Rekey vs. Replace: What Your Locks Actually Need After You Move In

Moving into a new home anywhere in Palm Beach County comes with one uncomfortable fact: you have no real idea how many keys exist for your front door, or who's holding them. Previous owners, old tenants, a contractor from three years ago, a neighbor who used to feed the cat — it adds up.

The good news is you almost never need to replace the hardware itself to solve this. Rekeying changes the internal pins inside your existing lock cylinder so that every key currently in circulation stops working, while a fresh set of keys is cut for the new pin configuration. It's faster and cheaper than replacing the lock, and it works on the deadbolt and knob you already have.

Replacement makes more sense when the hardware itself is the problem — a deadbolt that's worn out, damaged, doesn't match the rest of your doors, or when you're upgrading to a smart lock with keypad or app access instead of physical keys.

A good rule of thumb: if the lock works fine and you just want peace of mind about who holds a key, rekey it. If the lock itself is failing, outdated, or you want new functionality, replace it. Either way, it's worth doing to every exterior door on the property at once, rekeyed to a single working key, rather than leaving one door on the old configuration.