Technology & Vacation Homes; Buyers Today Want It All
Technology and vacation homes; Buyers today want it all By Linda Anderson Forget the rustic cabin. Picture instead a getaway where motion-activated wireless security cameras record activity, then beam information to your computer miles away. As you sit at work you look at the screen and see that an L.L. Bean order arrived and is sitting on the porch. While you’re figuring out what to do about the package, the system at your vacation house is downloading a weather report from the Internet to see if it should open skylights for ventilation. Vacation homes and high-tech systems are a perfect marriage. What better place to have high-tech security and home maintenance systems than a home that is vacant for weeks and months at a time? And for vacation homebuilders that means sales and profits because the market for "wired” vacation homes is only going to grow. Technology is expected and sells homes Homebuyers today expect the same comforts of their primary residence — if not more — in a second home. At a minimum, homebuyers want their vacation homes wired for high-tech toys. Some smart second-home builders are going further, adding the technological bells and whistles that people want. The reason? They’re a selling point. "To the builder, home technology is a high margin upgrade. If you’ve got a product that’s really appealing, you can sell the home in a faster timeframe by adding technology,” says J.J. Collins, vice president of Suncadia Resort, Rosylyn, Wash. "I’ve seen where developers have put in plasma screens and potential buyers get emotional and they buy.” Installation is less expensive and easier, too. "In new construction you have the opportunity to install it that you don’t have in an existing home,” says David Hehman, CEO, EscapeHomes.com, San Francisco. "The cost to implement it is so little and they add so much, as a developer, you’d be crazy not to put some of this stuff in.” In fact, the number of Americans who own vacation homes increased 25 percent since 1989. With an average price of about $200,000, that’s a lucrative market. Home security systems Since these homes sit vacant much of the year, security systems are popular, especially with alarms that monitor the swimming pool use (always of concern to owners) and infrared sensors that detect unexpected movements inside. To give a home a "lived-in” look, integrated control systems such as those described in our feature "Home, Smart Home,” p. 20, can open and close drapes, turn on and off lights — even control the TV. Protecting their investment Home automation systems also protect the home itself by controlling the home’s heating systems and water heaters. Sensors monitor water lines, making sure they don’t freeze in winter, "telling” the sprinkler system when to water the lawn, melt snow off the roof or put out a fire. "Sensor technologies are improving so rapidly, they can sense if there is moisture in your vacation home’s basement in Wisconsin when you’re in Chicago,” Hehman says. Price depends on sophistication of the system A "bread and butter” telecom system that offers a couple of phone lines, an Internet connection, networked computers and peripherals, and a fax machine runs from $5,000 to $10,000. Sophisticated systems can go up to $100,000 and beyond, depending on the hardware installed. Future is bright for high-tech retreats High-technology systems soon may actually drive the development of these retreats. As the second-home market skyrockets thanks to baby boomers, more and more builders will be scrambling to capture this increasingly tech-dependent generation.