While many of us grew up thinking that a smart home was only for the Jetsons, today, many of us depend on smart features in our day to day lives. Whether it's a thermostat that knows when you're home, a lock that tells you when you left the house open, or light bulbs that turn on just when you need them to. There's no question these features are becoming more prevalent and essential to homes today.
You can now go crazy adding technology and features like these to every aspect of your life. However, when it comes to real estate, the important question is how much does it matter to buyers, which features add value down the road and which are just nice to have today. So listen up. But be warned, this may cause you to want to buy some new smart home tech.
What is a Smart Home?
The technical definition of a smart home is it is a residence equipped with devices that automate tasks that are normally handled by humans. Some are built into the structure of the house while others are added later and homeowners operate them with apps, voice command automations, or by using artificial intelligence. Our local realtor association defines a smart home as having three or more of these smart features that are tech enabled.
What smart features stay with the home when I move?
It is really anything that's going to require a tool to be removed should stay with the home. So things like cameras, a smart doorbell, thermostat, smart deadbolts, etc. Those are things that stay with the house. That also would include any appliances that are smart, with the exception of the refrigerator and washer and dryer, at least here in Texas, refrigerator washer and dryer or appliances that typically do not convey with the property. Remember that if you have gadgets you love and want to take with you before you move, take them down before listing your home!
Top 5 Smart Home Gadgets
1. Nest Thermostat
I think this is actually one of the most practical items that you can get for your house and the one that's going to tangibly save you a lot of money. You can set it to know when you're out of the house and set a temperature schedule for the day/night.
2. Nest Camera
You can add a camera to any room or space, outdoors or indoors. You can set it so a notification is sent to your phone when it detects movement or a person can speak into the microphone. It can be set to record while you're out of the house for security purposes as well.
3. Smart Light Bulbs
You can place these anywhere in your home, but one of our favorite locations is the front porch! You can set it so it goes on at dusk and shuts off at dawn. This is also great for security when you’re out of town. You can also install them throughout rooms where you can control the brightness of them via an app on your phone!
4. Smart Sprinkler System
It automatically turns the system off if it's raining or if it was raining today, it tells you the preferred time to water your lawn. You can control it remotely, which is just super handy if you're away from home and you realize you forgot to turn it back on.
5. Smart Deadbolts
This is a feature that can make remote access to your home very easy. You can control your deadbolts with your phone. It can lock behind you when you leave the house in the morning, If you need to let a friend in while you're away on vacation, or a neighbor needs to grab something from your garage!
The Pros and Cons of Smart Home Features
Overall it reduces the amount of small tasks you need to do every day. It's so nice to get small things off your plate that don’t need to be there and have something to take care of it for you. Another bonus is it can be a huge money saver! Being able to save on things like electricity and water. Most importantly though, it can greatly increase your security and peace of mind when you’re away from home.
Of course this all comes with some cons, one of the biggest ones being cost. Installing these things into your home can be a major investment. Not only that, but at the rate technology is advancing, what you install may be out of date within the year. Lastly, our biggest concern is the possibilities of hackers. There have been countless stories lately of people gaining access to homeowners smart cameras. With that being said, please take advantage of two factor authentication when it’s available!
Which Smart Home Features Are Worth the Money?
When considering whether or not to invest in these features, it all really boils down to how long you will be in your home. Ultimately having these features doesn’t impact the selling value enough to offset the cost of buying them in hopes of increasing your home’s value due to how rapidly technology becomes dated. With that being said, if it will bring you peace of mind, save you some money, and make your day to day easier then it is worth considering!
Smart Home Features In Your Real Estate Contract
Before this year, there was no official policy in terms of the Texas real estate contract regarding password and app dependent features of home. Luckily the contract was updated in April! The seller signs and legally agrees to uninstall those features and pass on any relevant information to the buyers as part of the real estate process. This is really good news as a buyer and is the modern equivalent of changing the locks. Make sure that anybody who ever had access to it is logged out and then changed the password. It just needs to be part of the rhythm of buying new houses, understanding this new tech, making sure that it's secure and that it's going to really function well for your family.
What Smart Home Tech Will You Be Buying?
We hope you learn more about smart home tech and how it applies to real estate today. We're already starting our lists for Black Friday and we would love to hear from you. Let us know which features we missed that are your favorites! And if you ever have any specific question about a feature that you're considering adding to your home, please don't hesitate to reach out to us.
We want to hear which topics interest you most for our upcoming shows. Head on over to WhereWeLivePodcast.com to continue the conversation in our Facebook group, listen to the podcast, and connect with us.
Until next time,
Brianna and Keelie