How smart devices can help you sell your home

The real estate industry has been using big data for many years, with online real estate databases such as Zillow, Trulia and StreetAdvisor offering users incredibly detailed current and historical information regarding property condition, location, reputation, estimated value, and much more.

Most of that data come from public records and the Internet, including adjacent property values, closest schools, public transit, crime rates, and highest-rated local pizza joint. Want to know what time of day crimes typically occur in certain American cities? Trulia can tell you .

But a new tsunami of housing-related data is presenting homeowners and real estate professionals with even more detailed and potentially valuable information about specific properties and neighborhoods. The source of that tsunami is the Internet of Things.

A growing number of intelligent devices inside homes — smart thermostats, robot vacuums, connected kitchen appliances, face-recognizing doorbells, and more — are making our lives safer, easier, and more efficient. Homeowners, renters, and businesses now can monitor and control lighting, heat and AC, entertainment systems, security alarm systems and coffee makers from their mobile devices, computers, cars, or office cubicles.

In the course of doing their jobs, these helpful home devices collect and communicate an unprecedented amount of data about their environment. This information is being captured, crunched, and leveraged by the real estate professionals to better understand and market to their customers.

“The analytics and heuristics you can get from smart devices can help real estate agents understand more about the value of that home and the areas that are being utilized by the existing homeowners,” says Paul Williams, vice president of security and communications products for Control4 , a maker of device automation and control products for connected homes and businesses. “It allows them to make some assumptions about what prospective buyers would like. If a home theater is getting a lot of use, that may be something a real estate agent would really want to highlight.”

Smart home devices help real estate professionals do their jobs in other ways, particularly when showing a property to clients.

“Automation absolutely can show off a home in the best possible way,” Williams says. “You can offer the realtor a cheat sheet explaining how to work some of the technology in the house to show off features such as a granite countertop.”

A home’s tech arsenal can be more than a selling tool — increasingly, it’s a selling point. A recent study by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies concludes that home automation will be the number two trend in residential remodeling over the next five to 10 years. That’s because younger homeowners don’t just want smart devices in their homes, they expect them.

Here’s Why DIY Home Security Will Soon Be A Billion Dollar Market

The home security business is being disrupted.

If you don’t believe me, look no further than this morning’s news, where the Wall Street Journal reports that Sequoia has invested $57 million in SimpliSafe, a self-installable home security system that sells for under $300 without a contract.

But it’s not just SimpliSafe. A bevy of new startups are utilizing Internet of things and smart home technology to bring new products and, more critically, new business models to the home security market.

Some, like Dropcam, a maker of Wi-Fi cameras, first forayed into the market under the guise of a gadget that most consumers bought for reasons other than security, but are finding that with a simple product extension they can morph the offering into a low-cost DIY home security solution. Others, like startups Korner and Canary, are creating purpose built systems that provide basic home security for a couple hundred dollars or less.

Sequoia saw SimpliSafe was onto something with over 100 thousand systems installed since its founding in 2006. That something was creating a product that taps into a largely untapped market of consumers who didn’t fit the traditional home security customer profile of middle to upper income home owners.

In fact, according to a new report from NextMarket Insights, the traditional security market has all but ignored the one third of consumers who are renters, and has also neglected to provide affordable solutions for lower income consumers who, paradoxically, may be most in need of home security given the correlation between poverty stricken neighborhoods and crime rates.

Some would argue that comparing these newer solutions to professionally installed solutions is comparing apples to oranges, and they’d be right. But here’s the thing: many of these newer solutions do in fact have professional monitoring (like SimpliSafe), while those that don’t, like Korner, provide some level of home security where before there was none.

And that’s why NextMarket forecasts the DIY home security market will be a $1.5 billion market by 2020. Because after all, in the end some choice – like that of do-it-yourself security – is better than no choice at all.

How Smart Houses And Big Data Will Change Real Estate Economics

One of the features of big data is the accumulation of massive amounts of information that are not suited to traditional econometric and statistical techniques. I predict that this phenomenon will someday change the way real estate economics are done.

Models of house prices are used in a lot of ways. This is how a lot of cities and counties do “mass appriasals”. It’s how house price indexes separate price changes from quality changes. When companies like Zillow generate Zestimates of what a house is worth, these are the models underlying them. It’s how the Bureau of Labor statistics adjusts housing rents for quality changes and depreciation when computing the CPI.

The general form of these models is to take the log of price as the dependent variable, and housing and neighborhood characteristics as the independent variable. But the list of independent variables that is usually available gives you a relatively limited description. While the exact list varies form data source to data source, typically it might look like: building square footage, lot square footage, number of stories, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, central air (yes/no), number of fireplaces, garage size, finished basement (yes/no), and of course address.  Using this last variable you can get a lot more information about the neighborhood from other data sources.

This is the basics of what a lot of house price models are dealing with. It might not sound like a lot of information, but in many circumstances you can explain a huge amount of the variation in house prices using relatively limited information like this. In fact using just neighborhood indicators and square footage you can usually explain a significant amount of the variation. However, even 80% of the variation explained still leaves a lot unexplained. And intuitively these kinds of variables still leave a lot of information out. This is where I think things will be changing in the future due to what people are calling “smart homes”.

There are a variety of “smart home” products on the market now, but these things are going to get more and more sophisticated soon. The cuurent generation of Roombas just sort of bounce around the room, but other robot vacuums scan the room first and make a plan. The Nest smart thermostat that Google recently acquired recently pays attention to where you are in your house and when and remembers this. It’s easy to imagine where this leads in the future: Robot vacuums will know the dimension of every room in the house, the kind of flooring in each, and maybe even the quality and age of the flooring; smart TVs will know which room is the living room; Nest knows which room is the kitchen, which are the bedrooms, and how energy efficient the home is. What’s more Nest will be able to measure the extent to which the house is fully utilized and therefore how convenient the layout is; in other words, a Walkscore for your home security system.
And this is just the information that smart homes will bring. There is a whole other set of high dimension data coming on neighborhoods. This includes data tracking the paths of bikers and runners, counting potholes, measuring the location and quality of amenities like the real Walkscore measure, and so forth. This provides even wider data that often has both high frequency spatial and time dimensionality. Some of this stuff is being incorporated in analysis already (see for example research from Emily Washington and Eli Dourado on Walkscore). But there is a long way to go in terms of incorporating a lot of high-dimensional property and neighborhood data into house price models.

In short, you can imagine the creation of very, very wide high-dimension datasets. What do you do with a dataset that “knows” your house with this level of detail? Suddenly variable selction becomes an important part of the challenge, and economic theory may provide little guidance. The use of principle components to create measures of “house quality” from several variables is not new in real estate economics, but that is really just scratching the surface when it comes to machine learning models that could be utilized and doesn’t really capture the potentially highly non-linear and interactive nature of the relationships between these variables.

High-frequency and high-dimensional datasets are going to change a lot of research that until now has been relatively simple. Researchers just starting out their academic careers should definitely be taking a look at machine learning tools in anticipation of the exciting future of data.

Hot Tech for New Homes

As the homebuilding market begins to heat up, with more new homebuyers, and as prices fall across many connected-device categories, the smart home is quickly becoming a common selling feature for many new homebuilders. But which areas are generating the most interest?

While smart homes have yet to reach their potential in terms of market penetration, many components of a smart home, such as energy-management devices and solutions, connected TVs, and connected security systems, are gaining traction fast.

A new survey from the CEA (Consumer Electronics Assn.), http://www.ce.org, Arlington, Va., suggests last year was a good one in terms of growth for smart-home devices and solutions. According to CEA, almost all home-technology installations in new homes either increased or held constant throughout 2013.

The association’s 12th Annual State of the Builder Technology Market Study suggests monitored security and home theaters were two of the most common installments in new builds. Two other areas that saw increases from 2012-‘13 were energy management and home automation.

CEA says the increase in built-in home technologies will continue to parallel the housing market’s recovery. In fact, the association expects the market for built-in home technologies to reach $2.3 billion in revenue this year. Builders seem to be on board, with 63% reporting home technologies are more important to their marketing efforts than they were two years ago.

In general, the study confirms the demand for connected-home technologies and solutions in the United States is established and poised for growth. As more builders see built-in technology solutions as a means to gain a leg up on the competition, more new homes will come equipped to support a connected life.

MarketsandMarkets: APAC Smart Homes Market worth 9.28B by 2020

According to “APAC Smart Homes Market – By Products, Services and Geography – Analysis & Forecast (2013–2020)” research, the total market for the APAC smart homes market is expected be worth $9.28 billion by 2020 at an estimated CAGR of 16.73%.

‘Smart home‘ is technically defined as the home consisting of combination of multiple high end products which are designed for selective and particular application so as to provide the homeowner total comfort, convenience and complete control of user’s house.

The APAC smart homes market covers the entire smart home industry operating in the across APAC countries such as China, India, South Korea, Japan and others inclusive of South East Asian countries namely; Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam on the basis of products, services, and country-wise split. The products section covers security and access control, entertainment systems, lighting control, HVAC control, and home health systems, along with their current and future estimations. Of all the major products, security systems are expected to have the higher adoption rates for the mass markets. The services section covers installation & maintenance, and renovation & customization. The country-wise analysis covers major economies in APAC region.

The major reasons that are boosting the APAC smart homes market are perseverance of energy and energy management & consumption, increase in percentage of ageing population across APAC countries, secured, comfort and convenient lifestyle, government initiatives, and many more. There are restraints in the market such as lack of awareness, high price of systems, and complexity of systems which are inhibiting the market growth.

The major companies involved in the APAC smart homes industry are Siemens AG (Germany), Schneider Electric S.A. (France), ABB Ltd. (Switzerland), Ingersoll-Rand PLC (Ireland), Tyco International Ltd. (Switzerland), Emerson Electric Co. (U.S.), Legrand S.A. (France), Crestron Electronics, (U.S.) ,Chuango Security, (China), Honeywell International (U.S.), and more. These companies shave setup and established strong market share through its subsidiaries across the APAC countries. China will remain the leading market for the APAC smart homes market throughout the forecasted period due to several factors such as high economic growth, strong consumer base and high acceptance as well as adoption rate of Smart Home concept.

Police tap into growing number of DIY security systems in suburban homes

POLICE are planning to harness a fast-growing network of suburban spy cameras in the fight against crime.

Home-owners are installing hi-tech DIY security systems for as little as $500 that can be monitored using a tablet or smartphone.

Police say the boom in home-security systems is a potentially invaluable crime-fighting tool.

They are trialling a register of residential CCTV ­cameras to enable them to quickly tap into footage to solve neighbourhood crimes.

Gold Coast police chief Des Lacy said the system was being trialled at Cleveland and he was keen to see it tested on the Glitter Strip.

“CCTV is becoming a ­fantastic tool for us and with the quality of the technology increasing and prices of the systems going down, a lot more people are obtaining them,” Superintendent Lacy said.

“The cameras are getting sophisticated, with the ability to not just see who’s at your front door but who is out in the street. A picture tells a thousand words. And the footage is stored for up to a week before it’s wiped.”

Supt Lacy said having a register of home security systems made it easier for police to access footage.

He said police already used public CCTV cameras and those installed in businesses to solve and deter many crimes.

The Gold Coast City Council operates almost 160 surveillance cameras from Southport to Coolangatta, while more than 400 are being installed on the coast’s new light-rail system.

Council garbage trucks are even fitted with CCTV cameras and footage from one is believed to be evidence in a recent major crime.

Craig Mitchell, co-founder of OzSpy Security Solutions, said monitored home-security systems used to be expensive but sophisticated DIY kits could now be bought for as little as $500.

“I get a text if my alarm goes off and I can quickly see if anyone is inside,” he said.
“DIY home-security systems are definitely becoming a mass market – we are selling hundreds a month,” he said.

“If your house is broken into, the first question police will probably ask is: ‘Do you have CCTV?’.’”

Crime Stoppers Queensland chief executive Trevor O’Hara said CCTV was highly effective.

[New Products] Color Run, Chuango Style

Chuango Security Technology Corporation, a trend-setting innovator and developer of wireless DIY security and smart home systems, is pleased to announce the new color options for its siren series! Aside from the hot-selling blue and red, orange is now also available for Chuango WS-105 Mini Indoor Strobe Siren, SPS-260 Solar-Power Strobe Siren and WS-280 Outdoor Strobe Siren.

With streamlined design and easy operation, Chuango WS-105 and SPS-260 can work with other accessories such as remote controls, door/window contact sensors and PIR detectors on the same radio frequency, independently without a system controller.

Chuango’s entire solution portfolio speaks self-install or DIY, and encompasses alarm, automation and IP surveillance systems and accessories, utilizing the latest communication protocols such as RF, CDMA, WCDMA, LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ZigBee and more. From wireless, app-enabled alarm and automation systems to remote energy, security and health management, Chuango solutions cater to today’s homeowners’ mobile and environment-conscious lifestyles, and ensure they have complete control, comfort and visual confirmation right at their fingertips within a few short minutes and easy steps. As a proud winner of the 2013 IFSEC & FIREX Awards, Chuango has experienced triple-digit YoY growth over the past 24 months, and the momentum is still picking up worldwide. What’s being demanded in the residential market these days is smart, simple, sleek, mobile yet compact and integrated ingenuity, and Chuango will continue providing just that and strive to be one of the Top 3 in the global DIY security and automation market by the end of 2015.

For more product options, please visit:

WS-105 Mini Strobe Siren

SPS-260 Solar-powered Outdoor Strobe Siren

WS-280 Wireless Outdoor Strobe Siren

G5 LED ZONE INDICATION

GSM ALARM SYSTEM: G5 LED ZONE INDICATION
G5 is a GSM/SMS alarm with unique design which brings you satisfaction when using it. Just download Apps from Apple store or Google Play; you could control the alarm any time anywhere! Using RFID tags to disarm the alarm system, a SMS notice will be sent to your phone and tell you who is back home. It also could let you leave voice message for your family members by phone. This makes you feel better when you can not make your way back on time. With G5 alarm, you will feel secure anywhere and anytime.

Features
• Cellular communicator, simple operation
• ARM + Auror CPU
• Support 10 remote controls, 50 wireless sensors and 50 RFID tags
• Store 5 phone numbers,1 speed-dial number and 1 RFID SMS notification number
• Support door lock
• Exit & entry delay
• Voice memo recordable
• Arm and disarm by SMS or free phone call

• Remote monitoring by phone
• Built-in siren and lithium battery backup
• SMS alerts for power failure, power recovery and low battery
• Support for cards, tags and other 125KHz passive transponders
• 850/900/1800/1900MHz frequency, applicable for universal
• Tamper protection

Panel (with battery backup and siren) x 1
Remote control x 2
RFID tag x 2
Door / window contact x 1
PIR motion detector x 1
Adapter x 1

Do It Yourself Home Security: What You Should Know

Consumers have responded extremely well to Do It Yourself (DIY) alarm systems, due primarily to the benefits of wireless technology. Many home security providers now offer a wireless option. However, not all security companies offer DIY and not all that offer DIY systems are actually DIY. For example, unless the system is 100% wireless, with a cellular connection to monitoring, it will not be DIY.

Here are a couple other tips for finding the best DIY alarm systems:
1) Cellular monitoring should come standard dont accept any added fees.
2) Choose a company offering a wide range of wireless equipment, to cover all types of emergencies. Besides burglary, protect for threats like fire, flooding and leaks, freezing temperatures that could burst pipes, carbon monoxide, etc.
3) Since youll be receiving advice over the phone, read the customer reviews to find a company that provides great service.
4) Make sure your security contract stipulates that you own the equipment, so you can take it with you when you move.
5) Make sure the provider wont increase your monthly fee if you add sensors in the future.
6) All alarm systems require electricity to run, so find a system that includes a good back-up battery, lasting at least 24 hours, to get you through power outages.
7) DIY sensors run on batteries, usually lasting as long as 5 years. Look for a system that can notify you if any of the batteries are running low.

Typically you can order a DIY systems online or over the phone, as is the case with Security One. All the components should arrive at your house pre-programmed for wireless communication. The box will include simple instructions, and the Security One will have a support rep standing by to walk you through setup over the phone, if you desire. Also Security One will provide a YouTube video that can be watched providing step by step instructions on how to set up your DIY alarm fast and easy. It will literally be a matter of minutes for you to set up your entire system.

Probably the best part of your DIY home security system is all the money you will save! With a do it yourself alarm system kit you can save hundreds or even thousands of dollars. It’s that simple. Save money and time not having to schedule for a technician to come out to your home.

With wireless DIY home alarm equipment, you get flexibility as well as simplicity. For example, you can move your equipment anytime you want. You can also augment the system with new security equipment whenever you need to. Start with the basics and increase your protection and features later, as budget permits, rather than having to buy thousands of dollars worth of security equipment all at once. There should be no additional expense, except for the cost of the sensor.

With Security One youll find DIY is really the right choice, because of its many advantages over hard-wired alarm systems:
-Save Money: No installation fees
-Convenience: No waiting for technicians. Set up your security system on your own schedule.
-Safety- Much more reliable connections between your home and the monitoring team, so they can send help when you need it.
-No Phone Line Required: DIY home security systems are equipped for cellular signaling so you dont need a landline, an internet connection or even a cell phone.
-Aesthetics: No holes in your walls, keep your home looking beautiful.

For more information visit us online to learn more and get your home security system setup at http://www.chuango.com or call us toll free at +31 (0)23-7271570

CHUANGO AurorLight gsm/sms security alarm system - G3

Dream Big, Live Smart with smanos at Computex Taipei

smanos, a trend-setting innovator and dynamic developer of wireless DIY security and smart home systems, is proudly bringing its brand new portfolio to Computex in Taipei next month. “We’re excited to share our new smart hometechnology with the global market,” said Brian Borghardt, Solution Architect at smanos.“Designed and engineered in the Netherlands, smanos is our complete security, monitoring and automation system lineup for today‘s homeowners. To our existing and potential partners and clients, we’d like to emphasize that we‘re truly committed to developing and delivering innovative, comprehensive and easy-to-use smart home solutions.”

The complete smanos smart home portfolio speaks self-install or DIY, and is available on Booth A0713a at Taipei World Trade Center(Hall 1) from June 3rd to 7th.From wireless, app-enabled alarm system and automation systems to remote energy, security and health management, the solutions cater to today’s digital/mobile lifestyles and ensure complete control, comfort and visual confirmation right at property owners‘ fingertips within a few short minutes and easy steps.

Hot products on display include the Bluetooth, GSM and Wi-Fi series. “Care U is the industry’s first Bluetooth 4.0-based intruder alarm system. For hands-free and worry-free arm/disarm operation, all items in the Care U system are battery-powered, easy-to-install and flexibly mix-and-match,” said Hayden Hsu, Brand Evangelist for smanos. “The X300/X500 systems come in sleek, award-winning form factors and work at 868 MHz for higher reliability and interoperability, while supporting smartphone operation and remote firmware upgrades through GSM commands.”

Another cool innovation is the G310, which combines and disguises GSM alarm and Bluetooth speaker functions in a radio alarm clock. Moreover, “the H400 Home Cloud system is our new smart home command and controls your security devices and energy-saving plugs via Wi-Fi while maintaining smanos‘ renowned GSM capability; whereas the W100 Wi-Fi/PSTN alarm system doubles the protection with system redundancy, so that preprogrammed numbers always get the call or smartphone push notification when an alarm is triggered. It also comes with an unobtrusive touch keypad, with a much longer lifespan than mechanical keys, and a preset arm/disarm schedule that can easily blend in your daily routine,” Borghardt added.

For more, be sure to check out the smanos booth at Computex, and become part of smanos’ distribution network.

Worldwide, smanos has garnered phenomenal recognition over the past several months, and growth momentum is still accelerating. What‘s being demanded in the residential market these days is smart, simple, sleek, mobile yet compact and integrated ingenuity, and smanos will continue providing just that, with even more remote energy-saving and management options.

Chuango Brand Video (April 2014)

Chuango Security
Technology, a trend-setting innovator and developer of wireless DIY
security and smart home systems, proudly announced the birth of its
brand new brand – smanos – to the worldwide market at CeBIT earlier this
month. From wireless, app-enabled alarm and automation systems to
remote energy and security management, smanos solutions cater to today’s
homeowners’ digital and mobile lifestyles, and ensure they have
complete control, comfort and visual confirmation right at their
fingertips within a few short minutes and easy steps.