Home Buyers: Are You Worth $17.50?
July 31, 2009 by Danilo Bogdanovic
Filed under Buyer Resources
Here’s a question for Loudoun and Fairfax County home buyers: “Are you worth $17.50?”
“Duh!” Of course you are!
So why would I ask such an obvious question?
Because you may be shocked to hear who doesn’t think you’re worth it.
Let me explain…
Background
To make a long story short… The majority of homes being sold through a Realtor in the Fairfax County area will have one type of electronic lock box known as a SentriLock while the majority of homes being sold through a Realtor in Loudoun County will have another type of electronic lock box known as a Supra.
Because there are quite a few Realtors that do business in both jurisdictions (Fairfax and Loudoun), both local Realtor Associations (NVAR and DAAR) have agreed to sell SentriLock and Supra lock box keys to the other association’s members for a nominal fee of no more than $175.00 per year.
If you’re wondering why this is so, drop me a line and I’ll email you the details.
Now back to, “Are you worth $17.50?”…
So let’s say you’re a buyer looking in Reston, Herndon, Sterling and Ashburn or… Fairfax, Centreville and South Riding or…(you get the picture). You will most likely run across both types of lock boxes on homes in those areas. Logic dictates that your buyer’s agent would/should have both sets of keys, right?
Wrong. Some Realtors do not have both lock box keys.
The ones that don’t have both keys have to call the listing agent and/or seller to ask them to let you into the home. This means that you have to work around the listing agent’s and seller’s schedule, not yours. This may also make you a bit uncomfortable considering that the listing agent and/or sellers will be hanging around the house while you’re going through it (aka zero privacy and sales pitches).
Why would an agent not have both lock box keys?
It’s not because it’s hard or expensive. To obtain a GE Supra Key, all you have to do is go to the DAAR offices in Leesburg (45 minutes from the furthest point in Fairfax County) and shell out a measly $175.00 per year. With 10 buyer deals per year (not hard to do), the cost of the key amounts to $17.50 per buyer. If a Buyer’s Agent is even a slight bit concerned about their buyer clients, they should have both sets of keys (as I and other quality agents do). Personally, if I didn’t have both keys, I would feel as though I was not giving my clients the service they deserve.
In my opinion, there is no excuse for not having both keys (except for laziness, lack of caring or too broke working as a Realtor to spend $17.50 per buyer client). Even if a Realtor has never done a deal in Loudoun before, the second they get a new buyer client that’s looking in Loudoun, they should go get a key. The longest they’ll ever have to wait to get a key is three days and that’s only if it’s a holiday weekend.
So, home buyers looking in Loudoun… Are you worth $17.50?
If someone doesn’t think so, contact someone who does – me.
I think you’re worth at least $18.00 if not $18.50 
Tina on Fri, 31st Jul 2009 12:01 pm
Danilo – this is just pathetic! Same with the agents who leave their firms to join a non-Realtor firm so they can avoid paying Realtor dues.
BTW – you’re worth $17.51 in my book!
Danilo Bogdanovic on Fri, 31st Jul 2009 2:32 pm
Thanks Tina – appreciate the extra penny
D'Ann Faught on Fri, 31st Jul 2009 2:42 pm
Totally agree! I have both..even though I rarely use the SUPRA because a lot of eastern Loudoun Realtors are using Sentrilock boxes. It is worth it for that ONE property though..might be the perfect one! And what is $175 a year if you are going to sell a $300K home?
Julie Emery on Fri, 31st Jul 2009 4:39 pm
While I don’t disagree that agents who are showing properties in both areas should go ahead and get both systems, let’s put the blame where it belongs. The associations did a disservice to sellers in Virginia as well as to association members when they couldn’t figure out a way for everyone to choose the same system. Who exactly was served by these decisions? I’m not saying any one association was at fault. I’m saying grown ups should sit down and put egos aside and do the right thing. The failure to reach a consensus is an indictment of all of those involved.
Danilo Bogdanovic on Fri, 31st Jul 2009 5:12 pm
It’s not a disservice to sellers if all agents had both keys. From a seller’s or buyer’s point of view, the blame will only fall on the agent for not having both keys.
The Dulles Area Association of Realtors (DAAR) has a contract with GE for the Supra lock box system through 2011. To not honor that contract would be a total lack of professionalism and their word and honor would be worth nothing. In addition, it would have cost DAAR thousands of dollars to get out of the contract in a time where membership is down as are budgets – a fiscally irresponsible decision.
DAAR held a huge meeting at which members voted on whether to honor the contract or to switch. The members voted in favor of honoring the contract (as it should have been in my humble opinion). The members also considered the the quality of each system when deciding – the GE Supra system is technologically superior and provides a much higher level of safety for homeowners/sellers and agents than the Sentrilock system.
Just because one association decides to switch to an inferior lock box key ahead of when neighboring association’s contracts are up doesn’t mean that the neighboring associations should not honor their existing contract and go broke in the process.
No_limits59 on Thu, 22nd Oct 2009 9:52 am
I am preparing for my 2nd interview later in the afternoon and this site really helped me a lot! ,