As a landlord, you might find yourself thinking about the feasibility of installing smart home devices in your rental properties. With several smart home devices available today, from smart doorbells to home security systems to smart lighting, it might be challenging to determine which ones are necessary for your rooms for rent and will benefit you in the long run. Although such devices will enhance your properties’ security and save you money and time, privacy and cost issues need to be considered.
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To make the process of choosing the right smart home devices for your properties easier, we’ve put found a list of eight such products:
Lighting
If you’re responsible for paying the electric bill of your rental room, smart lighting is a great way to save expenses. It’s impractical to go around asking your tenants or reminding them to switch off lights, so smart lighting helps you or your tenants to set the lights on timers or use an app to control them. Motion detection is an option worth considering, especially for outdoor lights. Outdoor lights operated via motion detectors can help keep criminals at bay.
Locks
Smart locks are an excellent investment for a landlord. Instead of giving out keys to tenants, smart locks help you provide them with remote access to a property or use a passcode to do so. After a tenant or temporary guest leaves, the passcode can be changed, so you don’t have to think about rekeying the locks. Another use of smart locks is to let in repairmen, property managers, realtors, and others when they need access to the rental property.
Exterior and doorbell cameras
Using an app to check who’s entering and leaving your rental property is an excellent idea for tenants who may be living in a crime-prone neighborhood. Exterior cameras are also a great way for landlords to watch over their property between tenants.
Security system
An essential part of a landlord’s responsibility is to safeguard the tenant’s belongings, which can be done with the help of a home security system. Some of them are high-priced and involve long-term contracts, while others are reasonable and can be customized to the changing needs of a property. The system might include features such as door and window sensors, glass break sensors, cameras, and so on, all of which can be monitored using an app.
Smoke and CO detectors
Smart Smoke and Carbon Monoxide detectors are more technologically advanced than traditional models. Instead of sounding an alarm, these devices send you or your tenant an alert about a problem through an app. Interestingly, if someone tries to disable the alarm by removing the batteries or the units from their base, you’ll be alerted.
Flood or moisture detectors
Moisture sensors can prevent large-scale water damage and save landlords a lot of money. Affordable and easy to install, these devices can detect small leaks that may often go unnoticed, and alert you before they turn into a bigger issue. More serious problems like burst pipes can also be detected before they cause more damage.
Smart home assistants
Google Home, Alexa, and similar devices help make many activities easier to perform, and using them is a lot of fun. They also help in the smooth functioning and control of all the smart home appliances you may have at home.
Thermostats
Smart thermostats go a long way in saving energy costs if you or your tenant are responsible for the electric bill. Rather than have the temperature remain stationary, these devices allow you to program and remotely control the settings on the basis of weather, preferences, the time of day, and whoever’s at home. These smart devices also learn the tenants’ behavior patterns and use the information to create more effective heating and cooling patterns, so many brands are ENERGY STAR certified.
Installing these smart home devices can not only save you money and be at peace with yourself but also attract potential tenants who want an automated home and additional security, thanks to the smart lock. Many prospective tenants are more than happy to pay higher rent for a smart tech home. But most tenants don’t want to install the devices themselves and prefer to live in a rental house with pre-installed devices. So, as a first step, install a few of these devices and see the results for yourself!
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Jane Patrick Joined: May 12th, 2021 Articles Posted: 1
