To Nest or Not To Nest ... Thermostat

[Khaled Helmi]

Hey everyone - we're in the process of doing our first rehab in Montgomery county, Maryland and God-willing it looks like it will be a nice profitable venture.

Right now we're redoing a kitchen and updating a ton, but what I was curious was regarding the thermostat.  Its an old thermostat and we will have to replace it anyways, but I'm a big fan of Google's Nest thermostat and I was thinking it would be a nice addition to make the house a bit "trendier" versus just a standard thermostat.  The drawback is its $150 bucks and I don't want to turn-off a potential buyer that is not "techie".

I know its a minor detail, but what do you guys think - to Nest or not to Nest?

PS - Its a house with an ARV of 450-525k, so that's the price range we're in.

[James Mc Ree]

I would Nest if I could figure out how to highlight the benefit in a material way to prospects.  You wouldn't want your prospects walking past it just thinking, "There's the lamp, the switch, the thermostat, the rug, etc."

You might want to put a little card on top of it or have a tabletop display with a 1-pager near it highlighting that it is a Nest thermostat, explaining what a Nest thermostat is for those who don't know and tie it in with all the other cool features of the house, as in "Here's another really cool feature...".

Jim.