Locksmith Solutions with Joseph Long of Keymasters

This week on the Team Lally Real Estate Radio Show, we interview Joseph Long of Keymasters Locksmith of Hawaii, our new Expert We Trust. Joseph shares his motivation for moving to Hawaii, his passion for building a community-focused business, and the wide range of locksmith services he offers—from traditional rekeys to advanced smart key and fingerprint systems. He also explains the benefits of upgrading to modern security solutions and shares a heartwarming story about helping a couple recover a lost wedding ring at North Shore, highlighting his commitment to service and community.

We also have our Experts We Trust. Bradley Maruyama of Allstate Insurance talks about why hurricane insurance is crucial for condos and townhouses, even when it isn’t required by lenders, while Danny Langerman of DHA Financial shares timely mortgage insights, explaining how recent rate cuts present a key opportunity for refinancing and why acting quickly can secure a better deal.

Watch or Listen to the full episode

Interview Transcription

ATTILIO:
Our guest today is with key masters locksmith of Hawaii, bringing years of locksmith expertise and strong background in building and growing service business. He started his career in Oregon, where he his passion for the trade quickly turned into no leadership and ownership opportunities

ADRIENNE:
after co owning and expanding a locksmith company into one of the largest in the region, he and his wife made the move to Hawaii to continue their journey. Today, he is dedicated to serving the local community with trust, professionalism and care, helping people protect what matters most while building lasting relationships. Please welcome our guest, Joseph long, hey, Joseph,

ATTILIO:
Hey, how’s it going? Guys, good, good, good. So fantastic. You know a question for you. So you got you did this. You did this pretty big in the mainland, and then decided to come to Hawaii? What? What motivated you to come to Hawaii?

JOSEPH:
You know, that’s a really good question. You know, me and the wife we we had a local a partnership and another company back in the mainland. Yeah, we just wanted, we just wanted a fresh start somewhere the in a place that values community, family. We’ve been blessed to call Oahu home ever since. Yeah, an amazing experience building both our family life and the business here.

ATTILIO:
So I you know what? Next time somebody asks you that, here’s what I want you to say, and then you don’t you don’t blink, you don’t smile anything. You just look them straight in the face. Oh, the reason why we came to Hawaii is we want it. We were Wanted by the FBI, and we wanted to make a fresh start, and then just look at nice, yeah, and see if they crack. They say, I’m just kidding, but yeah, I like hearing that, because what that means is that, you know, you you it’s not like, you’re like, hey, I slept in a Holiday Inn. Maybe we should do this locksmith thing. No, you’re bringing years of experience and doing it at a high level to Lally. Our people are now, who? That’s awesome.

ADRIENNE:
So, so Joseph, when? When would someone need a locksmith? What are all the different scenarios,

ATTILIO:
three in the morning, kind of point my key? And give us

ADRIENNE:
some scenarios there.

JOSEPH:
Are so many different situations that we deal with. I mean, it could be as to start with somebody purchased a new home or a new rental, and they just want to secure their home and their their valuables and their family. You could have locked your keys in your car. Stressful moments to happen, you know, birthday parties, events, graduations, yeah, a lot of things going on in life. And you juggle things, and you lock your keys in your car. You know, lost keys. You’re surfing. You lose your keys. You go out in the water with the keys. You get them wet. You know, you need to get a new key replacement. Now, there’s so many different situations that you would need a locksmith.

ATTILIO:
I would say they like. The surfing scenario, Boogie Board, going on water. That’s, that’s probably a big one. I remember of probably 1015, years ago, and then I had my keys in my pocket. I’m thinking, and no big deal. I’m at the North Shore winter time. What do you think happened? Big, huge swell came in the whitewash, and it went up to my waist, and I went, Oh, snap. My keys are in there, but they should be all right. No, they didn’t work. No. So, anywho, I wish he was in business back then, because I would have called you.

ADRIENNE:
So, right. So Joseph with this, with the locksmith business, it sounds like, you know, it could be a all hours kind of situations. Like, do you guys have a call service? How does it work if someone gets locked out at two in the morning, yeah.

JOSEPH:
So if you get locked out, you get locked out of your car, or you need service, you basically. You can find us on Google. You can find us on Yelp, Facebook, Instagram. I even have a pretty sweet Tiktok channel actually showing some of the work that I do unlocking cars and some of the customers that actually help us out at key masters daily. But yes, you find us online masters, give us a call. Usually we can answer the phone within a few seconds, and we grab some information from you, and we’re on our way to you. It’s super short, super sweet. It doesn’t get directed to you know, anywhere else. It’s going straight, straight to myself.

ADRIENNE:
So yeah, what about early in the morning? What happens then? Like, it’s like two in the morning, and they get locked out.

JOSEPH:
No, no difference at all. I’m just a regular person, you know, asleep. I got my phone out loud, annoying. A ring tone. It goes off. I answer the phone. Oh, wow. I throw throw the clothes on, I’ll start the truck, and I head out to you.

ATTILIO:
Yeah, awesome, wow. I mean, you’re hungry. You’re hungry for the business. And. So me to help people. And I think, you, you, you, yeah, and there’s not, there’s few, if any, or none, that are 24/7 and I think, like, I think you might be popular in Waikiki for these people to get hammered. And they’re like, I don’t know why my keys is so it’s like, you’re gonna be there to open the car and then call them an Uber

JOSEPH:
definitely, few times, few times,

ADRIENNE:
yeah, and then Joseph, how do you like, how do you make sure that whoever’s calling you is actually like, the owner of the car or the owner of the apartment, like, yeah, what if security measures you have in place?

ATTILIO:
What if they’re just the husband and they’re in the doghouse and the white man lock them out.

JOSEPH:
So seeing situations like that as well, but I mean the majority of the time when I pull up on any job site, I mean when you know, you know, but that’s not that doesn’t justify it. We go through a process, an ID, photo ID, matching registration, or matching in a lease agreement, or just actual legal documents to provide proof that it does actually the vehicle or home, yeah, does belong to them, and that’s all done in precaution before we even start the work what?

ATTILIO:
And tell us the price point on this, because I’m going to share a personal experience with it. But you know, these dang cars nowadays, there’s no freaking key. Is the fob and the key, they’re so smart, because if you know motor key, the thing says key, not whatever located, or it’s not in vehicle. So those fobs, it’s like they’re just in the car. Press the start button. But I know when those things bomb out on you, they’re quite costly. You know, in general, what’s the, what’s the cost in the process for those fobby things? Yeah.

JOSEPH:
So it all depends on the vehicle, a lot of situations. So I would say, on average, on a proximity key with a push to store vehicle. Yeah, it could range anywhere between 255 to $295 No, I’m give or take, depending on the type of FOB manufacture and

ATTILIO:
brand. I will give you guys context, because you might think that’s expensive, but I’m going to tell you it’s very reasonable, because I called the dealership, I’m not gonna say which one Lexus, and it was like, 350, $400 I was like, What the heck is this thing gold plated? Is it doing my homework?

JOSEPH:
Yeah, we come to we come to our customers. Yes, we show up to them. We go, we go into their driveway, to their workplace parking lot, to the beach, wherever that car is. We they don’t have to have it towed to the dealership. No additional appointments needed that a week. So there’s no special ordering a key fob. Yeah, come on site. Do the work right there.

ATTILIO:
And I will tell you, you know, if somebody gets all peeled from Lexus and calls and said, No, it’s not that much. You are not. Nobody from Lexus is coming to my house to go and do this, or wherever my location is and to do this. And then you guys are completely mobile, like you go in there, and it’s like, you’re like, Mary Poppins, you know, she had the bag and, like, all this stuff was coming out. You don’t think it could fit in there. You guys got everything in those tell us what you’re not kidding, what’s in the tell us what’s in the van that that’s that makes you guys, because the locksmith shop That’s old school, right? You guys, yeah, yeah. What’s in those vans that makes you just as you having so efficient, just as efficient, just like a fixed

JOSEPH:
location. There is a ton of new technology that’s happened in the last five years, in the last five years, for last Monday, one very useful tool that we use as a specific program. I won’t name which one it is, yeah, but there are keys that are called universal keys. We can actually take a single key. It doesn’t have to be for any specific manufacturer. So stocking 10s of 20s of 20s of different remotes for Ford, for Chevy, for Lexus, for Toyota, we can actually stock these single universal keys in quantities, and I can put them in this machine and actually generate and download the data that key needs to work for that vehicle. So instead of stocking hundreds of keys, I can now stock the same type of key with different blades or different blanks, and I can actually program that remote and tell it what I want it to be. It makes things, it changes the game,

ATTILIO:
nice. So it’s like, instead of having a jillion million SKUs, you got a very narrow set. Because at the end of the day, what do we want? We want to, man, when I get in our car and go home or go, you know, get our Costco tubs of ice cream home before they all melt. And not that there’s no expectation. Hello, folks, if you want him there in 10 minutes, then it’s $1,000 trip charge. He’s not going to be driving like a maniac. But I think the main expectation is that you guys are going to come anywhere. Because some people are like, you go anywhere on Oahu, right,

JOSEPH:
anywhere we go to wherever, wherever they call from. We go there. What about Kalihi? We will go anywhere.

ATTILIO:
What about No? You go anywhere.

ADRIENNE:
Just how many? How many people are a part of your team?

JOSEPH:
Currently, it’s my. Myself and one other gentleman, new new guy, Mason, that we actually just brought on a few months ago. I’ve been bringing him with me on every call. We’re going in the roast, getting in train. So he’s doing fantastic. Can’t wait to get him out there, cutting keys, cutting keys himself.

ATTILIO:
Yeah, I think the key to this too for so we have a lot of realtors listen to their show, but if you ask them, they won’t admit it. They’re like, they’re like, secret listeners, anyway, for you secret realtor listeners out there, it’s important that would be something, be a one side. By the way, if you guys want, you want experts we trust that we vetted and checked out, just go to our experts. We trust page. You can use them. We don’t care. Give them more business. But I would say that you would be a good, handy person to keep a hold of, because I’ve seen people do this. They’re moving there. We tell them, hey, hire movers and cleaners. And like, No, I want to do it ourselves. And they’re all sweaty and stressed out, and boom, they lock the keys in the car. So being able to come to that client and say, Hey, I’m going to have Joseph and his team come over, or like, the new house, being able to offer that, like you said, right? If you got an old school house key from a house that’s not even 1015, years old, who knows how many copies of that came out in the world? Right? Yes, yep, and, and especially

ADRIENNE:
Joseph, what like, what kind of like re keying? Do you do? Do you put like, electronic ones or like, it just up to the homeowner as far as, like, what they want to do, as far as their new human was talking about

ATTILIO:
fingerprint stuff,

JOSEPH:
yeah, yeah, yeah, we do. So, I mean, there’s a couple that you have your old school, traditional pin and tumbler cylinder, which is what you see on most homes, you know, quick set of schleg and those are the standard re keys, if they, like, a lot of times like customers did, they want to upgrade their locks, you know, they have the new iPhones and this and that, and they want to upgrade to like, you know, the Apple home, and be able to unlock their locks with their phone or with their finger printer with the fob. So we do, we offer traditional re keys on a pin and tumbler. We offer quick set smart key systems, and then we offer the new again fingerprint and FOB system locks, and they work as a dead bolt or a handle. Awesome, great convenience. So we’ve done a lot of jobs for especially older folks that are struggling with trying to get the keys in the cylinder. They can now pull their FOB out, hold it up against the door lock. That just definitely unlocks.

ATTILIO:
It’s nice and easy. I know because you like, you’re you’re taking care of like that, you know, like, we have those keys where you’re like, and we’ve seen this in the older homes and stuff, where we’re like, hey, this thing not working. Oh, what you got to do is you got to put the key in all the way they come out, like one half an inch, and then do tree gigil, you know what I’m talking about, the tumblers, or whatever. The thing is all worn out. So you guys can come in there, take care of that, and switch it out. So you’re not like that exactly. Oh, you never push and do all of that stuff, or just

ADRIENNE:
get them up to speed with all the new technology. Yeah, that’s kind of cool. I think

ATTILIO:
you got all the options, and the fact that you come to them is important, because people are not they’re just that all that stuff is, like, inconvenient, and you guys are so convenient because it not only you’re not, like, helping people get into things, but you’re helping people upgrade their security on their homes and stuff like that. So I think that’s a clue. That’s a key Winner. Winner, winner, chicken dinner, surface service, that’s the key. But anyway, you heard in the intro when you was on hold, but I give you guys your new tagline. My name is Joseph long, but I’m going to take a very short time to get to you.

JOSEPH:
Love it. I’m feeling it.

ATTILIO:
Adrienne, yeah, some more questions.

ADRIENNE:
Oh, yeah. So you know, Joseph, as far as when someone is shopping for a locksmith, yeah, what like, what should they be looking with? As far as like to know that they’re dealing with someone who’s trustworthy, incredible, yeah, this is, like, security, right?

JOSEPH:
Yeah, yeah. This is something that’s actually extremely huge to me. I’ve worked in the locker locksmith industry for so long in so many different cities, Mainland’s in here we I call them scam Smith. So there are a ton of what we call scam Smith out there, where they do this bait and switch. You give them a call, and this is a problem that all of us, like real locksmith companies, run into, yes, where you call these companies and they give you an extremely small starting rate. You ask them how much it is to unlock your vehicle, they’ll say it starts at $55 and that sounds super amazing when you just called everybody else. And it could be, you know, 100 to $135 to emergency service, somebody out to unlock the car. You call them, they come out there, and then they end up charging you hundreds of dollars and holding you, holding you hostage, almost. So when companies use the words starting prices or give you something almost true, yes, it’s an instant red flag. And you got to be careful, like they’ve done sting operations in mainland on locks in the companies that have done things like, Oh wow, they don’t pull out success. They don’t pull out, they instantly pull out drills and they drill locks out and try to charge hundreds of dollars. I mean, these are, it’s a it’s a big ordeal that I’ve seen all over the place and everywhere I’ve worked, so you just got to

ADRIENNE:
watch out. So be careful. When someone says starting at that’s a red flag.

ATTILIO:
Very careful people who are listening right now, hello, Joseph is not getting up in the middle of the night for 50 freaking dollars to come unlock. Your car at kind of point, hello, like be be respectful for the service that you’re paying for. Be reasonable and be reasonable. And I will tell you that my experience of you, Joseph and your team, is more likely that people are going to be ecstatic for a very reasonable charge and excellent service that you provide and give you tons and tons of recommendations. By the way, don’t take our word for it. Go to their Google business page. They’re at 25 maybe plus all five star reviews,

ADRIENNE:
keymasters locksmith of Hawaii.

ATTILIO:
Keymasters locksmith of Hawaii, and Joseph long is on there. What we got more questions? No, I don’t have any share with us your most crazy, ridiculous locksmith story. You got any of those. Keep it G though, so

JOSEPH:
I wouldn’t call this, so I’ll share it. I’ll share a story. This actually just happened a few weeks ago, and this is something I would say is really it’s has to do with my character and the part of why I even got into locksmithing. Yeah, this is a few episodes, maybe a week and a half ago. I got a very strange phone call from a gentleman who actually called in asking if we had a metal detector. Bob, this was super strange that you’d call a locksmith metal detector, asking what he needed it for? Yeah. It turns out his his good friend of his they were visiting from the mainland, was proposing to his wife or his girlfriend at the time here at North Shore area, out of out of excitement, she dropped the ring, I guess in the sand. He called me at 9:30pm and I asked if I had a metal detector. It’s funny story. I I don’t carry one of the locksmith, but I just bought my son one for Christmas. Oh, nice. Told him, I do have a metal detector. He’s like, man. He’s like, if you could come out here and help me find this ring, that would be amazing. I literally turned my ads off. I went out there and got there at about 11 o’clock at night, and I found his wedding ring in the sand at 11 o’clock at night. I was way out

ATTILIO:
North Shore. Oh, wow. There must have been a bunch of hooting and hollering and screaming. Oh, there was

JOSEPH:
about 16 people surrounding me. I told them to draw a circle around the area where they thought they dropped the ring within 10 minutes to meet up there with that metal detector. We scooped the ring up, and they were, yeah, it was a very I was so happy. It was like when the happiest moments I’ve had out years of work. That’s amazing.

ATTILIO:
That’s a great story. Because even though it has nothing to do with locksmithing, it says a ton about who you are as a person. You’re a servant minded. We always, we always, I do that’s why I do it. Yeah, our culture and our team, and that’s why you’re part of our experts. We trust. It’s about serving people first, making money second. And guess what? When you always put people first, the money flows in. So people, if you want that is like a good in Hawaii, we call it chicken skin story. Chicken skin because the Goosebumps came up because that was a really heartwarming story. People are crying right now. We got to give them the tissue they’re crying about that. So people who are listening in, if you want a locksmith that has reasonable rates, high levels of service and comes from and the latest technology and the latest technology, don’t be calling them at three in the morning if you drop your freaking ring in the beach, well, maybe, I don’t know, you should have a like fight, a ring location service. You know, it’s 250 if it’s not sure. I thought about that. Yeah. But you know what those people should have dealt in? You know what? Go back to that person, they should have given

ADRIENNE:
you 16 five star. I want to see some five star reviews from

ATTILIO:
listening to the show right now, and Joseph helped you find that ring, your wedding ring in the beach, you should give them all the reviews from the entire family and the entire wedding party. Blow it up. Okay, that’s it.

ADRIENNE:
So, so Joseph, is there anything that you wanted us to cover that maybe we didn’t during our time together? Anything else?

JOSEPH:
No, I think we got most of the guys. That sounds great. I love

ATTILIO:
it. Okay, so again, yeah, it’s what is the it’s key,

ADRIENNE:
key masters locksmith of Hawaii. And you can find them on Google, tick tock, Instagram, Facebook, right? Yelp, Yelp, yes, yeah, across all the platforms,

ATTILIO:
and 24 hour service everywhere on Oahu, and you get somebody to show up, it’ll be trustworthy. But hey, you realtors, don’t be all procrastinators and last minute and calling him, you know, I’m sure he’ll still do it. But hey, be organized. Come on, organize. Get a hold of the game and schedule something with him for these homes that are transferring ownership, I and or facilitate that with your homeowners, I’m sure that they would send you even more business if you brought in a trusted vendor like this to help them secure their their new home with their family.

ADRIENNE:
That’s right. Thank you, Joseph, thank you for being on the show. They appreciate it.

JOSEPH:
Yes, of course. All right, thank you guys. Take care.

ATTILIO:
Yes. All right, that was Joseph with Keymasters Locksmiths of Hawaii. Again, Keymasters locksmith of Hawaii. By the way, he’s an expert we trust. And if you want to get any of our experts we trust, all you got to do is go to Teamlally.com. Go to the resource tab, by the way, there’s a bunch of other things in there, and we’re constantly rotating things in and out or updating things. So you might want to go check out our. Resource tab. We even added a an item to the drop down menu, the meaning of life. Go, click on it.

Follow Us On Social Media