My home was brand new so I did not. I did change the code on my garage door opener because the builder used the address as the code so the contractors could get in. I think if it was a not a new home I would have. It is so easy to do. Later I bought and installed lever door knobs and had them set so all the keys would be the same.

We changed the locks, even though the previous owner was dead. We had no idea if she'd given keys out to people.

We did change ours, the family before us had lived in our home for 60+ years and we figured had given keys to neighbors, friends, relatives. I also wanted to replace the gold doorknobs with black ones so I would have done it regardless but figured better safe than sorry.

We have the locks changed. You have no idea who has keys to the house.

Nope. But when the guy in the house behind us moved a few years later he returned a key to us he'd had from the previous owners, so I'm sure the keys are out there!

My house wouldn't be that hard to break into without a key. I admit I've gotten more lax about home security since adopting a scary (looking) dog, though.

It's a good idea and not much work to change out the locks.

We swapped out locks mostly to make some sense of the mess of keys we got.

The front door and its security door had four keys - one for each lock. The back door had three.

Those rekeyable locks are FABULOUS.

Yes, we changed them.

rekey or replace ...

depends on how abused they are ... and the price difference ....

ken

Yes we changed ours straight away as we knew some neighbours had a set and we didn't trust them. They gave us their set of keys that belonged to this property but I wouldn't have been happy without changing the locks. I would call this one a 'no brainer'...

Yes, we always rekey. If your home is brand new you should also rekey. Those doors are usually keyed a special way so all the various workers can get in when they arrive. One thing I never thought about is having the garage doors 'rekeyed'... so to speak. Same reasoning.

When we first moved into this house I had the feeling someone had been inside while we were gone. One day I found that one of the beds' bedding had been rearranged and a doll moved to a different bed. The doors were rekeyed that same day!

We had all the doors and deadbolts rekeyed to the same one key before we moved in. There were 7 doors with two locks each, it wasn't especially expensive. We wanted an outside code box added to one garage door opener too and had both doors reprogrammed at the same time. The auto openers are different brands, ages, and the tech couldn't get them to both work with the same remote, but that's OK - we have his and her garage doors, the garage has a wall with cabinets and shelves dividing down the middle.

The former owner is a friend and I had no concerns about her family having keys. We rekeyed at our realtors suggestion, he said he couldn't guarantee who had keys to the house or had made additional while it was being shown - and one key for all locks simplified my life anyway.

I changed all the locks but unfortunately did not do it soon enough. After the house closing, when I had taken possession of the house the previous owners decided to come back at night and remove some stuff they had left behind. They had given me a key but the door from the garage to the house was on a different key and they kept that back. All they had to do was call me and I would have let them in to take the few items, but they felt it necessary to sneak back in. Stupid! And I was just glad that I wasn't home when it happened.

Haven't yet as the PO's keys have been given to those renovating. My plan is to change out the door hardware with my current home whenever I finally get to move in.

Always change them.
If you do not not only are you trusting your previous owner, but any friends, neighbors, or family that had a key as well as pet sitters, etc.
Not a chance I would be willing to take as rekeying is cheap enough, especially compared to being wiped out.

I always take the opportunity to have everything rekeyed to one key purely to simplify my life- my current house literally came with a brown paper bag of keys. Impossible. Had everything redone the next day.

When our house was finished, the only thing we did was re key the locks so one key would open the front and back door.
Problem is, we lost the key about 5 years ago.

We usually do, but this time (closed in March), we didn't. I know the previous owner is in Arkansas and the locks would have only been from his era (2008 or 2009) because he put new doors on the house, but still. Dumb. One of these days...

We did. The last owners left in a huff so the first thing we did after closing was pull all the locks off & take them to a big box store for re keying. 5 doors - 2 locks each. It was super cold that evening & the wind was literally howling thru the door knob holes until I got back. That was a bad situation, but I would always do it for a variety of reasons, like the posters above have said.

I love the lever handles, I can open the door with my elbow if my arms are full of groceries.

We did on the two used houses we bought. I lived in an apartment one time where they didn't rekey the locks. Next door neighbors asked me if I had gotten the drivers license they had shoved under the door. Nope. Either the previous dweller or maintenance had been in my apartment and I never found out.

Our last house had builder's locks on it until he was finished. The new locks were put in and had a special key to be used until we used our keys. The special key didn't work after that.

I didn't. I can't imagine why not. I was there for 10 years, and nothing bad happened. If I bought again, I'd change them.

It never occurred to me to do so for any of the four houses we've owned in 35 years. Good idea though, depending on the situation.

We made arrangements in advance to have the locksmith come the day we took possession. Stopped at lawyer's to pick up keys, then met the locksmith at the house to get new ones.

20 years ago I had a condo next to a couple that lived in another state and popped in and out ( as did their friends) Well....they sold it to a lovely young lady who woke us up one night- screaming!!! Apparently a cousin hadn't realized they sold the condo and he let himself in late one night as he had done many times before :( Luckily, we came out and confirmed his story and referred him to the hotel down the street.

She had the locks changed the next day.

20 years ago I had a condo next to a couple that lived in another state and popped in and out ( as did their friends) Well....they sold it to a lovely young lady who woke us up one night- screaming!!! Apparently a cousin hadn't realized they sold the condo and he let himself in late one night as he had done many times before :( Luckily, we came out and confirmed his story and referred him to the hotel down the street.

She had the locks changed the next day.

I didn't do it right away, eventually did. But sometimes, you still want certain people to have a copy of the key, and if you stopped to think about the chances of their copies being pocketed by a visitor or neighbor or relative, you'd drive yourself crazy.

Bedding messed up, doll moved? Frightening! (I probably would have had to toss the bedding, at least!)

Having a stranger walk in during the middle of the night? Terrifying!

Emma, my wife has rheumatoid arthritis and every door in our house has a lever handle.
You're right, opening the door with stuff in your arms is much easier.

OMG! I just had the locks changed on our new condo on Friday and that was the point that it really felt "real" to me.

We closed a while back and have had workers coming and going. Between them, the prior owner and the prior tenants that were there before he bought, I am so excited to know that we (currently) know exactly who has keys. Us! And that's it.

We changed 7 locks and it was less than $200. Well worth it.

I rekeyed all the locks at work, changing a few out so that all the keyways were the same, Schlage SC-1. The hard part was figuring out just how master keying works, there being masters, grand masters, janitors, restricted janitors, departments, sub departments, common, and guest keys. Those are my names, not official jargon names.

Once that was done, I had a scheme that worked, so I did our house too. We have master keys (the 'rents), common keys (the younger people we were stuck with for eighteen years), and neighbor keys (can't get into the bedrooms or storage closets of the above key holders).

Then my wife said to me something like "I wish MY work was that easy..." So I did that too.

Except for one high security lock at the first job, and an odd gate key at my wife's job, one key opened all the locks at three different locations. Pure luck! We just couldn't tell anyone...

PS: all our padlocks are high quality brass rekeyable ones (old habit from a hard learned lesson), so they were included in all that, so that's four locations if you include the rental storage site. One master key (on a very small key ring).

Changed.. Prior key was used by contractor and realtors - the piece of mind of a $50 rekey is better than having a break-in and wondering if it was due to a copy of older key.

Thought this might be relevent as its about house keys.

Our local news station did a story about how anyone can take a photo of someones house key and have a key made. It illustrate the point the news station had a staff member volunteer her keys. The reporter had them for only 20 seconds. In that time he took a photo with his phone. He then paid $6 online to have a new key made. He showed up at the staff members house, unlocked the front door and walked right in. The staff member was surprised but had agreed that might happen.

So be very careful of your house keys. I would change all the locks if moving into a new home.

I didn't change them. The couple was moving from here in New England to Texas over 20 years ago. I didn't think they'd be back, and they haven't been. Eventually did change one door key because i lost my copy so I replaced it with a new lock set.

I WILL change the next set, since even though the new house will be from scratch, the final stages mean lots of subcontractors will have keys.

From a safety standpoint, change locks...ALWAYS. If the home was for sale at any time, and had a lockbox, then someone else had access to that key. Friends, relatives, neighbors, kids, handymen, pet sitters, house sitters, etc all could have had a key in their possession, and made a copy if they had ill intent. So even if the prior owners moved out of the country, you still want to change locks. As a Realtor, I always advise my clients to change them.

I had new hardwood floors installed before I moved in so the floor company had a key but changed the locks after that. I just bought new locks at Home Depot and had a handyman change them out in less than an hour.

Yes, we did soon after we moved into our last home. The previous owners had a reputation around town. Not really good or bad, just strange . When we were moving in, for lunch I ordered grinders and pizza for everyone . I picked up the order at the counter and was talking to the girl behind the counter. When she realized which house we bought her response was..."Oh! You bought the Crazy Lady's House!". As we began to meet our neighbors, we found out a lot about the family. (they were nudists, did drugs, the town made them put up a privacy fence because of an eye popping statue they had in the front yard and the young kids walking by where getting an education. The neighbors across the street and to the right of us would forgo watching TV at night just to watch the outdoor parties the previous owners use to have. Ladies and men dressed as woodnymphs dancing around. We did get some strange people come to our door for months afterwards looking for them. So yeah, changing the locks is a good thing! NancyLouise

It’s not a hard and fast rule to change locks every time
you change a home. May, be the previous guy had already got better locks
already, maybe not. So, if you are blank about lock types and their feature,
call a local locksmith to get a look at it. He’ll take
care of it.

Changing locks is essential for home security and safety and most importantly always try to change the locks of the exterior doors like garage, entrance door. The changed locks will secure you home from any uninvited troubles. Today markets are filled with variety of locks, and you can choose as per requirement, choose wisely and stay safe.