Reset for new homeowner

Hardware
1

I would like to think that the work we all do to configure homeassistant would stay with the house when we move. How can this be achieved with the least amount of effort and without compromising security? Is anyone thinking about this?

2

I personally do all my modifications in a way that it is easily reversible. I really don’t want the next owners to call me for years to fix stuff because things don’t work as they would expect. However, when you leave it you probably would have to disconnect alle hardware from your cloud accounts and the new owners need to adapt them into theirs, api keys and secrets need to be replaced etc.

2 Likes
3

As above, definitely not worth the hassle.

Home Assistant isn’t an “off-the-shelf” product like leaving your kitchen appliances, so it’s highly likely the next owners wouldn’t have the knowledge to configure or set up a new HA instance with whatever devices you’ve left them.

If any IoT devices can’t be removed without causing damage, then I would just leave them, and the next owner can decide whether to use or get rid of.

1 Like
4

I agree it’s much easier to do it this way, but at the same time, it’s a shame that all that effort that goes into customizing things won’t be shared with future residents. It seems like something the community should be thinking about long term – something to strive for.

5

If the new resident(s) happen to be HA users too (unlikely), then they’d want to customize it their own way. If they aren’t HA users, everything is going to get ripped out anyway or replaced by commercial cloud stuff.

6

I agree this is true as things stand now. I’m just thinking wouldn’t it be great if things were so easy to use that future residents wouldn’t feel the need to rip everything out.

7

I like your thought a lot. I can imagine some of the houses people habe are „not sellable“ or at least under market value bc of the customization done. If you require your buyer to be into HA to use the house … good luck in finding one.

I use for all the basic stuff like light on/off, steer the heating, blinds up/down KNX. And all the fancy, luxury stuff like additional sensors, additional non-essential lights, comfort functions HA. When I move I disconnect all HA, hue, ESPHome stuff and … done.

8

Maybe next millennium…but i don’t think all system (freeware or commercial) are far from ‘easy’ and for sure not dummy proof

9

This could be something regional I guess. Here in the Netherland when we sell a (or leave a rental) house we rip out everything that’s not attached to the house. Do you leave lamps, etc. when you sell a house? Here we take it (like all the furniture) and re-use it our new homes…

And as some others say: not everyone wants (the same) home automation. Quite personal. And while Home Assistant is improving, it will be something no useable for quite a lot of (older?) people. Eventually something goes wrong and troubleshooting is needed. It’s open source, constantly evolving AND working with third-party integrations/add-ons. It’ll never be something for everyone. And I don’t think that’s intended.

10

My house is all Bticino, commercial smart switches and outlets, when I leave I simply re-pair everything with the original hub. Everything else is stuff I wouldn’t leave with the house anyway, bulbs, appliances, devices…

11

I don’t think there’s any question that Google and Apple and everyone else wants to be invited into our homes, just like we have Apple Car Play and Android Auto being invited into our cars. I also think that most of the home assistant crowd recognizes that there’s a privacy and/or security line that is being crossed when we invite these companies into our home. I’m certain these companies are thinking about how they can use AI to learn peoples habits so there’s much less manual programming and this is the value proposition that will draw the masses to these platforms. Is that the answer for Home Assistant?

12

I’d flip the question around and ask if people are designing their HA system so everything can easily be reverted to manual control.

Part of my design philosophy is that I shouldn’t be too badly inconvenienced if HA crashes. This also means that anything I install can be easily removed without any impact to a potential buyer.

Even my smart thermostats can be factory reset and will work just fine as standalone devices unless the new owner chooses to sign up for the vendor’s cloud. Everything else is coming with me.