Why Deadbolts On Your Rentals Rock!
Do you have deadbolts on your rentals? I’m sure you do.
How about your own home (this tip also applies at home!)? Most importantly, don’t tell me you have a locking handle, or worse yet that you have both?
If you have a locking handset, you need to make it a priority to remove it from your rental property, and also your home if it’s there, and make sure there’s only a deadbolt that locks on your rentals on both the front and back doors.
Why do this you might ask?
For one simple reason.
The only way you can lock yourself out of a property with a deadbolt is if you lose the key.
With a locking handle however that’s not the case. One slight miscalculation when going outside and suddenly a tenant can find themselves locked out of their property.
Suddenly this can become a bigger problem.
Now if this does happen, as a landlord you hope they can call their spouse to come unlock the door for them, but there are a couple other less happy outcomes that may also play out.
Sometimes they think they can break in on their own, usually resulting in damaged or broken doors or windows. Little surprises that you may not discover until they’re long gone and have moved on.
Other times, they may simply think of you as their personal door valet and end up calling you to unlock it.
In my mind neither is acceptable, although if you know there could be damage otherwise, guess who ends up driving over to save a tenant, yep you!
That’s one huge reason you need to remove any locking handsets on your rentals and why it’s also a good idea to do it on your personal residence as well.
Even Better, Deadbolts on Your Rentals And Lockboxes Outside
While sticking with deadbolts is the first step, there’s another strategy you can use to make your life easier.
It involves using lockboxes on all your properties!
Lockboxes come in many varieties, but the majority use a combination lock or keypad that you enter a code on allowing you to access the keys stored inside.
You’ve probably seen the ones Realtors use which may be a little more high tech (or in some cases lower tech depending on the Realtor), but we’ve had pretty good success with the simple Masterlock units.
They’re available either as units like the above image that lock onto a railing or a door handle or you can purchase other units that can be anchored directly onto a structure using screws.
By having a key for the property actually on the property with a secret combination code you not only have emergency access for a tenant situation, we also use this to allow trusted contractors in to save everyone’s time.
It works perfectly for allowing cleaners in between tenants, appliance repair people in to fix laundry or or appliances or even locked out tenants!
Of course you’ll want to change the code after giving it out to the tenant or to too many additional people, but this still saves you a ton of time and over the years it’s become a must have item for all of our properties.
Deadbolts won’t cost you much more than normal hand locks and all it takes is one trip to unlock a door to pay for itself.
Going High Tech
Times change and technology does as well.
When we started with our rental properties we used a master key setup where we had a locksmith specially prepare a bunch of locks for us so we had a single master key allowing us to unlock every door.
The tenants would get their own individual key that would only work on that lock, but my master key would work everywhere!
If I had to start over now however, I’d start with some of the smart locks that have become available.
These come in dozens of varieties, finishes and options, so you may want to do some homework. Oh and they also come at a variety of different price points which should also be a consideration.
Higher end units like this Schlage support Bluetooth allowing Smart phone users easy access. They can also be paired with additional hardware allowing homeowners (and landlords) to lock and unlock the doors from anywhere and even through services like Alexa or Google home if they like.
If your property is in a more upscale area features like this may be a great selling feature.
If however your property is less upscale you can look lower down the line to something that maybe isn’t so smart but still allows tenants to enter codes for access like this Kwikset.
It can be a bit of a rabbit hole, so you will want to do your homework and you will want a device from a reputable brand name.
If you end up doing this for a while (and landlording isn’t typically a short term hobby), having a brand name helps ensure parts and/or warranty will be available after the fact.
This may also mean you have to spend a few more dollars to get a quality unit, but with the wear and tear doors get on rental properties it save you time and money if you spend $150 every three or four years rather than $50 every year!
The bottom line is high tech can be good, just be smart about it, especially with your rentals!
One More Landlord Deadbolt Solution
One company that keeps on coming up in conversations in various landlord groups I belong to is Landlordlocks.com
This organization provides master keyed locks specifically for landlords. As I mentioned earlier I’ve personally been using a master key system since 2003 and don’t know how I could have lived with out it.
The challenge being you normally need a locksmith to set everything up for you, which can be expensive, and you might be left partially hanging if they retire (ask me how I know…).
Now I haven’t personally used LandlordLocks, but as I mentioned they are getting lots of great free press on multiple landlord forums so it might be worth checking out!