Smart home demo house from CNET hits market for $625K

Back in August 2015, consumer tech site CNET purchased a home in the Louisville, Kentucky area for the express purpose of testing out the latest home tech products. Now, that property, a 5,800-square-foot ‘90s house, is for sale, retaining some of its connected wares for a house hunter open to giving smart homes a try.

Since taking over the house in 2015, the CNET team has crammed it with dozens of smart home products ($26,450 worth in fact), from an Amazon Echo and Nest thermostat to a Haiku smart ceiling fan and smart washer and dryer from Whirlpool. With an ever expanding field of products, it makes sense to try to showcase the potential of a living, breathing, fully-outfitted smart home. And CNET was able to do that with the 360-degree video tour below as well as this overview of everything they learned from the experiment.

As you can see from the video, smart home products were incorporated into every room of the house basically—i.e. a smart lock and bulbs in the living room, a smart frying pan and stove in the kitchen, a smart vent and light switch in the bedroom, and so on.

It’s important to note that CNET—who’s putting this house on sale simply because it’s starting over in a bigger house to test new products that would be considered “state of the art” for 2017—have already taken out some of the flashier connected amenities, like the Samsung Family Hub smart fridge and smart blinds.

It does still have the Nest Thermostat, Garageio Door Opener, Phillips Hue light bulbs, and an August smart lock, though. So at least according to the definition of “smart home” CNET crafted in collaboration with Coldwell Banker (in an effort to create a clear standard for agents, buyers, and sellers), this house still counts as one because it has at least three connected devices that cover temperature, lighting, and security.

All this home tech aside, the property looks turn-key and offers typical draws like a vaulted living room with a large stone fireplace, hardwood floors, and a pool. it’s asking $625,000, which is $20,000 less than what it was last sold for. Here it is in photos.

Via: Zillow, CNET