by

Subscribe to our RSS feed to get the latest realty news. You can get our headlines via email as well, or follow us on Twitter.

I remember as a kid, watching “George Jetson” Saturday mornings and being amazed by the technology at the Jetson’s disposal. Who wouldn’t love a flying car and a chute that propelled you anywhere you needed to go? But my favorite part was the house…George’s wife Jane didn’t have to lift a finger to do the chores…the house (and their robot maid) did it all!

Flash forward to more years than I care to admit, and home technology appears to have “caught up with the Jetsons” in the form of homes that, although they don’t cook Sunday dinner for us yet, they do help a great deal in the management of our homes.

Houses that come already wired with technology are reported to be sought out by more buyers, as realtors acknowledged in a survey conducted by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), that 2 out of every 3 clients they had were extremely interested in homes with pre-installed technology. The report also revealed that over the prior 2 year period, 9 out of 10 realtors have dealt with homes that possess this kind of hardware. The technology involved included:

64% – home theater systems

16% – systems to manage energy usage

12% – home automation/management systems

The report also noted that a surprising 9 out of 10 realtors had come face to face with the technology either through selling, buying or showing such homes, testifying to the growing number of homes with these features.

Approximately 68% of realtors believe that in the next five years, home technologies will have a greater impact on home sales.

Rhonda Daniel, CEA manager of research said, ““There is a strong relationship between home technologies and the real estate market. While the market needs to recover before home technologies play a more important role in home sales, our industry can help prepare realtors to discuss these types of systems with their clients. The ideal goal for the CE industry is to have knowledgeable realtors who are excited and open to promoting technology as selling features of homes.”

A home that comes with an optional robot maid is nothing to sneeze at. I’d buy one!

Source: Digital Media Wire