if money is no object and you want someone else to take care of your equip. control 4 is out there.
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As is Savant...
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Another issue with cloud based IP devices is that the company that supports the cloud may go out of business leaving you hanging with nothing behind the device to make it work.
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Just because someone needs to say it, and it seems like it's my occasional role to do so:
I wouldn't recommend Alexa, Ring or Google Home/Nest products to anyone I cared about.
Lutron, Hue for sure. Homekit, don't know. But Amazon & Google are definitely on my do not buy list due to the security and data aggregation issues with these devices (at least in my mind).
Others certainly weigh things differently though!
Good luck with whatever approach you suggest!
S.
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Depends.
If they have no idea what they want, or want it to do, or if they will even be interested/want it long term I would recommend they go the "cheap route" until they figure it out.
Might be some money wasted if they later decide to go a more advanced route, but not much. Certainly a lot less than a multi thousand $ Lutron install.
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Normally I don't recommend Wifi devices. But this might be a good use case for them. Just go in knowing that you probably are going to throw them away at some point, and upgrade to Zigbee, Zwave, or Lutron. Just don't go hog wild with them, maybe 1-2 devices or something.
There isn't much for automation with Wifi, except maybe by time of day. You probably aren't going to be able to to do complex automation if you go this route.
But they are cheap, and will let you know if home automation is for you or not.
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This. Having just switched to HE from Wink I was afraid that I’d be over my head. But I’ve managed to do everything I needed to do with only a few searches. It’s not intuitive but with a little effort it’s manageable. I have very minimal computer skills and am thrilled with the outcome so far.
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Each situation will be different. Some excellent advice above! I also really like Lutron and Hue.
I have helped in a situation where the home owner would be living away from home for multiple months in the winter. During this time, the internet would be disconnected.
In that situation, Hubitat has been a perfect solution. It integrates well with online devices for when they are home (Google Home) and when they are away, their automations continue working.
Note that this is someone who doesn’t maintain their home automation. It falls on me to do so. How often do I need to assist? At most, once every 2-3 months. Typically because they want to add or change something. Only once did I have to help debug a problem.
They have a combination of Tasmota (Wifi), Z-Wave, Zigbee and also My Q integration. Very few of every type of device which I think helps.
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what is the point of an empty house without internet.. you net no water leak, fire, break in etc alerts and no way to control lighting to make it look lived in, not to mention control heat to make sure it doesnt get too cold in the winter and pipes freezing.
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Good question.
For water, it is shut off and the pipes are drained, so essentially no risk of leaks. Also, the house is kept at a constant temperature that is above freezing.
If a fire happens, probably wouldn’t matter much anyway... That said, the owner has excellent neighbours that keep an eye out to ensure all is good, and also visit the house regularly.
What Hubitat does is allow for lights to be turned on and off automatically. Just like timers, except power outages don’t mess with the schedule. 
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no way to know if the heat is actually working.. i have had a couple of times now in our empty with multi zone heat that one zone had stopped working and i was able to add a lock code for the repair to go in and fix it.. but with in floor heating your cannot really drain everything so you need to leave it on. i have it set at 55 and the ac system as a backup set to 50 .
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Luckily, they have forced air heating, so water in the heating pipes isn’t a problem for them. I can see how that could be an issue though!
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Couldn't you use a compressor and blow out the lines, like for sprinkler pipes?
I've read that antifreeze (non-toxic) could be problematic, but I'm sure it's used.
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ya they are not pure water and it is a sealed system.. so would not be easy its not like a boiler with the old radiators.. i suppose it is possible, but not sure the chemical makeup to have the represurized and get all the air out of the system.. it looks really complicated in the basement with a ton of valves etc.
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Yeah. It's not like a cabin that was designed to be periodically drained.
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Actually - a pretty solid question. As long as the devices can be controlled by Alexa/Google Home and their cute attempts at rules (routines), I think that would meet the "normie" threshold.
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Update:
As mentioned above, I will start them out with two Kasa HS220 WiFi dimmers.
They have four Echo devices but none of the newer ones with the Zigbee hub built in. So, instead of getting one of the newer Echoes I broke one of my rules and ordered one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HHKBGW8/
It it works it will incorporate Zigbee with the Alexa app so that they can add motion sensors, temperature/humidity sensors, etc.
I also ordered these to help flesh out the Zigbee network for now:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SQGG8Z7/
I have a couple of extra SONOFF SNZB-03 Zigbee Motion Sensors that should work with the Zigbee hub.
And this is how it starts ..... 
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I would highly suggest you stay away from smart products that each involve their own smart app and cloud control. Stay local, which is what Apple HomeKit hubs will do for you vs. all these stringed together cloud controlled devices that have extremely questionable security and reliability.
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Welcome to your new job in technical support!
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24/7/365, with house calls.
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