When Real Estate Technology Attacks - III

This is my final post on the subject – until something else breaks.  The first two posts are here and here.

Again, these things all happened within the same week which was stressful enough without these failures.  But this one brought my blood pressure up the highest. 

I was meeting first-time buyers for their LaGrange home inspection.  I grabbed my Supra key off the holder just in case the seller wasn’t going to be home.  The cradle is supposed to do an automatic update but mine doesn’t for some reason.  I don’t think it ever did.

I tried doing a manual e-sync but it wouldn’t take and I was running late so I thought I would just get the update code over the phone, which is an option.  The key seemed to be working fine, just needed the daily update.

The inspector is already at the home checking out the exterior.  He informs me that the seller just left.  I call the phone number to update my Supra key and the key won’t budge.  No sounds, no words appearing, nothing.  It was like it was completely dead.  I tried the method of “rebooting it” but that didn’t work.

My buyers are now there and I’m panicking.  The inspector tells us that the seller offered to open the door and he declined!  I'm trying to reach the listing agent to no avail.  I go to my car to speak to customer service who are telling me it seems to be a problem with my cradle and she tells me how to fix it.  My cradle is at home, about 25 minutes away.

I call my husband to get on Google local and find a LaGrange real estate office to try to find a cradle close by.  After several minutes of searching he finally finds one and they are nice enough to let me use their cradle.  All of this took at least 15-20 minutes which must have felt like an hour to the people waiting out in the cold!

As I’m trying to wait for the cradle to get my key to do something (another 15 minutes) I finally get a phone call from my buyer.  I figured he was going to tell me they were all leaving.  The seller had forgotten something and came home!

This time I was truly embarrassed with my technology breakdown.  I did feel guilty because I should have checked the key sooner than I did, even though this had never happened in all the years I’ve used the keypad.

I went home after the inspection and tried what support told me to do and the key seems to be working again but it still doesn’t do an automatic update like it should.  She told me that I needed to trade it in for the newer model so I guess I’ll have to check that out.

In my area, which is actually a little farther south of LaGrange, it seems like less and less agents are using the Suprakey system.  In fact, I had to remove my Supra lockbox off of a Bronzeville, Chicago condo for sale because none of the selling agents had the key to use it.

It is a nice system because I can see who viewed the property and when.  In my opinion, that’s all it’s good for.  I’ve had instances where I tried to show homes with the Supra lockboxes on that were stuck and the keybox wouldn’t drop.  I know of agents that have had to take a hammer to get these darn things open, which means the $100+ lockbox is now completely broken.

I remember attending a board function sponsored and about the Supra key system that I felt bad for the speakers since it was obvious the agents in my area were not that happy with the product.  Many of them have made their unhappiness heard by no longer using the products.  I am down to one Supra lockbox, the rest are all combination. 

I want my listings shown where I don’t have to be there every time to let people in.  If I have to do that, why use the Supra key since the only good thing about it to me is the detection system it provides. 

I have 3 showings tomorrow and only one of them is using a Supra lockbox.  Note to self:  Upon awaking, make sure key is updated and working...