All Forum Posts by: Michael Nahm

@Michael Nahm, we use the iCore locks from Landlordlocks.com.  They cost about $45 per lock (x2 for front door and back door), so they aren't the cheapest.  But they are on a master key system, so my one Master key opens every lock in our inventory.  No more massive key ring!  Also, you get a Control key that allows you to pull out the lock core and replace it with another core in 5 seconds.  I re-key the lock right in front of the tenant at the lease signing so they can see that the old key no longer works and the new key I just gave them does work.

Back in the old days I used to swap out locks....ugh.  Took me 10 minutes to re-key a house, and seems like one lock would break (cheap!) eventually.  Then the other one was no good since I wanted sets keyed alike.

They also have "trap" screws that have a very unique driver bit head, so tenants cannot pull my locks off and put their own on.  I highly recommend the iCore series, having used them now for 3 years and my life is so much easier.  They are commercial grade, much tougher than regular locks.  All you need is one set of extra cores ($5 per core) and you can simply rotate the one that is pulled out to another house, etc.  If at an apartment complex, you'd probably want several extra cores so that you could hold an old core out of circulation for at least 6 months.

I hope that helps.

Change the locks, you have too.  You have no idea who has keys and will show up to a rental.  Crash on a couch after they are no longer living there, get in a bed in their old bedroom. Impaired and crazy people know no bonds. I know people it has  happened to. 

We have an extra set of knobs or use kwikset.  Others use landlordlock system but it is expensive. Also you can use keyless se locks with codes you can change.  

@Michael Nahm

Kwikset has what are called "smartkeys". You can rekey the dead bolts and door knobs with a different key. This allows you to keep the same dead bolt and door knob and just change the key.

https://www.build.com/kwikset-400t-s/s192982?uid=2678466&source=gg-gba-pla_2678466!c1045498776!a54026150289!dc!ng&gclid=CjwKCAiA4Y7yBRB8EiwADV1haUqoHLYBUQh9x39HP8Q4Kmr0xMFH7qI0xvDQPk3tUCzao6NVfaBiQxoCj9QQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Either rotate locks between properties or get the kwikset smartkey locks that you can re-key in minutes without removing the lock.