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Old 08-27-2016, 09:12 AM
 
Location: El paso,tx
4,514 posts, read 2,523,760 times
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As an agent and frequent home buyer ( dh and I move every yr or 2, yes you should change the locks. Agents have had access to the keys anday have given contractors key codes to get the key to get in. Or the prior owner may have given neighbor a key, or the kids of previous owner may have lent a key to a friend.
Definitely rekey.
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Old 08-27-2016, 09:23 AM
 
473 posts, read 521,260 times
Reputation: 1034
As others have said, there's no downside and it doesn't cost much.
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Old 08-27-2016, 09:54 AM
 
Location: Flahrida
6,420 posts, read 4,913,806 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rakin View Post
Change the toilet seats also.
Unless its a color coded seat and no replacement is available. Nothing looks worse than a white seat on a colored toilet. On a more serious note by all means change the locks than for no other reason than your insurance company might deny your claim (unlikely but anything is possible) if there is a robbery. Better safe than sorry and its usually only a $100 max and you can get all the locks on 1 key.
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Old 08-27-2016, 09:58 AM
 
Location: El Dorado Hills, CA
3,720 posts, read 9,999,504 times
Reputation: 3927
Re-key the locks
Re-key the mailbox if it's keyed
Change the garage door opener settings, and the garage key pad if applicable
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Old 08-27-2016, 10:15 AM
 
1,478 posts, read 1,514,349 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Thundarr457 View Post
Unless its a color coded seat and no replacement is available. Nothing looks worse than a white seat on a colored toilet. On a more serious note by all means change the locks than for no other reason than your insurance company might deny your claim (unlikely but anything is possible) if there is a robbery. Better safe than sorry and its usually only a $100 max and you can get all the locks on 1 key.
If your toilet seat is a color that they no longer make, it's definitely time to change the entire toilet!

OP, we always have locks ready to go when we buy a new home, first thing we do after closing is go and change them all. We bought our first home as a foreclosure and had heard a lot of stories about people coming in and emptying all the appliances and pipes out of the places at the very last second. Our last home was new construction and had been 'broken into' a few weeks before closing. There was no sign of forced entry so I knew there were people with keys floating around.
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Old 08-27-2016, 10:41 AM
 
12,016 posts, read 12,760,107 times
Reputation: 13420
Quote:
Originally Posted by chiluvr1228 View Post
I would definitely be changing the locks and if apartment complexes don't at least change the tumblers between tenants and something happens I wonder if they could be held liable?


I requested a lock change when I moved in, not sure if it was really done or not but I also had management install a chain lock which my condo didn't have.
When you rent an apartment you would need the LLs permission to change it and then have to give him and or the super a copy too.
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Old 08-27-2016, 11:12 AM
 
Location: Las Vegas, NV
57 posts, read 63,889 times
Reputation: 85
That was one of the first things we did was re-key all the locks. Wasn't that expensive at all.
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Old 08-27-2016, 11:38 AM
 
Location: Wasilla, AK
7,448 posts, read 7,588,269 times
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I bought a new deadbolt for my winter house, making sure the key cuts were as dissimilar as possible. This makes it harder for some to "bump" it open. If you've never heard of key bumping, there are plenty of videos about it on YouTube. I then rekeyed the rest of the locks to the new key, which is actually a pretty easy affair. My main home was brand new and the contractor never gave out keys, so I haven't rekeyed that one yet. But I did replace the deadbolt on the front door with a pushbutton operated lock. The nice thing about that is you can program in about 30 codes, so if, for example, you change housekeepers, you simply deactivate their code. My garage doesn't have a deadbolt, but I did replace the knob with the same type of pushbutton lock.
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Old 08-27-2016, 11:50 AM
 
Location: New Orleans, LA
1,846 posts, read 3,940,853 times
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My real estate guy (and all the others working for that agency) require all home buyers to read and sign a paper that says we should have the locks re-keyed immediately. It is the sensible thing to do and can eliminate some possible problems.

I always do that. When I moved into my new (to me) house last summer, I had all the locks completely changed out because I wanted keypad deadbolts and matching new doorknobs and locks installed. So, by putting that at the top of my list of upgrades, I eliminated the extra cost of having the old locks re-keyed.
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Old 08-27-2016, 11:53 AM
 
Location: New Orleans, LA
1,846 posts, read 3,940,853 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lbjen View Post
Our last home was new construction and had been 'broken into' a few weeks before closing. There was no sign of forced entry so I knew there were people with keys floating around.
Now that is CREEPY!!! Good thing you took care of the problem right away.
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