My HA installation has grewn quite large over the years, and now I need to reduce it to only the essential devices of the house.
Currently I’m running HA in a Proxmox VM with a static IP.
I’ll offer a Raspberry Pi with a basic HA configuration to the new owner.
During the transition (2-3 months), I’ll still need access to some devices but I also want to set up a usable HA environment on the side.
The issue:
I use a private IP range, as you would, but not the common 192.168.0.x range that the new owner will likely use.
My devices are all wifi and use router/firewall IP reservations.
When I finally shut down my network and the new owner moves in, how should I have prepared for a seamless transition?
Do not expect the new owner to want to take over your hardware.
It might not be his preferenced choice and even if it was then he might be uncertain if it is “safe”.
That is probably a big deal breaker.
Having someone else set up a smart home that you don’t know will have trust issues.
I could probably make sure it’s safe if I was in the buyers position, but most people would probably want to rip everything out.
Rip it all out. Everything, the entire lot. Network hardware etc. You should have normal switches, sockets and lights everywhere, so that someone can walk in and everything just works. Moving house is stressful enough without having to walk in and work out how something works.
Smart Home is still niche for most people.
If you have stuff that cannot be removed economically (like a load of downlighters in the ceiling or something), then factory reset them, check they work as normal lights/sockets and then leave a note for the new people that says they are smart and have been factory reset. If you have instructions leave those - just like you would for any other appliance.
If I bought a house with smart home stuff in it then it would be removed or ignored for the first couple of months.
The idea to sell your hardware, including your HA config, is appealing but as already mentioned: quite difficult to do due to the specifics that you have defined.
As you already touched: the IP range that you use so most likely, everything - if it would stay - had to be configured over again.
The point is: will the new owner even want a smart home (and willing to pay for it as well want the previous owner to configure it)?
There have been some discussions about this in the past and ideas of how to setup a system that could be more easy to transfer to a new owner.
Even with no immediate plans to sell, this is always in the back of my mind when doing anything in HA.
At this point I could unplug everything and leave the house working fine. There are a few Zigbee devices hidden in light switches, but the switches work normally even if I were to leave them in place. The “smart” thermostats are off-the-shelf Honeywells which the new owner could choose to connect - or not. They work fine as “dumb” thermostats, too. I probably should disconnect a few wires from my heating system, but those are just for monitoring, and won’t change the functionality.
I’d be reluctant to leave anything like this for a new owner. My concern is that I’d become their full-time tech support Help Desk.
Other similar threads here have also mentioned potential legal concerns. If you leave any functioning automation system, you could be liable if it fails to act as expected down the road. So if you don’t uninstall everything, consider getting legal advice for clauses to add to your sales contract to protect you….
I intended to leave only controls for house/garage downlights and the garage door, but you convinced me to remove it all, which probably is the best solution.
Been replacing some ‘smart’ wall switches today and will leave the house in fully manual mode.