Home Automation Inclusion in Home Sale?

BraveSirRobbin

Moderator
Hello CT members:
 
I'm debating a topic that has been discussed here a few times in the past...basically, do I want to include any of my current home automation features in the sale of my home.
 
In a previous home sale, I had an Elk system and security cameras that I included in the home sale.  :)  I also installed phone apps on the buyer's phones for accessing everything in the system.  I did receive some emails whenever something didn't work correctly (not to many).
 
In my current home, I'm thinking of including a much simpler system...just HomeSeer door sensors, Z-Wave compatible window sensors, and HomeSeer light switches.  I don't want to include the HomeSeer server for obvious reasons, so I'm thinking something simple like an Aeotech Smart Hub again, to keep it simple (just turn lights on and off with a phone app and maybe Alexa on/off voice interface).  I will have to purchase this hub, but its not that expensive.
 
I've read that home automation features can add to the value of the home sale (just had a bulletin from a local real estate person touting this).  So, my question is, has anyone had any recent experience with this issue?  If so, what all did you include?  Do you feel it was a valued feature with the buyer?
 
Does anyone have any experience with the Aeotech hub?  Would you recommend another?
 
Thanks for any info,
 
BSR
 
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I've thought about this myself and decided I am not planning on including any automation elements in my house if I ever sell it.  I do have an ELK installed that would stay, but it is really just an alarm system because I use CQC for nearly all control elements.  The ceiling speakers would stay, but I would even remove the B&K CT600 whole house audio controller as it is a free standing piece of equipment in my equipment rack.  I don't have any wall keypads installed (which is why it is free standing and not a permanent part of the house) and therefore it requires CQC to control it.  I think I would even go as far as removing the security cameras (unless the buyer wanted to purchase them) because I use BlueIris which is computer based - and I'd be taking the computer.
 
I would probably leave the network POE switch.  I have several wireless APs that are POE powered and therefore leaving the switch would ensure they work as expected.
 
I've changed a lot of my lighting to Tasmota enabled wifi devices.  One of the really nice things about Tasmota is that you can program a lot of the lighting automation into the firmware on each device.  This will be a benefit because the lighting system will continue to work normally even if I remove CQC from the equation.  For example, my main ceiling lighting in my great room is actually on two different switches.  With Tasmota I have programmed both set of swtiches to turn on/off both sets of lights.  The end user never knows the lights are on two different switches.  On my old lighting system, this was controlled by CQC and would stop functioning if I took out CQC.  Now it will continue to work as expected even without CQC.  Of course I also use CQC to trigger devices/lights based on events, but overall the basic lighting system would work - including control of aux switches and lights, etc. 
 
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