What is the Value of a Digital Home?

In 2014, over five million homes were bought and sold. And according to the Census, there are about 120 million homes in the US, of which approximately 70 million are full-time owner occupied.

A "physical home" has been well understood for probably a few centuries. People intuitively know that a physical home is made up of various structural materials, building materials, equipment, fixtures, and finishes. The real estate process and well defined property laws transfer ownership of these physical homes from one person to another, and the insurance industry insures not only the physical home, but the physical possessions in it.

But the last 40 years has introduced us to a "digital" world that is interconnected via the internet. So we should ask ourselves the questions of what a "digital home" is, and what the value of a digital home is during the three phases of the homeowner lifecycle--owning, selling and buying a home.

A digital home is a collection of all the digital data about a home. This digital data is photos, documents, videos, and other information about the home and all the equipment, materials, fixtures, finishes and appliances. There are many parts and pieces of a physical home that have a corresponding digital representation of those assets.

Once a digital home is aggregated into a computer system, then it can become very valuable to a homeowner. The digital home could then proactively remind homeowners of various home maintenance tasks required to keep the home and its fixed assets operating efficiently, safely and providing a healthy living environment. The digital home could also help ensure that the proper amount of insurance is covering those assets.

Homes also go through many upgrades, remodel and fix-it projects. The original components of a home wear out, or a new homeowner wants to change or add to the original structure. Keeping track of the digital data about new products, equipment and finishes during projects can also help the homeowner during tax time and for future re-sale purposes.

Imagine a homeowner who decides to sell their home. During the marketing of their property, they could share the digital home with potential buyers online. Surveys from NAR and others say that buyers predominately start researching homes to buy on the internet and are demanding more and more information. Just look at used car sites where a lot of digital photos and a digital version of the car's history is being used by buyers to help in making buying decisions.

From the seller's perspective, could this digital home help sell the home for a premium price? If two of essentially the exact same homes were for sale and one had a digital home history and the other did not, would one sell for more or quicker than the other? Could a real estate agent differentiate a property with a complete digital home in their online marketing efforts?

From a buyer's perspective, would a digital home reduce the research and decision time on whether to make an offer or not? Would it help build confidence that the home has been well maintained? Would it help if the buyer got their own copy of the digital home profile to help them manage and maintain their home?

There are many industries that are going through a transformation of having a digital copy of the physical world. A great example is introducing the concept of digital health records that is a representation of your body and all the different characteristics and tests of the biological systems in it. Various models of a digital home are already underway, and it will have tremendous value and transform the home and real estate markets.

To view the original article, visit John Bodrozic's blog.