As smart homes become more popular among consumers, buyers and sellers are showing greater interest in those homes and smart-home technologies.
This is according to the National Association of Realtors’ inaugural Smart Homes and Realtors report, which found that realtors are becoming more interested in a smart home certification, despite the fact that only 15 percent of agents are receiving questions about smart home technology from their clients.
According to the report, which analyzed the importance of smart home technology to realtors, 42 percent of respondents stated they are interested in acquiring a smart home certification, while 22 percent are not interested and 36 percent were undecided.
“More homeowners are adopting smart-home technology and that will likely impact buyers’ purchase decisions in the future,” said NAR President William E. Brown.
Of the respondents who are interested in a smart home certification, 23 percent of agents have one-year experience or less, whereas 54 percent have more than 16 years of experience.
There is greater interest in a smart home designation for agents over 55 years of age (47 percent), compared to agents 45 years or younger (30 percent).
In terms of smart home devices, 37 percent of realtors said clients find smart locks to be very important, followed by lights at 29 percent and thermostats at 26 percent. Some 43 percent said clients were neutral about the importance of voice control features and 38 percent for smart appliances and doorbells.
When it comes to the importance of smart home functions to their clients, 80 percent of realtors see security as very or somewhat important. Nearly half of realtors view privacy as a very important smart home function to their clients, while 30 percent see it as somewhat important. Four in 10 Realtors see both cost savings and energy savings to be very important to their clients and 38 percent see comfort to be a very important smart home function.
According to the report, slightly more than half of realtors’ clients were not familiar with what’s available for smart home technology. Nearly 40 percent of realtors discussed security and privacy issues with their clients followed by technology cost at 31 percent and interoperability at 6 percent.
Of the many types of smart home technologies available, 42 percent of realtors said clients were most interested in smart home devices, followed by whole home technology (22 percent) and smart home technology for specific rooms (13 percent); 41 percent of clients were not interested in any of these technologies.
Recent Plainsboro transactions
521 Sayre Drive. Seller: Jerome Davidson. 3BR condo. $445,000 (-$44,000).
64 Hampshire Drive. Seller: Sachin & Bhavana Thakre. 3BR townhouse. $355,000 (-$24,900).
35 Hampshire Drive. Seller: Nicole Brown. 3BR townhouse. $331,000 (-$8,900).
59 Ashford Drive. Seller: Ricardo & Marcia Bianchini. 3BR townhouse. $428,500 (-$21,400).
4426 Sayre Drive. Seller: John Wenzel. 2BR townhouse. $215,950 (-$43,000).
3231 Sayre Drive. Seller: Lisa Friedman. 2BR condo. $156,000 (-$18,800).
Recent West Windsor transactions
103 Claridge Court Unit No. 8. Seller: Eagles Nest Properties LLC. Buyer: Fenghua Liang & Zhiqin Huang. 2BR condo. $270,000 (-$5,000).
22 Greylynne Drive. Seller: Weiyi Wang & Zhebei Yang. Buyer: Tommy Chung & Lorraine Shui. 4BR single-family home. $728,000 (-$11,000).
3 Penbrook Court. Seller: Claire & Doohee Han. Buyer: Kevin & Shohini Holden. 4BR single-family home. $560,000 (-$25,000).
11 Stobbe Lane. Seller: Eunjoo Park. 3BR single-family home. $350,000 (-$34,900).
14 Globeflower Lane. Seller: Marvin & Eileen Mandel. Buyer: Michael & Martin Schneider. 2BR single-family home. $365,000 (-$4,900).
139 S Barrow Place. Seller: Tanya Nelson. Buyer: Suresh Shelat. 2BR townhouse. $354,000 (-$16,000).
118 Acadia Court Unit No. 4. Seller: John Roberts & Janet Smith. Buyer: Hongjuan Luo. 2BR condo. $265,000 (-$7,500).
111 Biscayne Court Unit No. 1. Seller: Sunglan & Chungho Chen. Buyer: Ramachandra & Vrunda Kulkarni. 2BR condo. $289,000 (-$6,000).
307 Trinity Court Unit No. 10. Seller: Prateek & Bhavya Gadhoke. Buyer: Manzhuang Zheng. 2BR condo. $299,900.
1303 Old Trenton Road. Seller: Estate of Frances Newcamp. Buyer: Jinghua Shen & Liying Tan. 3BR single-family house. $295,000 (-$60,000).
