I live in Europe and if we ever move I will remove everything that belongs to the smart home and replace them with dumb parts.
My wife is trying to convince me to move soon but I am resisting as long as possible 
Good luck with the move
OP here. I don’t have any actual plans to move currently, but expect in the next five-or-so years it’s likely to happen. However, I’m a logistical thinker, and it’s been on my mind. 
There’s some great ideas here. I currently run HA on a Linux host, and like @NathanCu I’d already considered come moving time to get something like an HA Yellow du jour. Some of the integrations I currently run are too specific to Home Assistant and would be lost otherwise. But several of you make a good point that maybe having them lost would be okay.
As mentioned in the SlackerLabs video, last year I established a generic email address and used it to re-register all the affixed devices (e.g. light switches, outlets). Unfortunately, too many of the integrationally-challenged1 switches weren’t reusable when they were removed and all got tossed; good on you @nappyjim. All the free devices (such as smart plugs) I’ve left registered to me so I can take them and go. The smart devices are all on a separate router/subnet, so that it can be easily left behind. And now I’ve started a list onto which I’ll throw relevant tasks as they occur to me, such as what goes with me, and what to do with what stays behind.
I’m unsure what to do with much of my other tech, such as the amplifiers that are triggered off of other amplifiers to run secondary wired speakers. Likewise the switches, routers and servers located where all the ethernet cables collect. Perhaps much of that stays, as @CO_4X4 mentions. I do hope the realtor will offer that level of guidance.
You will end up being the customer support for the buyer forever unless you make arrangements, otherwise you open yourself to liability if it doesn’t work
Yeah, I don’t want that. I’ll be hoping to get really lucky to have a highly technical person be the buyer.
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1 I assume it’s unkind these days to call them “dumb switches”? 
They buyer should have no way of contacting you. Sure they might have questions but no typical exchange would involve the buyer and seller ever meeting or exchanging details. They may gleam your name from the contract but that would be it. Anything you do to prepare them for setting up their own HA instance is a nicety and nothing is obligatory.
That being said, I have no intent to sell this house, but potentially rent it if i move for work. I want the renter to continue to run my HA instance for a number of reasons. I would make the house as dumb as possible by disabling most automations though for simplicity.
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I know this is an older topic, but I think it’s a very important one. Although I just bought our house and started to automate it, I always try to plan for the future and eventually will end up selling it. Selling a home with an already working smart home can add a lot of dollars to the selling price, and when we do eventually sell, I’d like to leave as much as possible to the buyer in working condition.
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What I’ve done is, I’ve created a new gmail account with the name of the house ie [email protected] and in gmail, have messages forwarded to my personal email. All apps such as Lutron, Google Home, Home Assistant, etc… I use this email address as the owner. When I eventually sell the place, all I have to do is change the gmail forward address to the new owner, they can change to a new password, and I can be completely divorced from the system, and they can have a great working system. I can leave them detailed instructions on how to change their router to reserve certain MAC addresses to everything will work. Heck, they can hire me to come over as a consultant to streamline it for them, Any flaws in this thinking?
Letting them change router and reserve MAC, well, to most people that is jibberish, they are clueless about networking.
And come over as consultant would work, provided you move close by, have time for it and are willing to do so…i wouldn’t want to do that 
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Not only that but if you sold me that house, I’d assume there was a backdoor installed and redo it. Plus Abby devices you have connected via wifi, would need to be reconnected as I wouldn’t want you having the WiFi password.
Also turning home assistant over to someone is nice but they’ll have no idea how to fix things as they have issues. They eventually will of course.
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Here you go.
I have some strong feelings about this one both being in IT security and having helped a friend have to unwind something. That post has my normal instructions. Also it doesn’t add to the price. It scares off ad many buyers as it attracts.
In short one cannot hand over a fully working installation. Instead wipe and load but there are ways to make it palletable. And it starts with not selling the home as Smart but instead ‘Smart-Ready’
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Exactly. That is why my approach is “hey, you have a bunch of smart switches, do with them what you will”. I would never trust someone else’s home automation server, it would be THE first thing I ripped out considering how deeply they can spy on you with it.
I figured I would set up a system for the agent showing the home to be able to press a button somewhere to demonstrate smart home capabilities with a very obvious statement that lets the potential buyer know that it’s smart-home equipped but not enabled until they choose to do so.
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Whether the buyer is concerned about spying is their problem.
I wouldn’t worry about it until I got a sales contract.
If contract requires a functional system, leave a minimally function system and let them worry about privacy.
I would probably work in a “house showing” mode to disable most automations and limit expectations.
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The problem with not worrying about it until you get a ‘sales contract’ is most people don’t know enough to know what can and can’t be done. They see it during the showing and make a lot of assumptions.
(this is exactly what happened to my friend. They ended up in arbitration because the ‘smart home’ did not meet expectations and they wanted him to leave the fully configured setup) I had to find an ‘expert’ for him that was not me (too close to a party to testify as expert) that leaving the setup in place was dangerous to both parties (which if anyone ever needs me to do so in court I would consider it because it is dangerous)
Smart home ready - not ‘smart’ would have saved him three months and about $10k USD.
Turn it all off before you show it to avoid the expectations - words matter in contracts.
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And you don’t have a contract until both sides sign. Don’t sign anything with any ambiguity.
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Oh i totally agree. It’s just something neither side even considered they NEEDED to talk about… 
Wow, glad I asked the question. So many good responses that I never even thought about. Thank you everyone.
I’m not selling my house any time soon, but this issue is on my mind already. Especially after the most recent renovation where we installed hydronic heating system. I opted to control individual radiators from a central ESP based controller and each room has either ESP based or Zigbee temperature sensor. Everything is controlled by HA via the phone apps and automations. You can see the problem with selling the house. If I take out HA, radiant heating goes off-line. :-/ I think I need to find some stand alone wireless thermostats or go back to primitive wired thermostats before I seel the house. In a way, HA is missing a feature where it could be configured to be completely off-line and void of any personal accounts.
Excellent article on this topic posted at the Verge, by Jennifer PattisonTuohy.
How to move a smart home
You can see the problem with selling the house. If I take out HA, radiant heating goes off-line
I’m in that spot too. There are a number of pieces of technology we’ve implemented now that can’t function without some sort of smart controller. Though…I was aware of that when they went in, so I guess my bad.
In ESPHome you’de just enable the web-access, so it can be controlled locally again 
Indeed. I’m considering an experiment with ESP touch screen devices for thermostats and I’m hoping to figure out some sort of peer-to-peer network so that it could work without wifi.
I also have some issues when considering passing on my smart home. I’ve come to terms with having to bring in a sparkie to rewire. Can you leave an off the shelf smart light switch if you have flashed to tasmota?
I have a lot of Shelly relays installed behind dumb switches which will work without HA… But for how long?
Then I have the switches which aren’t connected by physical wire, only through HA.
RGBW controllers that only work via HA
Everything configured to 10.0.x IP Range
I have come to conclusion the buyer will most likely have a nightmare…