How smart tech can help sell your home – Life Unlocked

With smart home technology still in its infancy, property owners looking to sell have a window of opportunity to give their pad a distinctive touch that can reduce energy costs and eco-footprints too. We’ve picked out five smart features that will help send prospective buyers away with a great first impression of your home.

Recently one of the team at Klevio decided to put their flat on the market. When the estate agent asked for a spare set of keys to host viewings, she told him there was no need as she could simply share digital keys with him instead. The estate agent’s response was fairly typical – a look of surprise and then a glint of delight when it was explained how Klevio works. The realisation quickly dawned that as well as a convenient tool to simplify the viewings process, Klevio could also be a genuine selling point for the property.

After all, many people view properties in batches – sometimes several on the same day – and house hunting fatigue can soon set in. What could make the difference is if a property has a truly distinguishing feature, and that’s where the emergence of smart home technology in recent years has given sellers a real opportunity to lend their home a high-tech, eco-friendly flourish.

If you’re considering adding some smart tech to your home, the knowledge that you could be making it more sellable might just swing it for you. We’ve picked out five smart home features that could make that crucial difference.

Smart thermostats

It’s not just what you see but how you feel during a house viewing that can determine whether or not you depart with positive vibes. One neat way of ensuring potential buyers feel warm and cosy while they nose around is to schedule the heating to come on during their visit. And with a smart thermostat, you can do this remotely by setting your preferred temperature in advance (the thermostat then checks the temperature to calculate when it should come on). Not only can smart thermostats save you on heating and cooling costs, they also tend to look pretty snazzy, so be sure to remind whoever’s hosting the viewing to point it out to visitors.

Smart lighting

Another way to modify the atmosphere of your home to coincide with a viewing is through the use of smart lighting, which lets you dim, change colour, or simply turn lights on or off remotely from a digital device. This is particularly useful if you have a room that benefits from a specific type of lighting – such as a cosy cinema room that looks best with low lighting – and you’d like to accentuate this aesthetic effect. For a real attention grabber, some smart lighting products even work through spoken requests – for example, if you say “movie night” aloud, the lights in that room will automatically dim.

Smart hoovers

Household chores are increasingly being farmed out to technology and one of the most common tasks that can now be undertaken by smart tech is hovering. There are several smart hoovers on the market now, providing a glimpse into a likely future when every home will have its own robotic personal assistant. Smart hoovers are also useful for preparing for home viewings, which usually means a major tidy up. With smart hoovers, you don’t even need to be at home, as you can schedule them to give the place a quick run-around while you’re out. If visitors happen to spot it, don’t be surprised if they ask if you’ll throw it into the sale!

Smart audio

Probably the most advanced of the smart home accessories sectors is smart audio, which can be incorporated into home entertainment systems to let users control the playing of music, radio or anything else, either from a centralised point or simply by voice command. It’s unlikely that visitors will want to check out your music system, but you could always schedule a suitably ambient playlist to come on when they’re here.

Smart locks

We already mentioned the benefits of a smart access system like Klevio when it comes to selling your home at the start of this blog. Klevio is perfect for estate agents who normally have to manage multiple physical keys, as it means that all the owner needs to do is share digital keys with them and they can then let people in directly from their phone. Klevio is a guaranteed talking point with visitors too, and the magic of seeing it in action might just convince them that your home is ‘the one’.

What smart home technology do you think is the biggest selling point for a home? Let us know in the comments!