What do you do to keep your rekey/locksmith charges down?

If you ever go to enter your property, emergency or not, and the tenant has changed the lock, you are within your legal right to have a locksmith come and change the lock on YOUR property.

Buy two locks with matching keys or get them keyed to match by a locksmith or a hardware store so you only have to issue one key to access both of your doors.Schlage F80 ELA Elan Keyed Storeroom Leverhttps://www.americanlocksets.com/schlage-f80-ela-e...

CA laws state that keys must be returned to the landlord or the landlord can have the locks re-keyed and deduct the expense from the deposit.

Is the next step a locksmith?

They are easy to re-key (takes less than 30 seconds) if the tenant gets locked out or moves out. 

I used to use padlocks, but it‘s expensive up front and also re-keying when keys get lost, and I had to meet with tenants to provide the key.

What I do is as soon as they leave I walk out to my truck and grab another lock set for each door and change the locks or rekey the doors immediately. 

Buy a rekey kit from Change-a-Lock or Primeline, available online or at home centers.

Rekey, paint, carpet, blinds, switch covers, faucets, doors, AC filters, etc.