Agents Challenge Lock Box Plan

Dozens of real estate agents and brokers gathered at the Spokane Association of Realtors Wednesday to challenge a decision to buy $300,000 worth of high-tech lock boxes.

But association Executive Vice President Rob Higgins said the devices, which hold keys that give Realtors access to homes, will save agents time and improve customer service.

The boxes now in use require each Realtor to enter an identification number on a tumbler before a key will release the contents, he said.

Information about the last few users of the box is stored inside, Higgins said, but the box must be removed and dismantled to get at the data.

He said the process can take as much as a day.

That information is helpful to determine who is looking at the property, and in cases of unauthorized entry to a home.

The 4,500 new boxes work in conjunction with a detachable keypad on which the Realtor enters his or her number. The pad is then plugged into the box, which spits out the house key.

To find out who last entered a home, information is electronically fed back into a keypad, which can relay the data to a computer over an ordinary phone line.

Higgins said the computer responds immediately with more information than the present system provides.

But implementing the system requires Realtors to pay new monthly assessments, and the boxes cost $65, compared with $45 for the old boxes.

Also, Higgins said, the association intends to swap only one new box for two old ones when an exchange is made next week.

David Bray, an agent with Crane Realty, said some Realtors are unhappy because they must start writing checks for the new equipment during a time of the year when business is slow and personal expenses high.

The new boxes are an improvement, he said, but with agents able to show homes to buyers by using computers, they don’t need to enter as many homes as they used to.

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