What's Best If Moving To Another (Dumb and Staying That Way) House And Removing All Smart Devices?

Maybe someone could be kind enough to give me a pointer or two.
Thanks.

Are you saying the house has some Smart Devices and you want to swap them out with dumb?

Why? Without a ā€˜hub’ talking to them, they are really expensive dumb switches and outlets. They work as dumb devices really well :smiley:

I wouldn’t suggest swapping as a ā€˜now’ type task. Take years if you wish.

Last house I sold the EVERY buyer wanted a price reduction if the smart devices stayed (except the Ring doorbell) - aka they didn’t want them, didn’t want to figure it out, wanted them removed. Granted that was 7 years ago or so, maybe it is different now.

I’m getting ready to sell another house, this time I’ll just rip all smart switches and locks out and replace with dumb/normal versions before listing the house. It doesn’t cost much, and I can do it in less than a day.

:smiley:
If I sell this house, and don’t feel like counting, buying, then swapping about 30-40 in-wall switches, dimmers and outlets, I’d just pretend I had swapped them and move me and my hubs out. As I said above, without a hub ā€˜thingie’ they are remarkably dumb. :smiley:

Yeah, that is another option for people that didn’t do something more extravagant like puting relays in the wall (I did not!).

If I did choose to swap, I certainly would not use dimmers. I’d just swap the smart dimmer with a switch and let THEM convert to dimmer. Dumb dimmers are $20+ and switches are $2-3

Easy math.

I agree. I’d just walk away; the switches work so no deception there.

Dimmers are usually in an appropriate spot, living/dining room, so they should be a ā€˜feature’. :wink:

If I move and recreate the 10+ years I’d be happy not to use older versions of whatever I choose to implement.

Thanks all. Leaving the switches in place sure would make things easier.

I was thinking along the lines of: delete smart start entries, factory reset devices (necessary?). reset hub (how? just radios?), cancel any subscriptions , etc. That kind of stuff.

Thanks.

An easy test is to unplug your hub and any other smart controllers, Lutron, Hue etc. Do a walk about and operate your switches. Ignore all of those that work as you would expect a dumb device to perform.

First, assuming finances permit, I would treat the new house as a clean slate. Unless you’ve only been in your current home for a short time, technology has probably improved.

Then I’d take inventory of what’s in your current house. If there is anything you want to reuse because there isn’t anything better, then take those devices. Leave everything else behind as long as they can still be operated as dumb devices.

I pulled all of the smart switches out of our previous house and then ended up not reusing hardly any of them, so it was largely wasted time and money.

When I moved 4 years ago, my realtor advised me to remove the smarts. So I did.

I discarded most of the sensors, but reused dimmers and switches. My locks and valve controllers are also all new.

I also simplified my automation to what is essential.

@velvetfoot Keep in mind that anything that is in the house you are selling, that is visible when potential buyers come to view the house, technically must stay with the house. For example, if you have Ecobee Premium thermostats on the wall and you don't replace them with something else before a potential buyer sees them, they are part of the house at that point. If you are working with a realtor for your sale, they should hopefully have mentioned things like this to you.

When the time comes for me to sell this house, I will be removing my Ecobees, my Aqara U400 lock, my UniFi doorbell and anything else I plan on taking with me. I'll likely leave the smart light switches and dimmers as those should function without a hub and are a bit oif a pain to swap out.

If I’m reading the title of the thread correctly, OP is not planning to use any smart home devices after he moves.

If that’s the case, I agree that leaving wired devices in place is a valid option, with the two major caveats noted above, i.e. as long as they’ll still function as expected with zero smarts once the hub is gone, and you can’t decide to start replacing stuff once a potential buyer sees the house (well, you can but you might regret it).

Personally, I’m not sure I would bother to reset any of the devices if I were leaving them behind.

Maybe if there were some z-wave associations binding device actions together, since that might lead to unexpected device behavior from the buyer’s perspective?

Sensors and other battery powered devices, I would mostly remove since they’ll inevitably be noticed while the home is being shown and presumably lead to questions about the system they’re tied to.

Not a lot of other details to go off of from the thread title or OP, since there’s probably no one-size-fits-all ā€œbestā€ solution for everyone. More information could be helpful wrt more specific suggestions.

I realized did a dumb thing when I renovated my kitchen back in 2020. The electrician wired the undercabinet lights and planned to put in a switch to turn them on. At the time I said I didn't need a switch since I was putting in Zigbee LED strips, so he swapped the switch out for a 2nd outlet (it was already a 2 gang box).

3 years later when decided to sell the house I realized that I left no way for the undercabinet lights to operate via a dumb switch.

We ended up not moving, which meant I could punt this problem further down the line.

I'm de-smartifying the house to prepare for a possible sale, at some point. Not bringing stuff with me.

What I've discovered about factory resetting Zooz switches is that the led is lit with the switch off and dark when the switch is on. Not adjustable via the switch by itself. Maybe not optimal.

Changing the switches out will take a while. I'll try to pace myself.

To change the LED indicator behavior directly from the switch (keypad) without using your smart hub, tap the upper paddle 6 times in quick succession. Each time you do this, you will cycle to the next available LED behavior setting for your device. Repeat the 6-tap sequence until you reach your preferred option. [1]

For most standard Zooz switches (like the ZEN71, ZEN72, ZEN76, and ZEN77 models), the available LED indicator behaviors usually cycle through the following: [1, 2, 3]

  1. Normal Mode: LED turns on when the load/light is off.

  2. Reverse Mode: LED turns on when the load/light is on.

  3. Always Off: The LED indicator is entirely disabled.

  4. Always On: The LED indicator remains lit at all times. [1, 2]

This is typically the default for most smart switches/dimmers with LEDs. I have a few different brands and generations and they all have the LED off when on and on when off. The thought is that the LED when off helps you find the switch in the dark.

That's good info.
I couldn't find ZEN73-specific info.
Again, likely the toggle style takes the back seat. :slight_smile:

When we sold our previous smart home, I left all the in-wall Lutron RadioRA2 switches and dimmers, along with the main and aux repeaters, with all automations removed.

We also left the Davis VantagePro2 and console (as I wasn’t climbing up there to take it down) and the full ADT system.

Everything else (Zigbee/Z-Wave outlets and sensors) was removed before the first showing.

We had the luxury of being able to wait until our new house was done before completing our move, and the added luxury of being able to wait until the old house was completely empty and cleaned before putting it on the market.