Is a Smart Home a Smart Idea?

As technology continues to evolve and proliferate every year, there are more and more ways to automate and upgrade your house to make your life more convenient. The multibillion dollar industry of home automation is growing exponentially, and it’s going to be increasingly common for almost every home to have at least a few “smart” features. The question is whether it’s worth in terms of real estate investment. Obviously, have all of the best technology in your house would be nice and make it more enjoyable to live there and care for the home, but what effects will these improvements have on the property’s value when you are ready to sell? This is still an emerging area of real estate investment, but the lawyers at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., always remain on the cutting edge of new developments in the world of real estate and are ready to advise you. For now, though, read on for a primer on smart homes.

Being Smart Costs Money

The foundation of any smart home is the integrated technology. Available tech ranges from security systems, smartphone-operated appliances, advanced HVAC, and innovative new home entertainment systems – and this is only the tip of the iceberg. As with anything else, there is some variety in price based on the specific product and vendor in question, but you can generally count on smart improvements to be expensive. While it’s definitely neat to be able to turn your oven on from the living room, and is undeniably useful to be able to lock or unlock you front door from across town, you have to seriously consider whether it’s worth thousands of dollars for these luxuries.

Invest for the Future

When trying to decide whether investing in smart tech for your home will increase its value to potential future buyers, you need to consider who those future buyers will be. Currently, Gen Xers are in their peak earning years and are heavily buying into the smart home movement. Millennials are also not far off from their home-buying years and are overwhelmingly of the opinion that smart tech is a good thing to have in a home. All of this suggests that the person who will want to buy your home by the time your ready to sell will probably be someone who wants a smart home, meaning that adding these improvements is likely to help boost your home’s value.

Hacked

As technology becomes more sophisticated, so do those who seek to exploit it for their own ends. As home systems become automated, they also become susceptible to hackers. This is far from a Hollywood fantasy – experts report that your smart home being hacked is a very real threat. You’ll want to make sure every system you add to your home is professionally installed and properly safeguarded to protect you from hackers.

The Verdict

At the moment, market trends don’t seem to indicate that smart tech is having an overwhelming impact on the value and selling potential of homes. This may change as millennials continue to earn more and move toward their home-buying years, but for the time being smart homes are more of an extra perk or incentive, not a key deciding factor for buyers. Of course, certain systems, such as those that optimize utility use and save homeowners money, can be a bigger selling point. There are also outstanding security concerns related to automating key home systems that need to be carefully addressed. For the time being, then, smart tech isn’t going to make or break your sale, and can be done based primarily on your choice or preference.