(Sebastian Scholz [Nuki], Unsplash)

Home sales depend on a lot of different factors, and buyers are always looking for different things in a home, such as price, location, condition, and features. These days, however, the features might just include smart home technologies, such as the ability to control several different things in your home, such as the lights or the thermostats. One thing most people probably agree on is that these technologies only add value to a home (and save you money), which is why homes with these types of products installed are on the rise.

So, what are smart home technologies and how do they work?

What are Smart Home Technologies?

If you’re a Millennial, you might’ve seen the Disney Channel movie, Smart House. But that house was a little more advanced than its time. These days, Smart Houses are a reality that pretty much anyone can have in this advanced technological age.

But what exactly are smart home products or technologies?

Smart home products are anything that makes the home smarter and easier to live in. For example, some might allow a homeowner to control things like:

• Thermostats
• Appliances
• Lights
• Stove
• Smartphone or tablet
• Garage door locks
• Front door locks
• Air conditioners
• Doorbell cameras
• Security cameras

Smart homes can be convenient and save homeowners money in the long run. It also increases the home’s overall value. The smart home market size was $99.41 billion in 2021, and there were about 258.54 million smart homes worldwide. The number of smart homes is forecast to grow and surpass the 350 million mark by 2023, according to Statista.

How Does Smart Home Technology Work? 

Smart home tech products can make homes safer, giving some homeowners more peace of mind. But how does it work?

They’re set up through wireless or hardwired systems, and you can connect internet-enabled devices to your network so that you can control things right from your smartphone if you want. Smart home devices can also connect and work with each other. The system is typically installed on a mobile device (or something similar), which allows you to create time schedules for certain things to happen.

For example, if you wanted to pre-heat the oven on your way home from work to get a head start on dinner, you could do it right from your phone. Or if you wanted to make sure your thermostats are turned down every night, you could put them on a timer right from your phone. Then you wouldn’t have to think about it every day, saving you tons of money in the long run.

If you wanted to check on your teenage children at home, you could simply access your home’s security cameras through your phone and see exactly what they’re doing. That’s one less house party you have to clean up after.

Bottom line: these technologies can help improve our lives and the way we complete our daily household chores and save us money For instance, smart heating and cooling systems can save smart home users 50 percent in energy use. Smart home products will no doubt lighten the load and provide more convenience for the homeowner and their family. 

How Smart Home Technologies Impact Real Estate Values

As you can probably guess from earlier sections, smart home technology is pretty amazing and it’s clear that it would no doubt positively affect real estate home values.

Almost half (47%) of millennials have smart home products in their homes and 57% of Americans say that smart home technology products save them an average of 30 minutes a day.

Smart home products might include:

• Smart light bulbs
• Smart mattresses
• Smart speakers
• Smart plugs
• Smart refrigerators
• Smart stoves
• Smart cookers
• Smart thermostats
• Smart showers
• Smart hubs (like Alexa, Amazon Echo, and Google Assistant)

The above smart products can help ensure you live a life of convenience and ease. More and more homes will have smart devices in the future as millennials and soon, Gen Z, embrace these technologies just as easily as they’ve embraced other technologies are part of their everyday life.

So, how does that translate into impacting real estate values? Well, it’s impacting the resale value of homes and the amount of time home spend on the market.

Resale Values

One of the biggest impacts of smart home technologies on real estate values is the impact on resale value. A home with smart home products installed has much more resale value than a home without them. In fact, one of the very things used to determine the market value of a home is what features and amenities the property has. Throw in a couple of smart home technologies and you’ve significantly increased the overall appeal to buyers.

So if you’re thinking of upgrading your home to include smart home products, it would be a wise decision whether you’re staying in the home to enjoy them yourself or you’re considering selling your home and want to add to its resale value. 

Time on the Market

Another way smart home technologies impact real estate values is the length of time homes with these features spend on the market.

Homes without these kinds of products installed tend to spend more days on the market than homes that don’t have smart home technology products installed. While other factors can certainly impact the amount of time a home spends on the market, such as the price of the home, the location, the condition, and the features, but it’s pretty obvious that homes with smart home products tend to spend fewer days on the market.

Approximately 81 percent of homebuyers would buy a home just because it already has smart home products installed. That alone reduces the amount of time a smart home will spend on the market. Smart home products are the future of real estate. And upgraded smart home security features will be the next industry poised to see growth. With more valuable home technology will also come more opportunities for theft, which is why households will spend about $19.4 billion to get smart security systems in the coming decade.

More Deals for Investors (But Also More Competition)

If you’re a real estate investor, this means more deals for you. If smart homes are selling at a faster rate than other homes, that means more opportunities to snap up great properties with smart home products installed.

But on the flip side, that also might mean more competition. Since you already know the smart home technology industry is poised for growth, more and more investors are going to be aiming to get a few smart homes into their portfolios. In fact, some portfolios might be strictly smart homes in the coming years as smart home technology becomes more common.

Finding the Right Tools for Success

Now that you’re aware of the significant impact that smart home products have on real estate values, you can factor that into your search for homes. You’re probably sold on the idea of having a smart home because, really, who wouldn’t want one?

ProspectNow has been around for over a decade (since 2008). The data that users can get from ProspectNow is a lot more expensive on other competing platforms. By using ProspectNow, users will close more deals, and therefore make more money! ProspectNow is a vital tool for your business success in real estate or real estate marketing. Additionally, ProspectNow is trustworthy and easy to do business with, not to mention a provider of reliable data.