Smart Homes & Rental Properties

Do you want to use your smart phone or tablet to remotely manage a second rental property?

In this post I explore aspects of Smart home Automation that will help you make a life a little easier when it comes to managing a second or even a third property!

Here are my top 3 favorite uses of Smart Home Automation for rental and vacation property owners:

1. TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR ELECTRICITY BILLS AND SAVE ENERGY

Rental property owners are often reliant on a local management company or person to ‘keep an eye’ on electrical and heating or cooling system usage.

This is the case because the owner is often living many miles away.

One common misuse of energy occurs when guests adjust the thermostat to suit their schedule whilst their on holidays, which is fine.

However the adjusted schedule may stay active when your property is vacant; costing you money.

The same applies for electrical devices, which may in-advertently be left on, during periods of un-occupation.

Some people try limiting guest control of the programmable thermostats, whilst more owners ask the person or company managing the house to regularly check the thermostat(s) and monitor electricity usage.

Although both approaches may work for some owners; there is another option – install a wireless home automation energy management kit and remotely manage heating, cooling and electrical usage in your own property.

2. USE YOU SMARTPHONE TO GRANT ACCESS TO HOLIDAY GUESTS AND SERVICE PROFESSIONALS

Yep, we’ve all done it, arrived at a holiday home and either met someone to get a key for the door or here in Ireland, we check under a stone at the back of the house.

A Smart Home Automation system provides a more elegant approach to managing the keys used to enter your property.

Integrating a keypad door lock with a Smarthome Automation controller will allow you to do the following:

You can provide a code to renters for the duration of their stay – this code will then expire once their holiday is over.
Provide a separate code to the cleaning company and be updated on your smartphone when they arrive in and leave your property.
Issue a code to a tradesperson such as a plumber or an electrician to gain access in and out of the house. This removes the need for you to be physically present at the property. With the cost of diesel and petrol nowadays – this is a big advantage!

3. INTEGRATING IP NETWORK CAMERAS WITH YOUR SMARTHOME AUTOMATION 2.0 SYSTEM

If you want need to see what’s happening in your rental property every so often then installing one or two network cameras is a great way of improving your peace of mind.

They can notify in the form of a text message or email when an intruder enters your holiday and record the break-in whilst it’s happening.

Network cameras can be used standalone, however some rental property owners also interface their network cameras with their smart home automation system, allowing them to configure different types of automation events.