All Forum Posts by: Lewis Eldridge

Thanks for your comments! Very good things to think about. The wifi hotspot will ONLY be for the IOT devices and not be used for tenant's regular internet. It will be slow, but good enough. And, you all make good points about some of the specific applications. I'm already having second thoughts on the door lock and smoke detectors as result. 

Oh, and a 5th item ... a Wifi-enabled water sprinkler controller to give ME control over when the yard is watered. This will have to be listed as a clause in the contract giving me the right to use their water to control when the lawn is watered.

I'm in the process of renovating my latest rental house.  I've been thinking about Smart-Home features which would be beneficial to a landlord as opposed to wiz-bang cool features to attract tenants. Specifically, I'm only interested in smart-home features which help to minimize the risk of home being damaged or minimize our response time when those things occur. It will also allow me to put the "smart-home" buz word in my rental listings which may attract some tenants.

The ones I'm thinking of would be:

1. Water detector in a) a/c pan, b) water heater pan, and c) behind washing machine which will notify me if there's a leak in these places. I have had significant water damage in all three of these areas in the past.

2. smart thermostat to tell me when the air filter needs to be changed

3. Smart lock so I can let service providers in when appropriate by giving them a temporary access code. (would only do this with tenant's permission or in emergency if neither tenant of I could be there).

4. wifi-capable smoke/co2 detectors to warn me in case of smoke or CO2.

One challenge was how to get internet in the house. Do I rely on tenants' internet? don't think that would be wise. Should I make wifi part of the "what's included" portion of the lease? That seems like something which would just add monthly costs with little/no return. But, I found a great third option. Freedompop offers a free LTE wifi hotspot (with small one-time activation fee) and no monthly fee as long as you use less than 500MB per month. That should be plenty for the above-mentioned smart home items. There are other companies which offer similar "free" plans assuming low data usage.

Here are the specific products I've either purchased for this project or am leaning toward:

1. Water detector: D-Link DCH-S160 : $60 each

2. Thermostat: Leaning toward Nest-E ($169) ... a bit overkill for my intended purpose though. So, I"m still looking.

3. Smart Lock: TBD

4. smoke/co2 detectors: TBD

5. Wifi Hotspot: FreedompopR850 Hotspot: about $25 one-time fee when it's all said and done.

I'm also tying all these together with IFTTT to help improve the integration and notifications... it's free. 

And, I'll make sure I itemize each of the items in my contract with replacement values in case tenants steal them or damage them through neglect... much like I do with garage-door openers.

Has anyone else done this with their rentals? Any suggestions on specific products? Any ideas on the above uses and/or others?