How To Select Apartment Access Systems

The Real Estate Espresso Podcast

How To Select Apartment Access Systems

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How To Select Apartment Access Systems

Welcome to the Real Estate Espresso Podcast, your morning shot of what’s new in the world of real estate investing. I’m your host, Victor Menasce.

On yesterday’s show, we talked about building perimeter access. This is part of an entire building system for your residential apartments. On today’s show, we’re going to be talking about how to provide keys for the individual apartments. There are many different systems out there.

If you use a hotel key card system, then you’re sending an indirect message to your residents that you don’t expect them to stay for very long. That idea can get planted in a resident’s mind early in the process. They might not say anything about it, but there’s a nagging idea in the back of their mind that they should be thinking of their apartment as a short-term stay rather than as their home. So, you want to be careful about the system choices that you use.

If your property is truly intended for a short-term stay, then there’s no problem with that idea. But, if you expect people to stay for years and years, that’s probably not the idea you want to reinforce every time they enter their apartment. In an ideal world, you want the same database to program the building’s perimeter and provide access to the building’s apartments, although these systems often are based on different manufacturers.

From a safety standpoint, if you want to change keys every time a resident moves out, in the old days you would call a locksmith and re-key the lock; that meant using a high-quality commercial lock that could easily survive the use of multiple rekeying. When you consider the minimum service charge for a locksmith, each rekey can cost several hundred dollars, and for that reason, electronic locks are a much more attractive option.

There are several different technologies used in electronic locks, some are wired which are incredibly complex and costly to install, and I don’t recommend them. Most are battery-powered. That means you’re going to have to have a proactive battery replacement program, probably at least on a yearly schedule, if not more often. Some key systems are completely standalone, meaning they don’t communicate wirelessly at all. However, the newer ones have a wireless connection to a host.

You will need to choose the wireless system carefully because each choice has implications. Wireless systems often have limited range and can have shorter battery life than standalone systems. There are a lot of choices out there and prices vary widely. The residential locks, costing around $300, are intended for single-family homes. They do not integrate with a central database. The more sophisticated locks are those from companies like Schlage, Yale, and Durma Kaba. They’re designed to integrate with a central database.

The home automation industry has several wireless standards that underpin the technology. ZigBee, a prominent wireless standard that has been used in home automation for many years, has a mesh networking capability, that means the devices can talk to each other and through each other. Many major lock manufacturers offer ZigBee compatible locks. However, to fully utilize a ZigBee lock, including for remote access and automation, you’re going to need a ZigBee compatible hub. There are many different manufacturers for these. Many ZigBee systems allow for local control, even if your internet connection goes down, as long as the hub is still operational. ZigBee systems also have pretty good battery life due to their low power nature of the technology.

There are some newer technologies, specifically a technology called Thread. It’s a low-power mesh networking technology, designed for smart home devices. Another one is a layer that runs on top of Thread, called M.A.T.T.E.R.. It’s an application layer that uses Internet protocol, similar to Wi-Fi and Ethernet. The objective of M.A.T.T.E.R. technology is to unify smart home devices by allowing devices from different manufacturers and ecosystems to communicate directly and reliably with each other. The beauty of using a technology like M.A.T.T.E.R. is its function on top of Wi-Fi, which is nearly ubiquitous.

Now, some lock systems use the lowest power version of Bluetooth and they are boasting battery lives of up to 2 years, with four AA batteries, instead of a proprietary battery design. These systems have the advantage that they connect well to a smartphone. These usually have a hidden tumbler with an old-fashioned metal key at the bottom and provide a backup in case of a battery failure. This makes it easy for a property manager to respond to a call of a residence locked out of their apartment.

One of the key elements to figure out is which property management software you’re going to be using and will it support the integration of these building access and apartment access systems. This allows you to use a single database to program and authorize tenants from a single interface, or will you need to input the data more than once for each disparate system?

There are a lot of new technologies out there, and I lean towards tried and true established manufacturers like Yale, Schlage, and DhormaKaba. These are the ones that have significant market shares and are pretty much guaranteed to be around for years to come where you will be able to get replacement parts. Buying from a two-year-old startup is probably not a great solution, at least not in the long term.

As you think about that, have an awesome rest of your day, go make some great things happen, and we’ll talk to you again tomorrow.

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