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Well, we closed yesterday. (the closing took 5 hours!) Long story...trust me.
We did go and change the locks, as well as the toilet seats.
Thanks!
HAHA! As a renter I've always changed the toilet seats too! I just prefer the soft padded toilet seats though and most times I can fine one that matches my bathroom decor.
JSB1021: why did your closing take so long? What should I be looking forward to other than signing papers and writing checks?
Well, for us, we sat there and waited for the bank to arrive with the funds. There were judgements and liens outstanding, and they had to be paid. The woman whose house it was, unfortunately is ill, and he daughter had power of attorney. Her husband was annoyed that it was taking so long, but for us, we had no choice. The funds hadn't arrived, and we needed to wait. After all, it was judgments and liens....on their end.
Lots of documents to sign, and checks to write. Fun, Fun, Fun!!!
We always buy new so we never change the locks. We have sold 4 homes and we always end up with some left over keys. The only house we gave all the keys was the first because we attended the closing. The other houses we were in another state when the closing took place and we didn't mail the keys.
We have built/bought two brand new houses. Changed the locks on both. Why? the locks the builders use have a master key that all of the subs working their jobs have. It has been known to not "tumble" once the new homeowner uses their key and the master still work. I had several neighbors that the subs showed up to do some finish up work after they had already closed and moved in and while the neighbors might not have made it home yet the subs Master Key still worked
Quote:
Originally Posted by mommytotwo
It was probably a waste anyway as like I said the old owners trying to come in would probably never happen, at least in our case.
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We have always rekeyed or changed the locks after we closed on a house even our new ones. When we bought this house that was pre-existing it was one of those things that slipped my mind and never got around to the first week. The sellers were very nice, gracious and fine upstanding people. Two weeks after moving in we woke up in the middle of the night to the security alarm going off. Found the BACK DOOR wide open and we have a lock on the gate. So someone had to jump the fence to unlock that back door. I knew it was locked as I vividly remembered checking it before going to bed. Found out several months later when I mentioned this to a neighbor that the sellers had a 20-something year old son that would show back up when he needed money or was in trouble. We figured it was probably him and did not realize his parents had moved yet or didn't know. When he opened the back door the alarm went off and we don't know if they sat their alarm or not or if he tried to disarm it before it went off full blast and his code didn't work. Stayed up the rest of the night and had to pay a premium to have a locksmith come out on a weekend to rekey the locks.
We have built/bought two brand new houses. Changed the locks on both. Why? the locks the builders use have a master key that all of the subs working their jobs have. It has been known to not "tumble" once the new homeowner uses their key and the master still work. I had several neighbors that the subs showed up to do some finish up work after they had already closed and moved in and while the neighbors might not have made it home yet the subs Master Key still worked
The 1st house we bought they builder just changed the front door lock themselves. After that we have had a special kind of lock that once you use the key they give you, the master key doesn't work anymore. Not sure how that works.
The 1st house we bought they builder just changed the front door lock themselves. After that we have had a special kind of lock that once you use the key they give you, the master key doesn't work anymore. Not sure how that works.
That is how it is SUPPOSED to work. It doesn't always "tumble" to make it where the master key does not work. Happened to two different neighbors and to us on our second house. Not happy about getting home and finding a contractor IN the house and even admitted he was able to use his key still.
Not all builders do this. Each of our houses is keyed separately and individually from the start. Our subs don't have any keys to the house, they use the garage door code for access during construction. So my advice is wipe the garage system and reprogram.
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