Patent ID: 8902042
Filing Date: 2014-12-02
Classification: G07C

Abstract:
1. A method of controlling access by potential buyers to a house being offered for sale, comprising: (a) providing an electronically-controlled lockset, including a locking mechanism, that may be controlled to release the locking mechanism when a dynamic access code, received by the lockset from a user, matches a first dynamic access code that is programmed internally by the lockset and whose value changes periodically over time and is synchronized with a reference device without communication between the lockset and the reference device; (b) temporarily installing the electronically-controlled lockset, including the locking mechanism, on an exterior door of the house being offered for sale such that the locking mechanism is disposed in operable relationship with a door frame in which the exterior door is installed and such that the state of the locking mechanism controls whether the exterior door may be opened, the lockset being adapted to release the locking mechanism, thereby permitting the door to be opened, upon receiving, as input, the then-current proper value of the first dynamic access code; (c) maintaining the reference device at a separate real estate agent location that is located remotely from the house being offered for sale, the reference device being adapted to present a then-current periodically changing value of a second dynamic access code to one or more users located in the real estate agent location, the second dynamic access code being programmed internally by the reference device and time-synchronized with the first dynamic access code programmed in the electronically-controlled lockset such that the value presented by the reference device is the same as the then-current value of the first dynamic access code; (d) as part of a process of showing the house being offered for sale to prospective buyers, repeatedly: (e) after the house is sold, removing and replacing the electronically-controlled lockset with a conventional lockset.