Hi, there! Joe White here from Grow Property Management, your trusted property management company in Philadelphia.
I’ve been going back and forth for the past two and a half weeks with a property owner whose property my property management company recently began managing. It’s a new unit we just onboarded, and ever since we took it on, we’ve been trying unsuccessfully to get access to it. The biggest issue? We still haven’t received the keys. Without keys, we can’t do anything. The property just sits vacant, and the longer it sits, the worse off the owner is. We’re now at the end of July, and every day that passes moves us further away from the peak rental season, which is around April. That means every day we’re closer to the slow season, closer to Thanksgiving, and further from our best chance to find a great tenant.
We’ve been politely but persistently reaching out to the owner, just asking when we can expect the keys. At one point, they said they’d mail them, but surprise—no keys ever showed up. So I sent another follow-up this morning asking for an update. Their response? They’re “not comfortable” giving us a key. I’m sitting there thinking: what do you mean you’re not comfortable? We’re your property managers. The unit is vacant. You want us to rent it out, right? How exactly are we supposed to do that without access?
And if you’re thinking this is some strange, isolated situation, it’s not. I’ve owned this property management company Grow Property Management since 2008, and this kind of behavior is surprisingly common. We’ve noticed a consistent pattern where some owners get stuck at this point: they hire us, fill out the onboarding form, provide all their preferences (whether or not they allow pets, for example), and then suddenly become completely unwilling to hand over the keys.
It’s almost like there’s a psychological block with some of them. I don’t think it’s about security in any real sense; I think it’s more about possession. There’s something about handing over a physical item, especially something like a key, that some people just really resist. We see this same dynamic not just with property owners, but with tenants too. When tenants move out, despite us tracking how many keys we gave them and warning them that they’ll be penalized for not returning all copies, very few ever hand back every single key.
It’s not a big deal on the tenant side, since we rekey the property every time someone moves out, as required by law. But it still speaks to the same behaviour; people just don’t like handing over keys. We also run into trouble with mailbox keys, especially here in Philadelphia where locking mailboxes are common. Tenants leave and don’t give us those keys either. Technically, once they’re no longer the legal occupants, accessing the mailbox is trespassing. But again, I don’t think they’re keeping the keys to sneak back into the property. It seems more like a mental hang-up about giving up physical control over something they used to possess.
And now back to this particular owner. Even though we’re supposed to be managing the unit, they’ve now made it clear they’re uncomfortable giving us access. So we’re stuck. We can’t list it, we can’t show it, and we definitely can’t lease it. And the whole thing is frustrating because it’s so unnecessary. We’ve been in business for over 15 years. Not once in that time has a key gone missing on our watch. And even if it did, there’s no address, no identifying information on it. It’s a useless key unless you already know the property and the lock it opens. So the fear that it could be stolen and used for harm just isn’t grounded in any kind of realistic risk.
Plus, if the worst did happen and someone somehow used a stolen key to access a property, that’s what landlord insurance is for. I’m not a lawyer or an insurance broker, so I can’t give legal advice on that, but from what I understand, any damage from such an event would be covered. The point is: fear of mailing a key is irrational, and worse, it’s financially damaging.
Right now, that owner is racking up what we internally call a “vacancy penalty fee.” That’s the daily cost of a property sitting vacant. For the typical units we manage, that’s about $78 a day. This particular owner has already burned through two weeks of vacancy, 14 days, so that’s $1,092 out of their pocket. All because they can’t get over the discomfort of handing over a key. I’m not sure they even realize how much that delay is costing them, but it’s real. It’s measurable. And it’s entirely avoidable.
Owning a rental property is an investment, and like any investment, it requires rational decision-making. If you’re an owner and you find yourself unable or unwilling to give access to the professionals you’ve hired to manage your asset, you need to take a hard look in the mirror. You’re not protecting your investment, you’re sabotaging it. If you’re uncomfortable with giving out a garage door opener, a mailbox key, or the actual key to the property, then you’re not ready to work with a property management company. Because without those tools, we simply can’t do our job.
This owner, unless they have a sudden change of heart, will probably have to terminate the management agreement. I don’t see another way forward. You can’t say, “Manage my property,” and then refuse to give access to it. It just doesn’t work that way. And again, while outright refusal is rare, we often see hesitation, delay, and resistance. It’s common enough that I’m talking about it here, because if it’s something you recognize in yourself, it’s something you need to address.
We’re not trying to take anything from you. We’re trying to help your property perform. And we’ve built safeguards into every step of the process. We never label keys with any identifying information. We securely store them. We’re experienced and professional. And yet, this issue continues to pop up.
If you’re a landlord who’s serious about making your investment work, you need to be prepared to let go of things like keys. It sounds silly to say it out loud, but it’s a major sticking point for some people. The hesitation to hand over something as small and simple as a key can result in major financial consequences. And if you’ve hired professionals to manage your property, you have to trust them to do that fully, not halfway.
At the end of the day, our job is to minimize your vacancy time, maximize your return, and manage all the little things that come with rental ownership. But if we can’t get into the property, we can’t even get started.
So to all the landlords out there: If you find yourself holding back on handing over the keys – let it go. Get over it. Your investment depends on it.
Just a humble property management guy here in Philly, trying to give you the real deal.
As always, happy rental property investing.
