Buying and selling real estate has always had ups and downs. The high of finding a new home can be exhilarating. The drudge of having an existing home on the market for 60 days can be painful. Smart home products add a small layer of complexity to the equation: how do you transfer them to the new homeowner?
Now, of course, we’re only talking about devices that are permanently installed. Your Notion system, your Canary, those are headed with you as they’re easily configured elsewhere. But, what about your Nest? What about your smart garage door opener? Not only is the product functionality at stake with ownership changes but the personal information and security are at stake as well.
Here’s a quick guide for ownership transfer of permanently installed smart home products:
Account or System Deletion
Deleting the account is vital to keeping your personal information safe. Most products allow for direct account deletion, which, in turn, deletes the device from an account and frees it up to be reconfigured by another party.
Some products, though, only allow you to delete the device itself from your account. The result is that the user still has an account but no device associated with it. This method too frees the device to be associated with another party.
Most smart home products will simply have a feature allowing the user to delete the system or the account entirely. This option can often be found in the ‘settings’ section of the app
Device Reset
For an added layer of security with ownership transfer, it’s recommended to run a ‘factory reset’ on each device as well. This can usually be done in the app but some products have physical processes as well.
Here’s a few of those processes for some of the more common products:
Nest Thermostat — What Happens If I Move?
WEMO Light Switch — How to Reset or Restore My WEMO to Factory Default
Chamberlain MyQ Garage Door — How to Delete a Wi-Fi Garage Door Opener from a MyQ Account
August Doorlock — House Ownership
Rachio Smart Irrigation Controller — How Do I Delete a Controller from My Rachio Account?
