By Carole Hawkins, [email protected]
Shoppers move freely between Duval and St. Johns counties in their search for a home.
Now, so will the Realtors who help them.
The Northeast Florida Association of Realtors and the St. Augustine & St. Johns County Multiple Listing Service on Aug. 14 granted each other co-op access to their respective associations’ lockboxes.
That means NEFAR Realtors can show homes listed by St. Johns County Realtors and vice versa, using their regular lockbox key.
It was a simple enough change — both use the Supra lockbox systems. The manufacturer essentially flipped a switch, granting both associations co-op access to one another within 24 hours of the request.
But for Realtors working the Southside/Northern St. Johns County area, the added convenience was huge.
That’s because in places such as in Nocatee or along the County Road 210 corridor, there’s a lot of crossover between agents from the two associations.
To show a home listed by a neighboring association member, Realtors in the past had to get the listing agent to come out and open the lock box using their own key.
“It was sad when you’d have a customer at a house you were showing and they’d want to see a house next door and you couldn’t show it because it had a St. Johns lockbox on it,” said Sherry Davidson, president of Davidson Realty and a NEFAR member. “You would look unprofessional.”
One work-around was for listing agents to put two lockboxes on a house, one from their own association and one from their neighboring association.
The cost — $100 per year for the lockbox fee, a key service charge and association membership dues — added up.
After the associations made the switch, Glenn East, said his phone “lit up that night” with calls from Realtors.
“They said it was awesome and it was about time we did something like this,” said East, NEFAR’s CEO.
Realtors don’t need to do anything to take advantage of the change.
Fees already charged by Supra immediately grant access across both associations.
“It’s a win-win for everybody,” East said. “Before, we were collecting (extra lock box) fees just to be collecting fees. We don’t need to be doing that.”