I have to tell you about one of the greatest inventions of all time!  About a year ago I started to change over all my door locks on my units to a new type of lock.  These door knobs come with an interchangeable cylinder in the center that you can quickly swap out at any time.  You keep one extra cylinder on hand at all times, and when a tenant moves out, you simply take your spare cylinder and put it in their lock.  This way, exiting tenants never have access to their old apartment after they leave, even if they’ve made extra copies of their keys and didn’t turn them in to you.

As the landlord/investor, you have one master key that fits all the cylinders.  Or, you can arrange it so one of your master keys works in all the locks at one building, all the locks at all buildings in one city or state, or all the buildings that one manager/management company manages - however you want.

Gone are the days of having the huge key ring full of keys!  Or going to the apartments only to find that you forgot to bring the right key.  You can just keep the ONE key on your car keys and you have it with you at all times.  This system is awesome.

What I like even better is that the company who makes the locks keeps your ordering information on file.  You don’t have to order all the locks you’ll ever need at once.  Each time you place an order, they will send you more locks and cylinders that will work with the master key you already have.  Or not.  However you like.

This lock system has saved us a ton of time, aggravation, and money.  It also decreases our liability and gives us peace of mind knowing that ex-tenants cannot access any of our units.  Here’s the website where you can find the locks I use.