ironic, they would trust us with combo boxes (no accountability), but not with e-keys . . .
I always wanted access to them, but the Realtor association here allows only Realtors to have them. So I convinced my domestic partner, Jim, to be come a Realtor. Now I have access to a Supra key. It’s great.
Well, outside of Monopoly, Indian, Poker, Craps, Go Fish, Mother May I, Trivial Pursuit, Clue, Scrabble, Hearts, and Solitaire, I’ve never been accused of cheating. And I thought you were my friend. I have now moved you to my Ignore Group. Is it lonely in there?
To me it isn’t worth the effort and expense of a key. I’ve never had a problem with Realtors letting me in. Most of the time, they are there before me, and the rare one that is late is no biggie, since I inspect the exterior first anyway.
I use my SupraKey on ~25% of my inspections. Our area Bd of Realtors has elected to require CBS codes for affiliate members but that’s a small price to pay for the convenience of the key when it’s needed. Here’s the other thing, that fact gives me the opportunity to contact the listing agent before the inspection, chat with them for a few minutes and develop a little rapport with them. I put them on my newsletter e-mail list then, i.e. no spamming.
But I must admit that it is convenient to have a key, so that Realtors know that they don’t have to show up on time and we’ll get busy. I have teams, so usually one does the inside and one does the outside, so it’s nice to be able to get both of them started at the same time by having keys.
