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Trending Smart Home Features That Could Help Sell Your Home Faster

Smart-home

With the ever-growing real estate market, when you’re listing your home for sale, you will do whatever you can to help your home stand out in the crowd and sell as fast as possible. Along with staging your home and making affordable upgrades, adding smart home features may give your listing that technological edge that puts you at the front of the pack.

“Smart home features are designed to make homes more convenient, appealing, secure and energy-efficient — all of which are bonuses when you’re trying to sell a house,” says Geoff Lewis, president of RE/MAX, LLC. “Sellers who want to move their homes faster may benefit from adding smart features that make their properties more appealing to tech-minded buyers.”

6 trending smart home features to help catch buyers’ attention:

Smart Door Locks

Say goodbye to locksmiths and keys! Today keyless remote entry door locks are available which allows you to lock and unlock doors from wherever you are with an app. Some models can keep a log or notify you whenever the door is unlocked through an app. Many models can even be programmed with multiple entry codes so each family member or visitor can have a unique “key”. Not only is it really cool, starting at around $100, it’s also worth the investment by adding value to your home in the eyes of prospective buyers.

Smart Lights

Lighting has come a long way from the humble light bulb. Today, lighting with automation to control lights remotely and even LED bulbs with colors you change from your phone is becoming common and affordable. Some smart lights work together with home automation systems that allows you turn them on or off, or even dim them, from an app. These home automation systems may also tie in other smart features listed in this article.

Others require no communication hub and can be controlled directly from your mobile device. You can also put some smart bulbs on timers and sync them with TV shows, movies, security systems, and thermostats.

Here’s an awesome article we found that helps explain the different options you have to set up smart lighting.

DIY security systems

The days of needing to sign a contract to have a home security system are in the past. DIY security systems are much more affordable, with kits starting as low as $75.00. Many of these systems offer features such as cameras, motion sensors, and sirens, without having to hire a service to monitor them.

Smart appliances

It’s now becoming more common for the everyday object to have network connectivity, including a growing list of smart appliances. Although this may not be an affordable upgrade, a smart appliance would instantly generate interest and add value to your home. Many of these smart appliances can communicate wirelessly with you – and even each other! You will never have to worry about whether you left the stove on again – just turn it off from wherever you are!

While appliances aren’t always included in a home sale, they do make for interesting features that keep your home top of mind to buyers.

Smart plugs

Smart plugs are one of the easiest and most affordable smart home upgrades available. Whatever you plug into these Wi-Fi enabled adapters can be controlled from an app. Of course it’s just a simple on/off switch, but still very useful to control various household features.  Lights, electric timers for lawn sprinkler systems, coffee makers, and televisions are just a few. Some even allow you to set up an on/off schedule or even track energy consumption.

Smart thermostats

When programmable thermostats first became a thing, energy consumption became so much more efficient. Today’s temperature control systems have gotten even smarter. These new thermostats can now be controlled and programmed from an app and some even learn from your family’s behaviors and adjust the temperature to save energy.

“Many of these smart home features are surprisingly easy and affordable to install,” Lewis says. “Sellers who are open to the idea of investing a little money to possibly help get a speedier sale may want to consider adding the smart features buyers will be looking for in 2017.”