Who might hold a key to your new home
The previous owners, their adult children, their cleaner, their dog walker, the agent’s lockbox history, the contractors who prepped the sale. Nobody’s being sinister — copies accumulate over years of ordinary life, and none of them get collected at closing. Until the cylinders are repinned, you don’t control your own front door.
Rekeying doesn’t change the locks — it changes which key they answer to. Every old copy stops working the moment the pins change. The full comparison with replacement is in rekey vs. replace.
The move-in routine
Book the rekey for closing day or the day after, before furniture makes doors hard to reach. Count every keyed door — front, back, garage-to-house, side gates with keyed locks — and decide whether they should all share one key (usually yes, when the keyways match).
While we’re there, it’s the cheapest moment to fix the doors that stick and to think about the two upgrades new owners ask for most: a proper deadbolt strike and a keypad lock for the door you’ll actually use.
Landlords and sellers, too
The same reset applies at every tenant turnover — our landlord checklist builds it into a routine. And if you’re selling, handing over a freshly rekeyed home is a small, memorable kindness.
How this article connects
Locks change, lock rekey, lock replaced — which job is yours?
A locks change and a lock rekey are the same routine with different words: the hardware stays, every old key stops working. A lock replaced is the other side of the decision — new hardware when the lock itself is worn, damaged, or due an upgrade. Our rekey vs. replace guide walks the choice door by door.