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The odds of opening another home's lock are less than 1/10 of 1%.

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Could Your Key Work on Another House?

Tupper Briggs

Tupper began his real estate career in 1973 and has earned every accolade from the National Association of Realtors available over the years...

Tupper began his real estate career in 1973 and has earned every accolade from the National Association of Realtors available over the years...

May 21 2 minutes read

Colorado Public Radio got a recent request from a listener about whether house keys are truly unique. Their investigation found that your key could probably work on another home…and another person’s key might work on yours. But the good news is that it would be tough to find each other.

There are a number of key brands, including Kwikset, Schlage, Yale, Weiser, and more. Kwikset has 10,000 possible key combinations and Schlage has 72,000. So the odds of even a Schlage key opening up another home’s lock are less than 1/10 of 1%.

Don’t expect to be able to break into another home using your own set of keys. “If you really want to unlock a certain home, you’re better off learning how to use a pick set,” said a Schlage representative. Further, as the industry moves toward electronic locks with a code, it gets even more complicated.

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