With In-Home Technology
Whether you’re planning on selling your home or living in it for the next 10, 15, or 20 years, it’s important to think about the big picture when it comes to what kind of technology capabilities you want in your house. There are plenty of in-home technologies that can help you customize your living space to your preferences. Do you want a space that’s sleeker and more modern? Or do you want a space that’s cozy and comfortable? Chances are that some sort of technology will aid you as you strive to make each room of your home just right.
Smart technology is all the rage in homes right now. Whether you desire a simple thermostat that can be controlled remotely from your smartphone or a complex smart home platform that controls lighting, media, security monitoring, video, and climate, many options exist to fit your needs and budget. Before investing in smart home technology, it’s wise to consider the useful lifespan of your home’s mechanical systems. Water heater and HVAC technology hasn’t evolved as quickly as smart technology, but plenty of homes still run non-high-efficiency (non-HE) units. If your home doesn’t have an HE water heater or furnace, then it might be worth replacing, whether it’s for your own use or for the people moving in after you sell your house. HE mechanicals not only make your home more comfortable, efficient, and economical than traditional non-HE mechanical systems, but they also make your home more appealing to potential buyers.
Smart thermostats, lighting, and entertainment systems are often key consumer focuses, but the advent of affordable cloud storage has caused an explosion in the home video-monitoring segment. Ring is the brand name for doorbells at the forefront of consumers’ minds, but a host of new entrants to the space are revolutionizing the way we secure, monitor, and access our primary and secondary homes and properties. Commercial-grade security cameras that use power over ethernet (POE) connections are affordable for many consumers, and the modularity allows for property owners and even tenants to upgrade their video-monitoring systems as their budget allows over time. Although many home owners are still hesitant to start recording video in their home, exterior home video monitoring is nearly the standard of service for high-end and luxury homes. If you are serious about your home connectivity, then do not forget to budget for video monitoring.
If you’re planning on selling your home, you might think about inhome technology from a little bit of a different angle. Since the rise of the smartphone, smart technology has proliferated at a rate unheard of for any other form of technology ever. That makes it difficult if you want to sell your home because you can’t just think about the technology you want right now — you have to think of the technology that the next homeowners might want. Around 20 years ago, high-end homes all had massive media entertainment centers built right into the wall, and they were made obsolete by the invention of the flat-screen TV.
Could designers have known that the flat-screens would be incompatible with built-in media centers? Maybe, maybe not — but you might be able to infer a few technology choices that potential homebuyers will want. For example, a lot of people like having the option to play music in different rooms of the house. If you don’t have your home set up to potentially house speakers, then it could be a good feature to implement for future residents. I know my family and I love our Sonos speaker system!
For whatever you’re trying to achieve with your home — whether it be a place for parties and get-togethers or simply the perfect place to unwind after a hard day’s work — there’s the perfect technology to make it possible. What improvements do you want to make to your home?
~Fritz Soberay
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