Hello,
So, I’m thinking a bit into the future here, bear with me.
In the event that I sell my house, how easy/difficult would it be to transfer things over to the new owner? I would imagine having a smart home could be a decent incentive for buyers, I just don’t entirely know if they’d be overwhelmed setting everything up.
Anyone have any experience in this setting?
That’s a great question!
If SmartThings (ask Support@SmartThings.com) has any way of “renaming” your login (i.e., changing your email address), then I think you could just switch the account to the email and password of your new owner. They may want to follow-up with any related registration information.
If SmartThings can’t change the login on the account, perhaps they have a way of copying all the data from one account to new one. Unfortunately, we users don’t have any such tools.
That would make sense! Luckily support is pretty helpful so I don’t imagine I’d have many issues.
Thank you!
In anticipation of this exact situation, I created a separate email account used for ST that I will transfer to the new owner.
This account then invited the current users, who then created their own accounts for using the app and for presence.
However even with that, transferring the HA install and automations isn’t going to be as easy as dumping the VCR off on craigs list…
Don’t know about selling, but moving was difficult. More difficult because I did not really get to plan my unexpected move. If you label everything a move should not be too bad. I did have a severely broken mesh at my new house and it took a few repairs to get things firing smoothly. The layout was not the same so of course some things were re-purposed. If I do it again, I will remove everything and start from scratch.
I was just talking to my friend and real estate agent about this over beers a couple weeks ago. His take was that you should remove anything HA related before you put the house up for sale unless it does not confuse/complicate things for the buyer in any way whatsoever. Most people are not interested. SmartThings won’t increase your home’s value. Too complicated. Better off taking it with you. Stupid simple things that never require anything more than changing a battery would be ok.
I was saying my 20+ Z-wave light switches wouldn’t do any harm since they work the same as a normal switch even when not paired with anything. He agreed, but said I should take them with me and re-use since 95% of buyers wouldn’t know what to do with them. You lose the investment if you don’t take it with you.
It’s a shame that the Smart Home concept is that immature. Getting installed and up & running seems like a friction point that ought to have measurable value.
Moving= new start = new gadgets = new mistakes. 
To fix it, apply lessons learnt.
Kind of sucks that the investment in time put into making your home automated cannot really add resale value. My guess is that something like the new hub-v2 would be a bit better since it is closer to a standalone system. With the current v1, you can’t really transfer the settings until the new homeowner has moved in and installed the modem/router…
High end homes without ha are hit with penalties. But ST doesn’t even enter into the equation.
Until builders start using diy tech like ST in new homes, it is just that diy.
If you can put it in, you can take it out. It has no real value to a new owner. No one to support it.
High end systems have support from a local dealer / installer and sometimes even wrapped into builders warranty.
Big difference between a few thousand dollars for a diy system and a 100k+ HA system with full AV, security and lighting controls.
Best thing to do if you want to get any return on initial investment if moving is to pull it all out, replace with dumb sketches, etc and eBay the lot.