Moving in? The keys are the first thing to change

Over a house's life, keys leak. The contractor who renovated the kitchen, the dog walker from 2019, the cleaner, the in-laws, the neighbor who watered plants, the realtor's lockbox period when dozens of agents cycled through — every one is a potential copy, none of them were tracked, and the sellers themselves have no idea what is out there. Nobody is lying to you at closing; they genuinely do not know.

Rekeying resets that to zero. Every key in circulation dies at once, and the new count is exactly the number in your pocket. It is the only moment you will ever know precisely how many keys to your home exist.

This is the classic case for rekeying rather than new hardware: nothing is wrong with the locks, only with the unknown key population. The visit is also the natural moment to key every door alike so one key runs the house — cheap while the cylinders are already open, annoying to arrange later.

The exceptions show themselves during the walkthrough: a worn cylinder that fights the key, a door with no deadbolt at all, hardware installed upside down by a previous owner's cousin. Fix those now while someone is already at the door, because the second visit is the one that never gets booked.

Tenants inherit the same unknown key population — plus every previous tenant. But changing locks on a rental usually needs the landlord's agreement, and the standard resolution is that the landlord gets a copy of the new key, since blocking lawful emergency access creates its own problems. Many leases spell this out; read yours before calling anyone.

A reasonable landlord says yes, and rekeying at turnover is standard practice they arguably should have done already. The full picture of who is responsible for locks in a rental is its own topic, including the things a landlord cannot do.

While the rekey is happening, spend thirty minutes on the rest: find every exterior keyhole including the garage side door and bulkhead, test that every window actually latches, change the garage keypad code the sellers left behind, and locate the water shutoff while you are at it — different emergency, same principle.

Then decide where the spare lives before you need it: a specific neighbor, a mounted key safe, a family member close by. Deciding under a porch light at midnight, locked out of a house you have owned for three weeks, is the version of this decision everyone regrets. If the house came with smart locks, a factory reset and fresh codes is the rekey equivalent — previous-owner phone access survives a sale more often than people think, and a residential locksmith can walk the whole perimeter in one visit.