Changing Email for Login upon Selling House (2020)

As @FakeThinkpad said Export feature would be great.
Also to keep a backup for yourself e.g. incase of getting new hub or trying to revert changes… or making bulk changes to the config and uploading it all at once.

I’m very interested in this thread as a house is generally the most valuable thing we own, and I clearly don’t want something that I thought would be a selling point, become a negative!

This solution appears neat. I have 50 or so Fibaro modules and plan to leave them in my house if I ever sell, and don’t want to be saying to the new owners that they need to set up everything from scratch. I also am not sure how easy it is to rewire everything back to dumb switches.

I see some people have indicated issues with this approach, though I’m not sure I understand them. Just set up a SmartThings login where the email address is ‘theHouse’ and then all the buyer has to do is to change this address to their own one?

Anyone see why this won’t work? Hope not!!

Just went through this in Massachusetts. Since in MA you need to leave everything that is physically installed (switches, light bulbs, sensors, etc., I ended up resetting the hub, getting a Samsung ID provided by the buyer, and re-pairing all the devices.

There is a subtlety to be aware of: The county in which the Samsung ID is created controls what Smart Apps the account holder can use. One of my buyers already had a non-US account for a phone, and lock management was not available until they switched it to the US.

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Ok - but I only have Fibaro Dimmers and a few other Fibaro modules. Hopefully the suggestion of switching SmartThings to a house email is a good bridge to give the new owner, and then they can change it to their own email address if they wish?

David.

Yes. That is what I did last year (100+ Fibaro dimmers/relays).

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Thanks Daniel. Just to be sure, you’re saying you switched your personal Samsung login to a more generic house one, and this kept all your SmartThings settings and devices, and allowed you’d to give it to the purchasers of your house, who could then change the Samsung login to their own personal email if the wanted?

Or they can just change the password

That is correct. By changing to a house email and a simple password, they can take it over and change password and email if they prefer.

unless your current SmartThings id is used on any existing Samsung branded Android phone… You cannot have a separate SmartThings ID and Samsung ID on a Galaxy phone - to change the Samsung ID on a Galaxy phone is a device reset. So if this is the case you’d have to hard reset your phone to hand over the ID.

I still stand on the fact I will NEVER hand over a configured smart home setup to a new homeowner and change the ID. I’d still buy the new homeowner a new hub and a bottle of wine and hand over the book of documentation on the gear that’s been installed and factory reset for them. I wont rehash my earlier post - it’s still valid.

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This is my feeling as well, and also, as noted above, the advice of the FTC.

Before you show the house, reset everything to just out of the box condition, so you are selling only the hardware, not any automations you have created. Otherwise, you have a responsibility to keep it functioning that you really don’t want.

Also something that you might think is really cool someone else might find creepy, and that could lose you a sale.

Speaking just for myself, I think the only smart home devices I would leave active are motorized shades with a handheld button remote that works locally. I think that almost always demos well. And I would probably leave the non-networked motion light we have in the laundry area. It’s super simple: someone walks into the area, the light comes on. No radio, nothing listening to you, nothing to hack. It’s like the light coming on in the refrigerator when you open the door. And again, I think it demos well.

Obviously, it’s your choice, and I think the best advice is the one in the Tom’s guide article I just linked to: before you do anything, talk to a local realtor and see what they advise. Maybe smart devices are a big plus in your neighborhood, maybe they turn people off. The realtor should know. :sunglasses:

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I’d get rid of any automations before demo-ing it, and handing it over. Would just keep the simple ability to turn lights on and off, and to dim.

I don’t have an android phone, so sounds like there wouldn’t be a problem changing the SmartThings Samsung email/ username to a house one, and then allow the new purchaser to either use that (and change the password) or to change the email to something more personal to them.

David.

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This issue shows the short term vision of ST under Samsung’s ownership. Little consideration is given to the customer’s large investment nor the permanent nature of the installed hardware. ST is expressly designed to require cloud integration. Given that foundation, a rational expectation is that an owner could transfer that investment to another individual without making the new owner decide between breaking their other Samsung integrations or rebuilding the integration from scratch.

I know that all of this has been been discussed before, but it weighs on me whenever considering the next time I need to sell my house.

Completely agree. I honestly don’t get it. There is so much that is good with both SmarthThings and the Fibaro Dimmers I have installed. I really don’t understand why a large company such as Samsung can’t make the next step up to make things integrate fully into people’s lives.

If I want to upgrade or switch from one SmartThings hub to another, why do I need to factory reset everything and re-pair with the new hub? Archaic. If I want to sell my house (which is generally a very real consideration for most home owners) why isn’t there an easy way to transfer the tech to the new buyer? Archaic.

Really hope there are some exciting developments occurring behind the scenes. Though the fact that this topic has been discussed for years doesn’t fill me with any confidence.

No idea what’s happening behind the scenes at Samsung/SmartThings, but center stage in the home automation industry right now is the rapid development of the new Matter standard, which promises to make interoperability a whole lot easier. And with Google, Apple, Amazon, Samsung and other big players all aboard, it looks very promising for 2022 and beyond. :sunglasses:

It won’t fix everything for everyone, but it’s definitely a big step in the right direction.

Thanks. That does sound positive. Just read the link, but clearly not much detail. Not that I overly mind, but I assume in order for me to take advantage I’d likely need to replace my Fibaro Dimmer and other Fibaro modules (around 50 in the house)? They’re not too expensive, so wouldn’t mind, especially if there was real benefit.

Apart from the things I mentioned in my prior mail, the other thing I’d be looking for is turning on and off lights working locally for speed, rather than everything going via the cloud…

Some companies, most notably Apple, have put put out a lot of detail on how they’ll work with Matter. Some, like Amazon and Philips Hue, have put out quite a bit. Some, like SmartThings, have just indicated general support but no details yet. So it’s early days still. We’ll know a lot more in a few months.

Matter itself is supposed to support local operations. It’s likely that this is one reason to Apple has already gone into such detail: their HomeKit platform already runs locally except for voice control. Even for Devices like Meross which run in the cloud with other platforms like SmartThings. But again, we should know more in a few months. :sunglasses:

Some analysts have suggested that since smartthings says it will work with Matter, that might mean that any device connected to a smartthings hub would work with matter, but that’s not what smartthings have said yet. It might be more like the way the Phillips hue bridge Works with Homekit: Some devices are exposed to homekit and some are not. So we just don’t know yet what will happen with zwave devices like your current Fibaro kit.

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