The keys handed over at closing arrive in a small envelope, usually four or five of them, at least one unlabeled. Somewhere behind that envelope sit the contractor who framed the house, two previous owners, a cleaning service, a dog walker and a real estate lockbox that lived on the front door for six weeks.
None of that is alarming, and none of it is unusual. It simply means the locks on a house you just bought do not yet belong to you, and the first week is the cheapest time to fix that before furniture, routine and daily life take over.
Day one: account for every key that came with the house
Lay the keys on the counter and match each one to a door. Front, back, garage side door, shed, gate, bonus room, mailbox. Anything that does not match a door is the problem you are solving this week.
Then make a list of the doors with no key at all, and the doors where the key turns but feels rough. Newer Eastside construction often ships with builder hardware keyed alike across the whole house, which is convenient during the build and less appealing once strangers had that same key for a year.
Once the list exists, booking a locksmith in Bellevue for a single visit is usually more efficient than solving each door separately over a month, because rekeying several cylinders in one appointment is far cheaper per door than three separate trips.
Day two: rekey or replace, and how to decide
Rekeying changes the pins inside the existing cylinder so old keys stop working. It is quick, it keeps your existing hardware, and for a house whose locks are in good shape it is the right answer most of the time.
Replacement makes sense when the hardware itself is the weak point. Consider it if:
- The deadbolt throws less than a full inch into the frame
- The lock is loose in the door or the key needs jiggling
- The exterior finish is pitted and the cylinder feels gritty
- The door has only a spring latch on the handle and no deadbolt at all
- You want keyed-alike locks across a front door, back door and garage entry
One more decision belongs to day two: ask for every exterior door to be keyed alike. Carrying one key instead of four is not a security compromise, and it removes the habit of propping a back door because the key is inconvenient.
Day three: smart locks, codes, and who still has them
If the house came with a smart lock or a keypad deadbolt, assume every code in it is unknown to you. Do a factory reset, create a new administrator account, and delete any guest users you did not add.
Then look at what is connected around it. A previous owner’s app account, a hub, a doorbell camera or a garage keypad may all still hold access, and an unlinked device is the only truly cleared device.
Codes deserve a small amount of discipline. Give delivery services, house cleaners and contractors their own temporary codes rather than sharing yours, and remove them when the job is finished. Mobile shops such as SOS Mobile Locksmith that handle both mechanical and electronic hardware can usually rekey the traditional locks and set up the keypad in the same appointment.
Day four: the mailbox, the garage and the doors people forget
Cluster box mailboxes are standard in much of Bellevue, Kirkland and Redmond, and their keys are controlled by the Postal Service rather than by a locksmith. If the mailbox key is missing, that is a post office conversation and a form, so start it early in the week because it takes longer than the rest of the list.
The garage is the other commonly skipped door. Erase the old garage remote codes from the opener, reset the exterior keypad, and check that the interior door between the garage and the house has a real deadbolt, since insurers and most building inspectors treat it as an exterior door.
Damp Pacific Northwest winters add one local chore. Wooden exterior doors swell through the wet months, which throws deadbolts out of alignment with their strikes, and the resulting habit of lifting the door by its handle to lock it wears the hardware fast. Adjusting the strike in dry weather is a five minute fix.
Week two: the questions that surface later
Is rekeying enough if a previous owner kept a key?
Yes, because rekeying changes the pin combination, and an old key simply will not turn afterwards.
Do I need to rekey a brand new build?
Usually yes, since construction keys circulate among many trades, and builder hardware is often keyed alike across a street.
What about a rental I just moved into?
Ask the landlord in writing first, as most Washington leases require permission and a copy of the new key for the property manager.
SOS Mobile Locksmith
Seattle, WA
Phone: 206-565-1637
Website: sosmobilelocksmith.com
