I have two locations, each with a development and a production installations. I chose to run my VB headless under server Ubuntu linux which frees up a lot of system resources. I purchased refurbished PC for the hardware. I allocate 2 or 4 GB to the VMs. My problems with this set up have been operator error.
I did have a challenge with getting the USB connected to the VM in that the /dev/ttyUSBx would change numbers (x) depending on the the number of USB devices plugged into the box at boot. This was resolved by using the alternate name for the USB device as opposed to /dev/USBx. (I wish I could give a link, but it seemed to happen automatically when I set up the VM.)
I know nothing about HomeSeer as a controller.
As one very experienced HA user put it, “[the documentation] can … be very hard to navigate” I find that most of the documentation assumes that one completly understands every nuance of Section 2 of the HA Cookbook.
My reason for being with HA is that it is not cloud based. This allows me to be somewhat in control of my security and privacy … I’ve been burned badly once by one cloud company and dodged the bullet by another.
The cummunity is genrally good, and, as you can see, helpful.