Selling a home is a time of many choices: what to keep, throw out, and what to leave. If you have a smarthome, you need to consider what you do with your tech before putting your house on the market.
Always Speak to a Realtor Before Deciding What to Do
Generally, when you’re selling a house, you should speak to a realtor. While some exceptions exist where selling your home on your own is advantageous, a realtor can walk you through the ins and outs of negotiating, following rules and local laws, and filling out the necessary paperwork.
Before you do anything, talk with your realtor and let them know you have a house with smarthome gadgets. Make a list of what you have, what it does, and whether it’s attached to the home, and go through it with your realtor. They may not be familiar with all your devices, so be ready for explanations. Anything not attached probably won’t add value to the house, so you’ll likely keep them or toss them. But your realtor might be able to advise otherwise if they’ve noticed that smart bulbs have improved a sale, for instance.
And that’s the benefit to a realtor, they can advise you on what the local homebuyers have preferred. While some people may see smarthome technology as a benefit and reason to buy a house, others may see it as a detriment or intimidating. Even among tech-savvy buyers, smarthome technology comes with data privacy questions that may put off house shoppers.
The point is, your realtor is likely to have a better gauge of the local market than you are, and if they advise you to keep or remove certain items, you should listen. Your goal is to categorize your smarthome tech into three groups: things staying, things going to your new house, and things you are throwing away.
If you’ve kept all the boxes for your tech, use that to make piles for things you want to take with you, leave behind, and throw away.
Decide What Isn’t Staying and Remove It Before Listing Your Home
In most places, anything attached to the house (via screws, nails, glue, etc.) is considered a fixture and stays with the house when it sells. So if you have gadgets like smart thermostats, outlets, and light switches, if you show the house with them, it can be expected that they will stay.
If you don’t want to sell your house with specific smart gadgets you own, either because you like them or your realtor has advised against them, you should remove them from your home before the first showing. And doublecheck the listing to ensure it doesn’t mention the devices you intend to keep.
Try to consider ease of use and set up as well, if you found installing and configuring a particular smarthome item incredibly frustrating you may not want to leave it (or take it with you). Anything that never performed as well as you hoped fits the bill for removal too; the idea is to enhance the home after all.
