Must-Have Smart Home Features

We pour so much love and care into helping our home take care of us - it’s about time for our homes to help us out a little, right? (Mostly joking - but hey, we take what we can get with our homes, right?). All jokes aside, it’s an amazing world we’re in that we can have switches, appliances, security - you name it - as part of our  “smart home” set up. This means that things that would normally be manual are either automated, activated by voice, synchronized, connected, etc. 

A recent study by a major real estate firm showed that ⅔ of agents agree that buyers are more interested in homes with smart home features than just two to five years ago. Just like any new home feature - while smart home features aren’t yet expected by homebuyers, they are sought after and in the next three to seven years likely will be expected. 

The options are endless - and because of that, we’ve helped narrow it down to some of the most important smart home feature categories.

Smart Kitchen Appliances 

Smart kitchen appliances run from everything from sous vides that can connect to your phone, to microwaves that sense when your food is cooked. Obviously the higher ticket and more permanent options are more what homebuyers are looking for - but they will also cost you a pretty penny. For rundowns on everything from microwaves and scales, to ovens and refrigerators - check out the “best of” lists of PC Mag and Hello Tech. 

Smart Thermostats

With thermostats learning your daily routine and programming to save up to a claimed 20% on energy bills - what’s not to love about updating that regular ol’ thermostat? Even better is that smart thermostats were one of the earlier smart home features available - so there are many tried and true options out there. PC Mag has another great list for smart thermostats, as well as TechHive.

Smart Security 

Smart security has been a long time in the making, considering there have been security companies that installed electronic alarms in homes now for almost decades. This category is especially important with 48% of homebuyers preferring smart security over any other smart home features. US News published a great comparison of smart security systems in addition to PC Mag’s list.

Smart Lighting 

Part practicality, part novelty - whether it be for easier waking up, fun colors, safety or energy-saving - the smart light category is expanding. With the system levels varying greatly and the setup also varying in levels of involved-ness, it’s worth educating yourself on all the options. Smart Home Focus put out a great, smart lighting comprehensive guide on everything you wanted to know (and more!). Tom’s guide also has a great rundown on product options.

Smart Home Kits & Hubs

Interested in diving in but not sure where to start or how to connect? The industry guessed that would be the case and many companies have started creating kits where you don’t have to worry about everything connecting to each other. Here is a list of starter kits for specific features like lighting, security, etc. and here is a rundown on different smart home hub options.