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On our latest IoT Podcast episode, we take a question that Joel left on our IoT Voicemail Hotline. Joel is moving and he’s leaving behind his smart thermostat, a video doorbell, some sensors, and a water controller. He wants to know the best way to leave the devices, as well as instructions for them, to the new homeowners.
I assume Joel had all of these devices still installed when the house was on the market. Technically, anything installed — particularly devices that are hardwired — during a showing should stay behind. That’s something to keep in mind for any smart home owners who plan to sell their house: Disconnect any gear you want to take with you before your house hits the market.
First and foremost though, Joel should deauthorize every single one of the connected devices before he moves. Stacey did this before she last moved because she didn’t want those old devices still attached to any of her online accounts. You don’t want that either. The process will vary by device and brand, so you may need to do some web searches for the proper procedure. Still, don’t skip this step.
If you can factory reset any devices, such as hubs or bridges, I would do that as well. This should completely remove any of your old smart home data, automations and/or integrations. Again, the goal here is to leave no trace of your prior usage.
Once all of the above steps are completed, you can leave some basic device instructions for the new home owners. Chances are that they won’t use the devices due to trust issues; they may think you’ll be able to spy on them or they may not be into the smart home scene.
Regardless, providing a list of the devices along with their capabilities is a nice gesture. I’d consider including links to the product pages and mobile apps too. But I wouldn’t put the effort into a detailed setup or usage guide.
If the new owners want to use your old smart home gear, they’re better off going to the product sites for those details. Official support is better in this case. Well, unless you decide you want to offer smart home support, which I strongly suggest you don’t.
To hear Joel’s question, as well as our discussion in full, tune in to the IoT Podcast below:
This is an important topic, and one that the industry will have to address in the very near future. We’ve faced this twice in the past few years. In addition to the excellent advice given here, we did one additional step, which others may or may not feel is worth the trouble: I set up all new accounts with a newly created email address, and provided the passwords, with instructions on how to change the passwords on both the new email account and the IoT accounts. And, of course, I left a long set of instructions about what each device did and how to use it, with and without the Internet, and what it wouldn’t do without the Internet.
For those worried about security, the possibility to change the passwords might provide some small level of confidence. For those who may not be comfortable with the technology, they probably removed the devices. This can be a considerable inconvenience and expense for wired-in devices, like dimmer switches and irrigation controllers, so it was important to leave instructions about how the non-smart devices were wired (with photos taken at the time they were removed).
In the two instances I mentioned, in one case, the new owner had the devices removed (she had no financial concern about this). In the other, the new owner chose to change the passwords and use the devices (which I was easily able to verify, as my access to the email stopped).
As I said, this is an important issue, and the industry is going to have to step forward and address it.