Have you sold a home with HA features?

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Posted by Dandelion Acres on April 3, 2005, 1:10 pm

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I'm curious if you feel there was an impact on price or presentation in the
sale of that home.

I sold a home about four years ago that had a fairly large amount of X-10 in
it, along with full security, sound, network and a few other gadgets that,
in my mind, were pretty cool and useful. It was mentioned in passing in the
ads, a flyer in the home detailed it, and when the home finally sold the
buyer couldn't have cared less.

It's a fact that a seller cannot "recover" the emotional value ingrained in
the home, nor can one get all of the labor/time put into building your
toyland.

As I develop my current home, I'm on target to create a very nice
executive-style home with very pratical and very pervasive technology put to
work throughout the property. I can't imagine not marketing it with the tech
features profiled, and will build a portfolio with that specific goal. After
all, we have to try to justify a high(er) price don't we? And what better
way than to market to somebody who will use and appreciate it.

Thoughts?

Posted by Gunnar on April 3, 2005, 8:39 pm

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[snip]

You will probably see younger people more interested in "cool" electronics.
Older folks may be more interested in a home security system, even if that
can be had for "free" with monitoring packages. Just the fact that it is
there is a positive thing.

Building a nice (eye candy) $2500 deck in the back yard may be a better
incentive for the buyer than a $5000 investment in X10 or what have you...

I am myself in the process of fully automating my home. Not so much for
increasing the value, though it probably will.
Whether I will recover the added investment is uncertain. When I am done I
suspect $5000-$10000+ out of my pockets.
I have lots of fun doing it though :)

Gunnar.

Posted by Matt on April 3, 2005, 10:11 pm

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When I listed my house, buyers eyes just glazed as I showed thjem all
the X10, HVAC, alarm features... etc.

Added resale value: $0.

_most_ people just don't understand yet, have some ort of paranoia of
their home being too smart, and/or it just us geeks that get a kick out
of it.

Posted by California dude on April 3, 2005, 11:34 pm

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Just for kicks, I had a broker do a walk-through and run "comps" on my
house.  I live in a "decent" town in Silicon Valley.  House needs some
work.

OK, after I got over the shock of hearing the current market value
("No one would pay me THAT MUCH for my house!!!), I asked about
upgrades.

Kitchen, bath, yup, those are good investments,  You get your money
back and maybe then some.  Air conditioning, poor return.  Home
Theater-ready wiring.  Another good investment.

I didn't ask about home automatiion as such, since I can spell X10.  I
even read articles about it in Byte Magazine about 25 years ago.
Yeah, it's on my "round tuit" list.  Only problem is, The only "tuits"
in the stores are square!

Posted by Dandelion Acres on April 4, 2005, 1:10 am

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I think rather than "home automation", the home may be marketed in a
practical sense, with technology being the effector of that practical-ness.

"Energy Efficient" through the use of "intelligent heating and cooling
controls" and the convenience and savings in "lighting control system".
Everybody likes "whole house music" and "home theater", and "intercoms" are
popular anyway. Just because the intercom uses the whole-house music
speakers for the chime and paging and the telephone is integrated into that
audio path is, or may be, irrelevant to an "average" buyer.

I emphasize security, and what better feature to show than the "simple" yet
very effective camera view of the front drive that has dinged your bell and
turned on the lights so you can see...

All stuff we may like to do, that may be complex on the inside yet can be
innocuous and normal to an average Joe.

I thinks it's all about marketing, and marketing is simply communications.
How are you communicating?

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