4 ms·

Goodness I hope to never buy house someone used to hack into a smart home. I don't want to inherit anyones bugs or try to understand their mental framework for

Goodness I hope to never buy house someone used to hack into a smart home. I don't want to inherit anyones bugs or try to understand their mental framework for setting things up.

Negitivefrags 1y ago
If you are going to inherit something, it's certainly a better position that they were using something open like Home Assistant than if they were using a bunch of proprietary / cloud based things. At least you have the capability of getting things into a working state without the original owner, which may be impossible otherwise. Now of course the best case scenario is when the "smartness" is only additive to the home, and not required for it. In my case, if Home Assistant isn't working, the house just works like a normal house with all the wall switches functining as you would expect. If I ever sold the house, I would give the new owner the Home Assistant instance, disable all my automations, but also tell them that I'm not going to help them at all with supporting it. The most likely scenario is that they wouldn't want to use it or care about it, but at least the house works just fine without it.
- qwerpy 1y ago
  My house’s automation is pretty much additive but recently I’ve started getting more and more annoyed at the smart light switches. I bought a hodgepodge of switches from different manufacturers. They all work but have different amounts of delay and none of them have the determinism of a dumb switch that physically changes positions. Someday in the far future when someone buys my house, the small but noticeable differences in light switch behavior is going to drive them crazy. I did keep all the original switches for the next owner, if they are motivated to swap them back in.
tehlike 1y ago
I'd have hoped someone did at least somewhat of a decent job to wire the house with cat6. Could save so much time.
timc3 1y ago
Yeah I’ve been wondering what to do if I ever sell. Unlike some others in this thread, the 350 devices I have don’t require too much maintenance (have to replace the odd light bulb, and I do some upgrades once a week), and work flawlessly most of the time. I also designed it so that it works without home assistant or any controller. But what I am going to do - some of the zigbee lights are permanently fixed, but are on manual switches so I guess thats ok. But the irrigation system, some of the lighting systems which are switched automatically, the built in speakers and even the networking might be beneficial to stay. Would probably have to do an audit and take a couple of days.
jamesponddotco 1y ago
If I ever sell the house, I’m taking everything with me. Nothing I built is permanent to the house, so aside from having to paint over some 3M tape here or there, it should be fine. I’d never buy a “smart house” though. I have to set up everything myself, that’s part of the fun.

Goodness I hope to never buy house someone used to hack into a smart home. I don't want to inherit anyones bugs or try to understand their mental framework for setting things up.

Negitivefrags 1y ago

If you are going to inherit something, it's certainly a better position that they were using something open like Home Assistant than if they were using a bunch of proprietary / cloud based things. At least you have the capability of getting things into a working state without the original owner, which may be impossible otherwise. Now of course the best case scenario is when the "smartness" is only additive to the home, and not required for it. In my case, if Home Assistant isn't working, the house just works like a normal house with all the wall switches functining as you would expect. If I ever sold the house, I would give the new owner the Home Assistant instance, disable all my automations, but also tell them that I'm not going to help them at all with supporting it. The most likely scenario is that they wouldn't want to use it or care about it, but at least the house works just fine without it.

qwerpy 1y ago
My house’s automation is pretty much additive but recently I’ve started getting more and more annoyed at the smart light switches. I bought a hodgepodge of switches from different manufacturers. They all work but have different amounts of delay and none of them have the determinism of a dumb switch that physically changes positions. Someday in the far future when someone buys my house, the small but noticeable differences in light switch behavior is going to drive them crazy. I did keep all the original switches for the next owner, if they are motivated to swap them back in.

tehlike 1y ago

I'd have hoped someone did at least somewhat of a decent job to wire the house with cat6. Could save so much time.

timc3 1y ago

Yeah I’ve been wondering what to do if I ever sell. Unlike some others in this thread, the 350 devices I have don’t require too much maintenance (have to replace the odd light bulb, and I do some upgrades once a week), and work flawlessly most of the time. I also designed it so that it works without home assistant or any controller. But what I am going to do - some of the zigbee lights are permanently fixed, but are on manual switches so I guess thats ok. But the irrigation system, some of the lighting systems which are switched automatically, the built in speakers and even the networking might be beneficial to stay. Would probably have to do an audit and take a couple of days.

jamesponddotco 1y ago

If I ever sell the house, I’m taking everything with me. Nothing I built is permanent to the house, so aside from having to paint over some 3M tape here or there, it should be fine. I’d never buy a “smart house” though. I have to set up everything myself, that’s part of the fun.