From Alexa to Nest to Philips Hue, most smart home device ads seem to be speaking to all stripes of property owners: busy families in the suburbs with lots of groceries to buy from Amazon, working professionals with not enough hours in the day to think about home maintenance, vacation rental hosts managing their properties remotely.
But since the rise of the smart device market in the early 2000s, renters have been largely left out of the equation. Until now. According to a recent survey from Entrata, a basic technology package, smart home features, and automated maintenance all rank among a list of the top ten things that renters say they would pay a premium for. While the list of reasons for this growing trend is nearly limitless, here are four big reasons that SmartRent users are excited to be living in a connected apartment:
Your house can look after itself while you’re on the road.
Whether you’re traveling for work or for pleasure, frequent jet setters know the very specific pain point of worrying about the state of your apartment while they you are away. Rather than troubling a family member or neighbor to keep plants alive, packages secure, and a light on in the evening to ward off unwelcome guests, your smart apartment can take care of all that for you.
You can cut down your energy bill with custom automation.
Automating services like power, heating, and air conditioning with smart devices will allow you to optimize your appliances to your sleep and work schedule. The ability to control energy appliances remotely also means that you can keep the air or heat off for the hours you’re gone, then flip it back on with your SmartRent app as you head home so your apartment is the perfect temperature when you arrive. Similarly, you can command the lights to flip on just before you are about to arrive home, meaning no fumbling around for a light 4switch in the dark.
You no longer have to obsess over whether you locked up or turned the heat off while you’re out just trying to enjoy a nice meal.
We all have that one friend (or life partner) who puts a damper on an evening out after being haunted by fun questions like, “Did I leave the oven on? What about the iron? Is the garage door open?” And so on. When all of your smart devices and power are controllable on a centralized app, you can quickly verify any and all of these troubling quandaries with a few taps on your mobile device.
You will get an instant security upgrade.
Whether its protection from potential fires or a break-in, connected apartments can help you ward off “worst case scenario” hazards for you and your family. Heightened security tools such as surveillance and smart locks can provide you with instant alerts of suspicious activity, giving you peace of mind at all hours of the day. This feature can be especially helpful for the elderly or families with small children.