Simplifying Non-Member and Out-of-Area Agent Access in a Changing Legal Landscape
The real estate industry has seen significant legal shifts in recent years including affecting how agents conduct their business and access properties through electronic lockboxes.
In 2020, the Department of Justice ruled that MLSs and associations must allow non-member agents access to lockboxes in their market, with seller approval, as necessary. SentriLock, a leading provider of real estate and property access management solutions across North America and Europe, has consistently championed open and free access for agents offering two seamless methods, Flex Codes and SentriConnect. Associations cannot force out of area agents or non-members to purchase a subscription.
While other lockbox companies may charge fees and create unnecessary hurdles for non-member and out-of-area agents to get access and potentially put more work on association and MLS staff -SentriLock prioritizes ease and efficiency at no additional costs or staff time.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
SentriLock users can control all property access through three different secure methods. REALTORS® will always have access to the robust SentriKey mobile app provided by their association or MLS. However, for contractors, non-REALTOR® members, or out of area agents without access to SentriLock, agents can grant time-limited, traceable, and revocable access ensuring secure entry right from their REALTOR® app.
This technology requires no association or staff time and allows flexible scheduling, with access windows from 30 minutes to 31 days, providing easy access management. These methods can also be automated through SentriLock’s comprehensive and robust showing management and scheduling service. This showing service comes at no extra cost to SentriLock’s customers.
Even with these alternate access methods like SentriConnect, listing agents will still receive instant notifications of access events allowing for immediate response to any unauthorized attempts or unusual activity These alternative entry methods maintain comprehensive audit logs and generate reports for all access events. Agents can learn more about these methods on the SentriLock website www.sentrilock.com/sentriconnect.
“Our customers and their members deserve access management solutions that are affordable and compliant with any rules and requirements. Their business is around providing exceptional service to consumers. We never want to be a roadblock in that. We continuously prioritize client feedback, collaborating with advisory committees to refine our access and showing management ecosystem.”
Scott Fisher, CEO and Founder of SentriLock.
IT’S WHY ASSOCIATIONS CHOOSE SENTRILOCK
This commitment to staying on top of innovation has led to significant growth for the company. In the last 24 months, more than 40 MLS and Associations have swapped from other providers in, citing superior technology, agent access flexibility, and exceptional customer service as key factors.
CEO of Heartland REALTOR® Organization Jim Haisler said it’s one of the main reasons why his organization ultimately chose to make the conversion to SentriLock.
“We must be able to get people into listings. It’s as simple as that. The SentriKey® system just works, and our members find it so easy to use. Once we saw that our neighboring associations were going with SentriLock as their lockbox provider, it only made sense for us to do the same. We haven’t looked back.”
Jim Haisler, CEO, Heartland REALTOR® Organization