Just Closed on a House? The Lock Checklist for Your First Day

Start outside. Walk around the house and count every lock that takes a key. Front door, back door, the side door into the garage, and the door from the garage into the house. Add a basement door or a storm door with its own lock. A knob and a deadbolt on the same door count as two. The garage entry door is the one new owners leave off the count most often when they call us. That count is what we quote a whole-house rekey from on the phone.

A sliding patio door often has no key cylinder. If yours takes a key, add it to the count. Either way, check that its latch catches every time you close it.

At closing, the seller hands over the keys they can find. On most houses, others went to people the seller knew over the years.

• The seller’s family and friends. Grown children, a sister who checked on the house, the neighbor who fed the cat. A spare given out years ago rarely comes back.
• People who worked in the house. A cleaner, a dog walker, the contractor who finished repairs before the sale. Some got a key so the owner did not have to be home.
• Agents, inspectors & the lockbox. While the house was for sale, its key sat in a lockbox on the door. Buyers’ agents, inspectors, and appraisers used it. SentriLock, a lockbox maker, says its system shows the listing agent the name and company of every agent who showed the house. The record shows who opened the box, but it cannot show whether anyone copied the key.
• Keys hidden outside. Look under the mat, in the planters, under a fake rock, and along the top of the door trim. The Indiana Department of Homeland Security tells homeowners never to leave a spare key hidden under a rock or a door mat. Check the garage for a house key hanging on a hook, too. Anyone with an old remote can reach it. Bring in any you find, and do not hide a new one in the same spot.

A new build has had more people through it than most resales. Framers, electricians, plumbers, drywall hangers, painters, and cleaning crews worked inside for months. The builder had to let all of them in. New construction rekeys are regular work for us in the subdivisions around Evansville and Newburgh.

Ask the builder how the crews got in and how many keys went out. Write down the answer for your records. Then rekey, whatever the answer. Punch-list crews often come back after closing to finish small items. Let them in yourself when they do, and do not give the builder a copy of the new key.

Rekeying swaps the small pins inside each lock so a new key turns it and every old key stops. The locks stay on the doors. We set every exterior door to one key unless you ask for something different. If a back door or the garage entry should take its own key, tell us when you call.

Do it before the movers, the internet installer, and your own contractors start coming through. Otherwise the old keys still work while boxes and crews go in and out. We have rekeyed houses for new owners since 1983, and on every one we confirm the house is yours when we arrive.

If a lock is worn, sticks, or is the wrong grade for its door, we tell you at the door. Our guide to rekeying or replacing your locks covers when new hardware is worth buying. If a deadbolt drags or will not lock with the door shut, check the door before anyone replaces the lock. Our post on a deadbolt that is hard to lock has the test.

The opener in the garage remembers the remotes and keypad codes paired with it, including remotes the seller forgot to leave behind. A car with an opener built into its mirror or visor counts as one more remote. HomeLink, which makes many of those built-in openers, tells drivers to clear the programmed buttons before they sell a car. A house opener needs the same step after a sale.

Wiping the opener’s memory removes the seller’s remotes and car at once. On many Chamberlain openers, holding the Learn button on the motor unit until its light goes out clears the remotes and keyless entry. Other brands work in a similar way, and your opener’s manual has the steps. Afterward, pair the remotes you kept, set a new keypad code, and program your own car.

Until the opener is cleared, keep the door from the garage into the house locked. We find that door unlocked on a lot of house calls, because the big garage door feels like the outside wall.

Go through the key ring the seller left. A few of those keys open things that are not doors.

• A Postal Service mailbox. Where the Postal Service owns the box, the post office changes the lock before it reissues the compartment to a new customer. A cluster box, the bank of locked mailboxes at the curb in many new subdivisions, is different. The Postal Service puts lock and key service for cluster boxes on the builder or property owner, so ask the builder or the HOA about yours. The post office can tell you which kind you have.
• Padlocks on a shed, gate, or outbuilding. We rekey the ones built for it. Replace the rest and keep every key that comes with the new ones.
• Pool, clubhouse, or gate keys and fobs. Those usually belong to the homeowners association. Ask it to turn off the seller’s fob and issue one in your name.
• Keys nobody can match to a lock. Try them on every door, window lock, and cabinet before you throw them out. One may open something you missed on your walk.

After the rekey, the only keys are the ones we hand you. Write down who gets a new key. That is usually each adult in the house, and maybe one neighbor you trust with a spare. Keep the list somewhere other than the key ring.

Leave your address off key tags. Whoever finds a tagged key then knows which door it opens. When a contractor or a cleaner needs to get in, let them in yourself, or lend a key and get it back that day. If one goes missing later, check the list for the doors it opened, so you know whether to rekey one lock or the whole set.

Count the locks before you phone A-1 Lock & Safe, and decide whether every door goes on one key. Mention any padlocks and keyed interior doors you want on the new key too. We check every lock ourselves before we start. You leave with as many new keys as the household needs. We work Monday through Saturday, eight to five. On a Sunday, call and ask what is available.