The Smarter Your Home Gets, the More Useful It Becomes

Understanding what a smart home is and what the technology can do for you and your leads is a great way to get a leg up on your competition.

On the most basic level, a smart home saves you time and money by linking various systems around your home or office so you can control them via your phone or a voice command. But when you drill down into it, smart home technology can do so much more.

Here's a list of ways you can use smart home technology in your personal life and in real estate.

Getting Started

The ability for you to control functions remotely is what makes a home "smart." Many devices can be linked to your smart home, ranging from slow cookers to home security systems. Modules like Amazon Echo and Google Home connect these devices so you can control them with voice commands. The more devices you have, the more useful these modules will be. Read on to learn several ways of combining these types of smart home technology that can help you.

Personal Assistance

Smart home technology is often branded as a virtual personal assistant. This is because most systems can do things like manage your shopping list, update you on local traffic reports, turn on your smart vacuum, and start your coffee in the morning.

Entertainment

What's life without a bit of fun? You can use your smart home technology to play music from a variety of different apps, listen to the news or radio, and even search the internet.

Safety

There are many ways a smart home can help with security. Use it to lock your doors, monitor cameras or alarm systems, and even tell you when someone's at your door with audio/video doorbells. Did you leave your stove on at home? There are smart stoves you can turn off remotely. Worried about a family member falling down and not being able to get up? Configure the smart home so they can command their smart home tech to call a family member or neighbor for help.

Saving Money

Energy isn't cheap. Save on your bill by connecting your lights, thermostat, and sprinkler system to your smart home system. This allows you to control your temperature, lights, and water remotely or to put them on a schedule.

Real Estate Applications

Smart home technology can help outside the home, too. Real estate pros can bring their smart home module to open houses so guests can see their advantages firsthand, boosting your memorability as a bonus. If you do this, you may want to print suggested questions for users to ask. These questions can be as simple as what the nearest restaurants are or how far it is from your listing to their school or work.

In the office, you can use smart technology for basic administrative tasks like marking appointments on your calendar, helping with basic math, and creating reminders.

Privacy Issues

There are many ways smart home systems can help you. However, they do have their drawbacks. Most notable is the concern over privacy. Modules won't know when you're addressing them unless they listen to everything in your home, so they listen to (and often store) everything that's said. Amazon handles this by aggregating the data it collects so it can't be traced back to a specific account. Google has a microphone switch you can manually turn off when you don't want the device listening. Google also allows you to see what data it has saved from your interactions.

Each system has different capabilities. Do your research and find out which is right for you before you make the plunge.

To view the original article, visit the Homes.com blog.