Waukesha County Home

C O N T E N T S Think outside the box for fall landscape Discover seven uses for autumn leaves Explore remodeling ideas at NARI fall home show A publication of the Waukesha Freeman and Oconomowoc Enterprise • OCTOBER 2018 Fall Home & Garden Special Edition Your Guide to Homes, Home Improvement, Lawn & Garden & MORE! By Catherine Jozwik Special to Waukesha County Home Realtors in the Metro Milwau- kee area now have access to tech- nology that makes selling a home even easier. The Greater Milwaukee Associ- ation of Realtors recently began using electronic lockboxes to store keys for homes they are trying to sell. The Sentri-Lock Bluetooth Real- tor lockboxes are controlled by the Sentri-Connect smartphone app. The lockbox can also be opened with a keycard. "We're excited about it from a security standpoint," said Mike Kollmansberger, a Realtor with Shorewest. He added that the lock- box took about 18 months to devel- op, but GMAR has been consider- ing using similar security systems for over a decade. Realtors in the Madison and Fox Valley area currently use elec- tronic lockboxes, noted Kollmans- berger. So far, about 6,500 lockbox- es have been installed on Milwau- kee-area homes with MLS listings, with around 2,500 more to be added. The box costs around $100 Raising the bar on home-selling security Submitted photo A Realtor uses a Sentri-Lock Bluetooth key card to gain entrance through an electronic lockbox. Electronic lockboxes for Realtors total 6,500 in Milwaukee area See LOCKBOXES/Page 2

• Cover