Have you sold a home with HA features?

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?

Reply to
Dandelion Acres
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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.

Reply to
Gunnar

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.

Reply to
Matt

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!

Reply to
California dude

I've sold two homes equipped with extensive X10 based systems and found that it had absolutely no effect on the purchase price. In fact some buyers were intimidated by the concept and saw it as "too complicated" before even learning what it was or how it worked. The last home I sold with HA required my going back several times to help them program the system to their liking. They had no interest in learning how to program it themselves. I haven't heard from them in a couple of years so I assume they tore it out. In building an oceanfront spec home now that's listed for $7 million I'm putting in structured wiring for data, phone and TV as well as surround sound speaker wiring w/whole house audio wiring. I'll put in cables wherever I think a need might arise because cabling is cheap but I will only offer HA as an extra cost option based on whatever a buyer wants. The home will have a solid security seystem and I'll either use Caddx or HAI for that.

From:Dandelion Acres snipped-for-privacy@cedarcomm.com

Reply to
BruceR

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 th>

Reply to
Dandelion Acres

Interesting point. We called it a Smart Home and showed off cameras, security and the like but, while people thought it was nice, they already expected the security system and beyond that they just glazed over.

From:Dandelion Acres snipped-for-privacy@cedarcomm.com

Reply to
BruceR

yep, i'd have to concur, i'm pulling out my elk m1 and replacing it with a plain jane vista20, I'm not doing any x10 all with it either, i'll stick a plug timer on the lamp post feed, what a waste, all that work, oh well, I learned something I guess. People are stooopid.

Reply to
mikey

Uh, speaking professionally, "marketing" is far more than just communications. I don't want to bore anyone, so I'll just say that you need to identify your "target audience," and then figure out how big that is, so if you got 100% "response" to your offer, how big is that. For example, your audience could be all the people within 50 miles of your new house who can afford to buy a $2M home. Probably the people attracted to an automated home are in their 20s and 30s, rather than say their 50s or 60s. All that is part of the puzzle.

You know that people don't move every month, but you should be able to get some numbers on how many people do move each month, in terms of homes sold in the same price range you're aiming at. That info also tells you your competition.

Then you need to figure out what is really important, and what is not. It sounds like you're doing some of that, the "hard way," which is the only way to be truly sure about something, unfortunately. With this info, you have your "positioning" statement.

Now, the "communications" consists of describing the "benefits" of the items that are important, e.g. home automation provides additional family safety. You have tho choose the right words that will be meaningful to your target audience, AND you have to figure out the best ways to deliver that "message." e.g. print ads, web site, flyers posted in brokers' offices. Sometimes you "sell" to the "channel," in this case real estate brokers, rather than to home buyers directly.

It's easier than it sounds, especialy if you've done it already. If not, I'm available for consulting. _:) -:)

'dude

Reply to
California dude

This comes down to classical marketing basics. People buy benefits and NOT features.

Those who are technologically inclined tend to talk about features, look for features and generally consider the benefits to be implied. When "geeking out" about a high-speed wireless router, 2 geeks will talk about the transfer rate and understand, implicitely, that the benefit is being able to move MP3's around easily and stream video, etc.

However, if you're sell> yep, i'd have to concur, i'm pulling out my elk m1 and replacing it with a

Reply to
J Wynia

You're right of course. Marketing benefits is the way to go. One of the problems is trying to train real estate agents to do that. In most cases, the homeowner who understands the system never meets the potential buyer till closing if at all. In fact, the only opportunity to "sell" the system is in trying to train the listing agent on the benefits and how to demonstrate them. Trust me, it is the rare agent who will take the time to learn either the benefits or how to demonstrate them. There needs to be more industry marketing to create the demand from the buyer for these benefits so that a buyer will look for the features like they look for granite countertops and Viking ranges. Right now people are starting to look for surround sound wiring since they've experienced the frustration of running wires for their home theater setups already - but that's as far it goes so far.

From:J Wynia snipped-for-privacy@speakeasy.net

Reply to
BruceR

I would be one of the few buyers who would look for that sort of thing. It's beyond me why people *wouldn't* want their lights to be on when they get home, or see who's at the front door, or have the front porch light turn on as you walk up, struggling with bags of groceries.

I have not invested much in X10 that I can't take with me to the next house. I will take the time to put back all the original switches that I replaced, and take down my XCam2.

In this day and age, with every facet of our lives computerized in some manner, I don't understand how/why anyone would be afraid of X10. They let microwave radiation cook their food, but they can't fathom the idea of lights coming on at quasi random time to let burglars think you are home

Reply to
unrulygrrl

My area

lighting control system = 0 value hvac automation = 0 value distributed sound, video= 0 value IR distribution = 0 value security system = 0 value

ceiling speakers = good value ( if 1 zone entire house) sprinkler system = good return if controlled by rainbird / hunter controller not basement laptop, X10 etc Extra wiring in the walls = good value

Any PC controlled automation = negative value Crestrone, AMX = negative value ( people afraid )

Moral take entire automation system off, it adds 0 value.

Brian

Reply to
Brian

So, from the information in this thread - the new house I am preparing to break ground for - I should install any home automation gear that I can easily yank out and take with me to any new house down the road?

....Bob

Reply to
Bob Dozier

Might not be worthwhile yanking it out when the time comes (newer stuff might be nicer by then) but bottom line is to install what YOU want for YOUR use rather than being concerned with recouping any of the investment on resale.

From:Bob Dozier good snipped-for-privacy@charlie-brown.net

Reply to
BruceR

No just accept the fact that the cost for it will have little or no effect on increasing the resale value. Enjoy it for what it does for you while you own the home. Just like paint colors on the wall, your 'investment' is 'lost' if the following owner doesn't like the color and you wouldn't be able to pitch them on the merits of it anyway.

As for educating real estate people, ohhhh, dream ON!

Reply to
wkearney99

I'd say you have to go even further than that. If you're going to install HA, make it as unobtrusive as possible and as removable as possible. You don't want to have your HA become an actual impediment to sales. I saw an interesting show today on house selling where they distributed hidden cameras throughout an open house to get buyers candid opinions of the house. I learned a lot from a single episode. Less is more.

I'd imagine that a control room (even as immaculately designed and executed as the one you've shared photographs of) is going to be a hindrance to 99 out of 100 buyers. Not many buyers or real estate agents appreciate the value of a punch-down block. They just want to plug a phone in and have it work. They see whatever space you've chosen for your HA and AV gear as one less place to store their Barbie doll collection. The only thing that I've ever seen boost the value of a home is a name-brand security system that's been well-maintained. Of course, those are only of value to someone who WANTS one. That's more and more buyers but still not enough, IMHO, to make it a "must install" item.

BTW, my spell checker wants to call you Bruiser, Bruce R.!

-- Bobby G.

Reply to
Robert Green

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