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HomeKit-Enabled Smart Homes For Sale in San Jose, California

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With Apple known to be partnering with various building companies to integrate its HomeKit platform into new houses, one journalist yesterday was invited by KB Home to check out the company's latest HomeKit-enabled development in San Jose, California.

KRON4 tech reporter Gabe Slate's peek inside one of the smart houses demonstrates the extent of the HomeKit integration, which costs $2500 per house and includes a number of HomeKit-enabled smart devices.

Screen-Shot-2-2-800x446.jpg

Using just their iPad or iPhone, the homeowner is able to control the Kwikset lock on the front door, adjust room temperature via the Ecobee thermostat, adjust the Philips Hue lighting around the house, and lower and raise Lutron shades in the various rooms.

Meanwhile in the living room, the homeowner is able to control the fans in the rooms upstairs using the Siri Remote on an Apple TV, and activate a movie watching mode that dims the lights and brings down the blinds.

KB Home has offered home automation as an option in its houses for about 10 years, but before Apple's entry into the smart home space with HomeKit, homeowners typically had to use a different app for each smart product in the houses.

"In some respects, what KB Home is doing makes sense," said IDC researcher Jonathan Gaw, speaking to The Mercury News. "It's much easier to have some smart home products like light switches installed by a home builder when a house is constructed. Also, rolling the costs for those products into the home mortgage allows home buyers to more easily afford them upfront -- and helps builders sell a higher priced home."

The convenience of smart home integration could be a big draw for a new generation of tech-savvy homeowners. Some of KB Home's houses have USB chargers built into the power outlets, for example. However, Gaw warns of the risk of obsolescence hitting a still nascent industry.

"It"s not clear yet exactly what products consumers will really want or use or even what smart home product companies will be around in five or ten years," he said. "Customers may find in six months or a couple years that they don't use the products they have or that they're defunct or no longer supported."

Last week, German pre-fabricated home company WeberHaus announced plans to support HomeKit in its SmartHomes starting in 2017, making it the first homebuilder in Europe to officially support Apple's home automation system.

Article Link: HomeKit-Enabled Smart Homes For Sale in San Jose, California
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/03/15/homekit-enabled-houses-san-jose-california/
$2500 per house?

You can achieve this for about $40 with a raspberry pi with Home Assistant and Homebridge installed and some Etekcity rf sockets.
 
canny said:
$2500 per house?

You can achieve this for about $40 with a raspberry pi with Home Assistant and Homebridge installed and some Etekcity rf sockets.
Click to expand...
Will that $40 get the components selected and installed for someone like my mom, ready to move in?
 
Great, more updates to do... that is if you can update the gear /s

Fast forward to 2030 when you sell your house and the buyer will say: "Nah... your gear is sooo 2017. It's gonna cost $5k to replace and never mind those windows and that roof in much need of a replacement" :D
 
canny said:
$2500 per house?

You can achieve this for about $40 with a raspberry pi with Home Assistant and Homebridge installed and some Etekcity rf sockets.
Click to expand...

Not everyone is a techie like you. Most of the world would not know how to set that up.
 
canny said:
$2500 per house?

You can achieve this for about $40 with a raspberry pi with Home Assistant and Homebridge installed and some Etekcity rf sockets.
Click to expand...

In the bay areas that's likely only 0.1% (0.25% on lower end new builds) on the price of the home, it doesn't matter.

Further, your $40 worth of pi and sockets doesn't control locks, thermostat, and shades. Hue also has color settings that your receptacles won't replicate.
 
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Kwikset - So long as the app is running in the background on your phone 24/7, doesn't work with apple watch, and if you have to many apps open in front of the Kevo app, sometimes does not work. Kwikset Kevo is not a homekit device.

"Siri, movie time"
"Here is what I found for movie times at your local theater"

My use of homekit has been lackluster, at best, I went from Nest to Ecobee and then back to Nest, Siri commands are rarely useful and often do not work.
 
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$2500 is about what I spent to home-kit my home-remodel we just did. We spent a bit more than that

21 Hue Lights
Ecobee 3
2 Schlage Connect Deadbolts
2 Hunter Fans
Two Lutron switches
Two bluetooth controlled outdoor security lights
3 Nest Protects

We spent another 3K on a home server / media center setup. unifi Switch, router, 4 access points, Synology server with 32 terabytes of storage, Cat 6 Wiring in every room, whole home audio w/ Sonos, an Alexa or Dot in every room.

Wall mounted iPad mini 4 w/ a wall mount in every room so you can carry it around with you to make a Home command and then dock it on the wall or kitchen (nice for reviewing recipes)
-----

After about 2 weeks of living with the system, it's really nice BUT I'll say most times, flicking the switch is way easier than asking Siri to do it.

I'm still getting used to the setup.

----

My concern with KB is basically the same reason I' never setup HomeKit for anyone but myself. I'd immediately become the tech-support person for them. Imagine how terrible that one person's life is who has to be the "home kit tech support" for KB Homes customers. Case in point, last night I kept asking Siri to turnt he TV lights down to 50% (Hue Blume lights behind TV mount). Turns out I called that room "television" not "TV" so you have to issue the specific exact command or Siri will not be able to help.
 
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canny said:
$2500 per house?
Click to expand...
The markup for "options" in new construction is pretty amazing, huh?

$40 LED soffit lights from Home Depot become $250...
$80 whole-house surge protector from Lowe's becomes a $500 option...
$100 each for network jacks (which use about $10 in cable...)

I know there is labor involved to install these things, but gesh...
 
adamjackson said:
My concern with KB is basically the same reason I' never setup HomeKit for anyone but myself. I'd immediately become the tech-support person for them. Imagine how terrible that one person's life is who has to be the "home kit tech support" for KB Homes customers. Case in point, last night I kept asking Siri to turnt he TV lights down to 50% (Hue Blume lights behind TV mount). Turns out I called that room "television" not "TV" so you have to issue the specific exact command or Siri will not be able to help.
Click to expand...

Damn, very nice setup. I concur with your thoughts, though.

HomeKit integration is not ready for most "normal" people yet if Siri can't understand that "television" and "TV" are the same thing. Right now, I think Siri's idiocy is one of the fatal flaws with HomeKit. Apple touts Siri integration as one of the main selling points of HomeKit; but when you're talking to something that sometimes lacks basic logic, it's incredibly frustrating. Here's hoping that Siri gets some long overdue updates this year.
 
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thisisnotmyname said:
In the bay areas that's likely only 0.1% (0.25% on lower end new builds) on the price of the home, it doesn't matter.....
Click to expand...
Not to mention, people spend more than that on optional equipment for their new cars which they often only keep for a scant few years..... if anything is going to give people here reason for pause, it won't be the price.
 
canny said:
$2500 per house?

You can achieve this for about $40 with a raspberry pi with Home Assistant and Homebridge installed and some Etekcity rf sockets.
Click to expand...

Can you break down components costs for controlling devices like these with Raspberry Pi?
  1. All the light switches
  2. Door lock
  3. Thermostats
  4. Window shades
maflynn said:
For 2,500 dollars I'd be more willing to get up off my butt and change the thermostat, or turn on the lights.
Click to expand...

To me, it's more than just convenience.

I've recently upgraded my home with HomeKit:
  1. Apple TV: $130
  2. Lutron Caseta (12 switches and a hub): $750
  3. Kwikset Premis: $230
  4. Thermostats: Ecobee 3 with 2 sensors at $320
  5. Philips Hue color bulbs and a hub: $180
(I haven't replaced garage door opener, security camera, and smoke detectors with HomeKit yet.)

For all this I can:
  • Remotely monitor the status of my home. Security
  • At night, "Hey Siri, Good night" turns off lights (and dims kid's rooms), locks the door, etc. Energy Savings Convenience Security
  • When sunrises, automatically turns off all lights. Energy Savings
  • When a person leaves the house, the door is locked and thermostat is turned off. Security Energy Savings
  • When sunset and one of the family members approach the house, the living room light is turned on and thermostat is set to certain temperature. Convenience
  • Every smartphone carrying members of my family don't carry house key. The door is automatically locked whenever someone leaves the house. Security
  • The door is automatically unlocked when we are close to it. Convenience
  • If we are on a vacation, we can remotely turn off lights, turn off thermostat, lock the door, etc. And turn them on at will so others think the house is occupied. Security Energy Savings
I am not saying these benefits are necessary, but they bring security, energy savings, and convenience. To me, that is easily worth $1000-2000 that would cost to upgrade the house that I would enjoy for years to come.

I hope home appliances follow suit. I would love to see refrigerators (door open status, water filter level, temperature) and stove oven (status and ability to turn off) with HomeKit.
 
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thisisnotmyname said:
In the bay areas that's likely only 0.1% (0.25% on lower end new builds) on the price of the home, it doesn't matter.
Click to expand...

Building this in to a home is insane, with rapidly changing technology. Who is going to spend £2500 every time there is a significant update? With a raspberry pi based kit you can at least update it without bankrupting yourself. It even works with Alexa, as well as HomeKit/Siri.
 
Jax44 said:
Premise maybe?

http://www.kwikset.com/products/styles/premis-electronic-deadbolt.aspx
Click to expand...

Well I'll be a monkey's uncle, that one must have snuck by me! I just installed a Kevo 1st gen on our garage door (at less than half original MSRP), I didn't even know this existed. It seemed like Shlage was more apple-friendly but I already had Kwikset keys on the house and being able to key the door the same with the smart key feature was a no-brainier. I like it, I actually thought I was getting a Kevo 2nd gen but my IFTTT notification for "Kevo 2" sent me a link to a Kevo 1st gen that had a number 2 in the description, no one to blame but myself. So far it works well so long as the app is always open in the background on your phone and you don't have to many apps in front of it in the background. I guess this negative about the lock is making me close background apps more frequently, that cant be such a bad thing, lol.

Thanks for sharing/responding.
 
canny said:
Building this in to a home is insane, with rapidly changing technology. Who is going to spend £2500 every time there is a significant update? With a raspberry pi based kit you can at least update it without bankrupting yourself. It even works with Alexa, as well as HomeKit/Siri.
Click to expand...
Can you list some of these potential significant updates that would require someone to replace the device?

Older HomeKit light switches and thermostats will continue work regardless of how great new replacement model is. And if the updates are significant enough, it's not like you have to replace every single devices at once. And with HomeKit, a device will continue to work even if the company goes out of business.

And I frankly don't think these HomeKit devices are all that expensive. If you are trying to update every single things in the house with HomeKit, the cost could add up. But you can replace them in piece meal as it makes sense to you.
 
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nutmac said:
Can you list some of these potential significant updates that would require someone to replace the device?

Older HomeKit light switches and thermostats will continue work regardless of how great new replacement model is. And if the updates are significant enough, it's not like you have to replace every single devices at once. And with HomeKit, a device will continue to work even if the company goes out of business.

And I frankly don't think these HomeKit devices are all that expensive. If you are trying to update every single things in the house with HomeKit, the cost could add up. But you can replace them in piece meal as it makes sense to you.
Click to expand...

Some people believe that once a new version of something comes out, the old one must be tossed in the trash and the new one must be installed, immediately. I don't agree with this logic. A lot of my devices are previous generation and are working great, when they do get upgraded, replaced, changed, the outgoing device is put back in its original packaging and sold on eBay to the next owner/user.
 
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canny said:
Building this in to a home is insane, with rapidly changing technology. Who is going to spend £2500 every time there is a significant update? With a raspberry pi based kit you can at least update it without bankrupting yourself. It even works with Alexa, as well as HomeKit/Siri.
Click to expand...

Again, we're talking about an area of the country where $1MM for a new home is a bargain. Not everyone has your time and economics. I own most of the products listed in the article (although I have August locks rather than Kevo) and I don't feel any anxiety about eventual upgrades. If Ecobee releases an update and I think it has attractive features I'll buy it, it's not a big deal just like purchasing a new MacBook Pro is not a big deal for me even though I could strap a Raspberry Pi to the back of a monitor and have a much cheaper solution.

I own a couple Raspberry Pis, just got a 3 model B recently, but they are toys to tinker with when I have a bit of time. There's no way I want to have a home brew system responsible for the security and comfort of my home and the time investment needed to keep on top of updates and tweaks that comes along with that. To me, *that* would be insane. Lucky for you we're all individuals with our own ability to prioritize our investments of time and/or money.
 
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My problem with this isn't so much that it's Home Kit, but rather that it's KB Homes. They build terrible houses. So bad that when we were house hunting recently I wouldn't even set foot in one of their models. KB, Pulte, and Richmond should all be avoided like the plague. I base this off of anecdotes from when my mom was an agent for another builder. She constantly had people coming to her after they bought from one of these companies saying they wished they bought from someone else because they had so many problems.
 
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