Viewing a house with electronic lock

Digital keys & electronic locks.

An interview with tenant Danny Bouman about his experiences with viewing via electronic lock.

Viewing with electronic lock

Before you start renting a property, you naturally want to take a good look at exactly what the property has to offer. Viewing is an important, but also time-consuming part of the search for your dream home. Danny Bouman (37) and his girlfriend wanted to move in together and were looking for a house with room for three children. It took quite a while before a suitable home came along. Danny was pleasantly surprised when he received an offer to take a look via an electronic lock without an employee. "It was just before the holidays and it might have been difficult to schedule an appointment with an employee at short notice. Because I didn't have to take someone else's schedule into account, we could even go and have a look on Easter Monday. Very nice."

Tenant Danny Bouman opens the door with an app on his phone.

An electronic lock? How does that work exactly?

Danny: "I received an e-mail with an instruction to download an app and generate a unique key. If you are within bluetooth range of the lock, the key appears and you can open the door. Once you have opened the door, you can look around for an hour. I really liked that. You feel completely free to really take your time and look around at all the rooms. With an employee, you might feel that you are taking up his or her valuable time. Now my girlfriend and I could go through all the rooms many times without feeling encumbered."

Can you visit any vb&t property with an electronic lock?

Annemieke Voets, Commercial Assistant for Leasing: "We are currently doing a pilot with electronic locks for one of our clients. If it proves successful, perhaps more clients will embrace it. We have a number of locks available that we change in homes. This means that I first have to go into a home to change the cylinder before I can give someone access with a digital key. The big advantage is that the house-hunter can go and view the house whenever he or she wants, even in the evenings and at weekends. After the viewing, we schedule an appointment to provide additional information and answer questions. The electronic locks are very secure: we agree a time slot in advance and outside of that the digital key does not work."

What will the future bring?

Annemieke: "We are still looking at how we can integrate this into our rental process. The contact between the house hunter and the letting agent remains crucial. We want to continue to guide our customers through the entire process."

This article was published in the vb&t Huurmagazine Buitengewoon Huren 2020-2021. Want to read more? Check out the magazine here.