Home Buyers: Are You Worth $17.50?

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