The Top Five Trends in Smart Home Innovation

Coldwell Banker hosted a CNET-moderated panel on smart home innovation yesterday at the REAL Trends Gathering of Eagles Conference. These are the top five trends that emerged from it.

Yesterday, Courtney Cochrane, global vice president of media sales and magazine publisher at CNET, asked some of the world’s biggest home innovators to define what they think constitutes a smart home. “It’s not the home of the Jetsons,” she said. “But it’s a home where I can invite people over, let a HomeBot vacuum my house, and sit back on the couch and read a book.”

This renowned panel, which included leaders from LG, Lutron, Nest, Sengled andTesla, spent the day together discussing what differentiates a smart home from a connected home, and how brands can achieve true integration.

The group then addressed the future home innovation to 300 of the leading real estate professionals in the United States at the REAL Trends Gathering of Eagles Conferencein Denver, Colo.

It’s only a matter of time before the smart home – or the connected home – becomes a mainstay in the real estate market. And with 60 percent of real estate agents agreeingtheir buyers are asking for homes with smart home technology, that moment will be here sooner than you may think.

As smart home technology becomes more mainstream, we put together the top five trends to watch for smart homes in real estate.

1. Smart homes will be the new normal. Homeowners will have batteries in their garage for their electric cars. Buyers will demand smart lighting, temperature and appliances. Smart technology is becoming more affordable and accessible, so it’s only a matter of time before it proliferates the market.
2. Smart staging will reimagine home staging. Face it, smart home technology is really, really cool. Sengled makes a light bulb that streams your music. Nest knows what temperature the room should be at when you walk through the room. Listings with smart home technology are going to have an edge.
3. Smart phones are your smart home remote control. “Do you have a smart phone?” Cochrane asked the audience. “Well then you have a remote control for your smart home.” She is right – and it’s a demand we’re already starting to see from our home buyers. According to our survey last month, 62 percent of real estate professionals say that buyers want to control their home from their smart phone.
4. Brands will continue to integrate. “Products are going to begin to talk to each other,” said Ben Bixby, General Manager of Energy Products, Nest. The past year has been a major time of growth for the smart home market. New players are entering the space every day, and the industry is working to make all the pieces fit together.
5. The smart home will become the connected home. You have smart products, like the French door refrigerator with smart cooling from LG, or the Caséta Wireless by Lutron. And then you have the connected home, which you can control from your smart phone. “The key is having appliances that make your life simpler,” said John Taylor, the Vice President of Public Affairs and Communications for LG.

You can watch video footage of the panel on the Periscope iPhone app before it expires at 6:45 p.m. ET today by following Coldwell Banker.