Selling a Control4 home

[prabeau]

Any advice for selling a home with control4.

_ 90 % of lighting

_ heat control ( Ecobee )

_ alarm DSC

_ A/V for family room, sound in 3 rooms and outdoors

_ Alexa incorporated

- music bridge

- Roku

All dimmers are in closets or pantry and have 5, 6 buttons touch pads.

HC800 controller on 3.2  

No system or network issues.Seems my options are limited here. I cant exactly rip out the system but looking for advice from those who have done this.

Thanks

[D.Adams]

A video showing the features and benefits to demonstrate the wow factor. Is my suggestion

[zaphod]

That's a very interesting question.  I will be interested to see the answers.

The interesting thing is where do you draw the line on what to leave and what to take.  Do you leave your router?  Your WAPs?  What if the new owner uses a different ISP?  Will the C4 system still work if you change ISPs as the core network may change?  If the network changes then it may take a bit of work to get everything up and running again as IP addresses will likely change, etc.  With IPTV systems that use your LAN/WIFI it is more complex to use your own router.

What about consumer AV equipment like TVs and AVRs?  If you take AVRs then do you take Matrix amps?

I would tend to take as much as possible because you are rarely going to get the buyer to pay for what the stuff is worth.

If I ever sell my house I have a similar situation.  I have solar panels on my roof that are part of the Ontario microFIT program.  I earn about $6000-7000 per year from those panels and will until 2035.  The credit risk is with the government of Ontario - the only risk you are left with is sunshine risk and risk of the panels stop working.  Ontario bonds trade at a yield of 2.1%.  The NPV of the cashflows at 2.1% is 80,000.  And the panels will still work in 2036 and you could switch to a new regime like net metering that may be worth even more than $6000/yr at that time.  Am I going to get $80,000 more for my house due to the solar panels?  I doubt it.  But I can't take them with me.

[prabeau]

I need to leave enough behind in order to operate the lights, obviously. The AV system is another question.

A separate switch on a vlan was required for separating TV / Internet from provider BELL, of course the BELL router will have to change. That will be a setup problem.

Leaving the switch/router/wap is not a big deal, minimal cost there, all Unifi. Means leaving the controller HC800, I have a spare.

 

[zaphod]

Leaving the minimum cost controller seems like a good idea.

[chudel]

I purchased a "C4 Home" within the past year.  It seemed evident that the previous homeowner was not going to be putting a C4 system into their new location (or if they were -- that it was going to be all new gear)

The following items were included:

- EA3, EA1, 2 older SR remotes

- C4 16-Port Audio Matrix Switch w/Knoll Amps *

- IP-Enabled Yamaha Receivers

- All lighting

- Luma Camera System (5 cameras) 

- Security System *

- Garage Door contact/switch

- Ancient (not OS3 compatible) in-wall touch devices *

- Apple TVs *

They did not include

- Western Digital "Audio Book" Music Drive

- TVs

- Any network gear. (All routers/APs/etc.. removed)

 

* - Older Model, or no longer supported (ON OS3) devices.  

 

That said, it's my opinion that selling a C4 home is a bit like selling a house with a pool -- people will either love it or hate it, but you don't really get much value added to the home price.

[ILoveC4]

I recently sold my C4 home. My system consisted of 12 zones of audio, and HC800, an EA5, a surveillance system, a video distribution system, about 120 lighting loads, then various A/V sources and displays. 
 

What I chose to leave was fueled by what I could spare and what would be too hard to remove. 
 

Included in the price, I left all the lighting and the surveillance stuff...which I powered off the HC800 I left behind. I also left a 4 zone amp because I didn’t need it at the new place. I left the buyer choose which 4 rooms I’d hook up to the amp...I left all the in-ceiling speakers in the entire house...to cheap to replace and too much work to remove and patch. I then offered two additional “packages”. One was for the theater and it included the AVR, Projector, theater furniture and an SR250 for that room. The buyer bought that one. The second package included the video distribution and the TV’s. The buyer did NOT buy that one (I didn’t want them to so I priced it high and didn’t push it).

It worked out well for me and I feel as though it helped us sell the home faster and for more money. 

[Jakelay]

I think the above post is spot on.  People will place a value on something based on their understanding of what it is.  If they have no idea - no value.  If you can describe the value and the cost savings of installing things themselves later in the future, you are giving them a reference point for deciding if something is worth purchasing or not.  Installed ceiling speakers probably aren't worth removing and having to repair damage, etc. and in most states in the U.S., anything attached to the house (like ceiling speakers) would be included in a purchase unless specifically excluded in the contract.

If you have an older system, I would think about having the listing include language that the whole house audio/video system is not included but negotiable or exclude it and then offer it once under contract.  One could probably get a buyer to pay much more for a complete functional system vs. parting out items on Ebay. Plus it's a lot more convenient.

In most cases around here, you'll see people take the equipment with them and just leave the speakers. Or, like above, they'll offer to sell the whole system for a few thousand dollars and either add it to the sale price of the house or get a check for it.

Depending on when we sell, if we end up installing wireless keypads and dimmers and switches, I will probably keep the originals and swap them out when we move so I can use them in a new home and save some cost.  If things get updated much before then, it probably won't be worth doing but I'll have the option. 

Again, having a fully functioning system (at least whole home audio and lighting, locks, security cameras ) for someone to use relatively turnkey when they move in would typically have more value than selling things separately on Ebay I believe.  It's really just figuring out how best to 'pitch' the value to someone.  

I don't think people really understand distributed video all that well so that would probably be hard to sell to someone unless they 'get it' so that wouldn't be something most people could wrap their arms around.

If you have your original invoice and can show them the cost of the install and then any add on like security cameras, lights, etc. and then what you are asking for to keep the equipment there, I think that is an easy sell for a lot of people if you aren't trying to charge too much.

[prabeau]

Great insight

Thank you

Much appreciated.