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How do you move out of a smarthome?

shkspr.mobi

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Re: How do you move out of a smarthome?

#121

Post by woolvalley »

You move out by changing the passwords & account email addresss, leaving the hubs and giving them the hubs. And tell them to change their passwords.

It's like giving the keys to the house and suggesting they change the locks after they move in.

I know what this guy described is a more involved process, but most smarthome cloud accounts are about as simple as an email & password change.

Most smart home stuff should work fine if there was no hub controlling them, like with light switches and electric shades.

Re: How do you move out of a smarthome?

#122

Post by jimktrains2 »

mikeash wrote: post #19
tantalor wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> do I want to spend the first day looking up manuals online I don't see how this is different than learning how your 10-year-old garage door opener or 20-year-old furnace works.

The garage door opener works when you push a button. The furnace works when you change the little numbers on the thermostat. If it doesn't work, you call a garage door or HVAC company and they fix it. I think most people are barely aware that these things even have manuals, let alone actually sit down and read them.

No, that's how you use them. We I moved into my house I spent a good week or more tracing out where vents, pipes, and wires went. I spent time learning the parts of the furnace and built in humidifier and the different switches and knobs on them and what they do and how they do what they do. I'm no expert, buts it's helped several times already to have such an understanding.

Re: How do you move out of a smarthome?

#123

Post by cbr »

btgeekboy wrote: post #113
devmunchies wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> not be able to easily set the heating until they've moved in ... the epitome of "first-world problems" Staying warm is a first-world problem? How out of touch can the author be? That's a basic need.

One would think that a new homeowner, if actually locked out of the thermostat somehow, could go to their local hardware store and pick up a cheap $30 thermostat to control the furnace.

Or just remove the thermostat from the wall, and turn the heating on by shorting the signal wires together.

Re: How do you move out of a smarthome?

#124

Post by khedoros1 »

bluGill wrote: post #65
vincentkriek wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is leaving lights in the house you sell an American thing? Unless it's built in lights like spots, all the bulbs and even fixtures usually move with the person where I'm from (the Netherlands).

the fixtures are wired in, and thus legally part of then house. You need to add additional language in the paperwork if you want to take them. If you want to take one with you your realtor will probably advise you to replace it before you list the house. Of course as other have pointed out, fixtures are generally either generic, or specific to the room they are in: in either case it doesn't make sense to take them wi…

I've never moved anywhere that I can remember already having a fridge, washer, or dryer. We've always taken ours with us. They seem like more personal appliances to me, anyhow. And in my current place, all the window coverings were removed before the home was shown. I plan on leaving mine in when I eventually sell. They were custom-cut anyhow; I suspect that the old ones were removed because they were damaged.

Re: How do you move out of a smarthome?

#125

Post by Jemmeh »

fastball wrote: post #97
whatshisface wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be in your interest to conceal the problems that your house has, in order to compete with the ignorance offered by everyone else. While this would benefit humanity, nobody would do it.

All houses have problems. The selling point is, "yeah, we have problems like everyone else, but they're out in the open, so you'll never be surprised and you'll have a clear gameplan to deal with all of them". You're selling it as a mitigation of stress.

YMMV. But I do this when I sell cars. I try to be up front with every issue I can, and take loads of pictures. Not only does it save people time, but I can basically say, "Well, I've factored all these things in already" and it's harder for them to use something like "there's a dent here" in negotiation, because I'm the one who brought it to the table. They also see me as more honest in my experience. Car sells faster.

On the flip side, I can only really get the true value of the car. If I didn't list the issues I could probably inflate the price and only discount on what they happen to find during inspection.

Re: How do you move out of a smarthome?

#126

Post by khedoros1 »

mikeash wrote: post #19
tantalor wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> do I want to spend the first day looking up manuals online I don't see how this is different than learning how your 10-year-old garage door opener or 20-year-old furnace works.

The garage door opener works when you push a button. The furnace works when you change the little numbers on the thermostat. If it doesn't work, you call a garage door or HVAC company and they fix it. I think most people are barely aware that these things even have manuals, let alone actually sit down and read them.

> The garage door opener works when you push a button.

What button? I've got a detached garage, so it doesn't make sense to have a button inside. And when the previous residents were (apparently) evicted, they took various keys, remotes, etc with them. I most certainly had to buy a remote and find my garage door opener's manual to get it working. Damned if I was going to pay a garage door repairman to come out and hit a few buttons for me.

Re: How do you move out of a smarthome?

#127

Post by fredophile »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #95
fredophile wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where I live the general rule is anything that was attached is considered part of the home you're buying/selling. If you don't want the light switches and thermostat being sold they should be removed and replaced before you show the home.

What is or is not included in the home sale should be explicitly listed in the property listing. Many houses are shown with contents that will be removed before sale, so when you buy a house, if there's something you're expecting to get as part of it, you should explicitly document it in your offer terms.

There are always going to be local norms and laws though. Where I live and recently bought a home the default is that anything bolted/screwed down is part of the home you're buying. Furniture, art, etc is not included. Most sellers will include the major kitchen appliances, washers and dryers are on a case by case basis. When I bought, the sellers wanted to keep some shelving and curtain rods and this (along with the major appliances) was explicitly covered in the contract.

Re: How do you move out of a smarthome?

#128

Post by WorldMaker »

tzs wrote: post #104
mrmekon wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's almost certainly against the Terms of Service agreement. Presumably, you click-through agreed to a ToS for each one, and you have no right to transfer that agreement to someone else. The agreement is obviously tied to the human who "read" it, not whoever happens to control the account credentials. Not that the ToS for your light bulb dimmer matters much in practice, but technically it's probably forbidden.

One might be able to work around that by creating a corporation, 742 Evergreen Terrace Management Company, in some state where it is cheap to incorporate, and having the corporation own all the accounts related to the house. When you sell the house, transfer ownership of 742 Evergreen Terrace Management Company to the new homeowner.

That's not entirely outrageous. There are even existing Corporate and Trust structures in use for ownership transfer needs (mailbox keys and similar shared infrastructure that maybe can't be directly deeded/titled) in deed-restricted communities (Home Owners Association) and condo buildings (Condo Owners Association). A "smart neighborhood" could work to make sure that smart home functionality transfers smoothly between home owners.

Re: How do you move out of a smarthome?

#129

Post by shostack »

friism wrote: post #30

I have IKEA Trådfri (which is ZigBee-based). While the hub does connect to the internet for software updates (using ethernet - no WiFi, and no WiFi password to update), there's no "cloud" component. You can't create an "IKEA account", even if you wanted. If IKEA went out of business tomorrow, my switches and bulbs would keep working. I like that approach a lot. It would be perfectly feasible to leave the IKEA hardwar…

How do you like the IKEA stuff? I've seen their lights that can shift through daylight/evening hues and brightnesses and was tempted.

Re: How do you move out of a smarthome?

#130

Post by thearn4 »

nathantotten wrote: post #2

I recently moved and took everything with me. This included replacing z-wave light switches and outlets with normal ones. I swapped everything out before we listed the house. The reality is that most people will just be confused by this sort of stuff and you aren’t going to get any extra money when you sell your house. It’s a pain, but assuming you don’t move very often it’s worth it. Now I have all the things in my…

I added z-wave switches to my house, but honestly they function enough like normal switches that I would just leave them if I sold the house (but take the controller with me). I never used any cloud services though.
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