Protecting Smart Homes from Cyber Threats

You're watching Drive with NAR, the Safety Series, powered by Realtor Magazine in partnership with the Realtor Safety Program. Hear harrowing stories from real estate professionals who have faced danger in the field and get expert advice on how to work safely. Get more safety tips at nar.realtor.safety. I'm your host, Tracy Hawkins. Your clients want the conveniences of a smart, connected home, but they also want to minimize the risk of being hacked. Smart home devices can be an entry point for cybercriminals to access your client's sensitive data, and we're going to tell you how to lock them down. I'm delighted to be joined today by two tech-savvy real estate pros who are going to share their insights. Brandon Doyle is an agent with Remax Results in the Minneapolis area who authors Realtor Magazine's smart home series, The Ultimate Smart Home. Thanks for joining us, Brandon. Hey, thanks for having me. Lindsay Hall is a co-founder of Inc. Properties in Greenville, South Carolina, who has earned NAR Smart Home certification. It's great to have you, Lindsay. Happy to be here. The conversation today is about smart homes. Brandon, can you define what a smart home is? Yeah, so CNET is actually going to define smart home as having three or more connected devices within the home. We know that smart homes can bring both conveniences as well as risk. What are some of the opportunities and risks that the owner needs to be aware of, and how is that conversation when you're talking to your clients? Now, let's start with you, Lindsay. One thing that I always recommend is having your own special email address specific to your home that you don't need whenever you go to sell your home or get rid of those devices, so it's not connected to your personal email addresses. Personal email addresses commonly are connected to bank statements, credit cards, and a lot of other things. So the more you can have it separate, I think, is great. Then, as you mentioned, conveniences. Conveniences come in many different types. So those conveniences might be a safety. They might be privacy. For example, I think smart blinds, that's too techie for me. But what about that blind that you can't reach, or it's not safe for you to climb up on a ladder or something? I really just have to drill down with the clients as what they're trying to achieve, not force the home to be the smart home, work on the home to be specific to their lifestyle. When you talk about emails, you're actually talking about having a different and a separate email account to log into your smart home system. Is that right? Yeah. So that way, when it comes time to, if you're going to get rid of the device and recycle it, then you're going to be less likely to be attached to your own personal information. That email, then you can also, say, use a Gmail or Yahoo, some free email account. You can also just deactivate and delete the account altogether. I also, many times, clients might have, maybe they're working on a property that's for someone who's elderly or a second home, where maybe some of the conveniences are set up for ease of checking in on someone, similar to wellness checks. And things of the sort. So you can have a smart home without needing to be overly techie. Right. And I like that you mentioned the smart blinds, because I have smart blinds. And what makes them smart is I can control them on my phone. So I don't have to climb a ladder to adjust them or work on them. So thank you so much for bringing that up. What about you, Brandon? What are some of the conversations, some of the risks that you discuss with clients as you have clients with smart homes? Smart homes are great because they add peace of mind. So you can check on your property. You know, if you're away, if the door is locked, you have cameras and stuff. But of course, when we add anything that's connected to the cloud, we're exposing ourselves to the internet and the risks that come associated with that. And so we really want to have some best practices in place. That includes two-factor authentication, having strong passwords, and then only working with reliable companies and keeping everything up to date. Talk to us about the importance of the reliable companies when we're talking about our data and working this way. Well, no company is going to be immune from data breaches. We, of course, see that all the time with very large companies, but they do tend to have better practices in place to secure your data so that it is encrypted when it's being sent over the internet. That makes sense. A lot of people don't think about that because there are so many companies in the technology space. So going with a well-established company makes sense. Let's say that your client is selling their home and they're transferring some of their smart home devices to the buyer. What is the conversation you need to have with the seller as well as the buyer to make sure that transfer goes safely? Lindsey? Well, I think first and foremost, you really have to get a list of all of the items that are transferring. It seems really obvious, but sometimes people just generally forget that their TV is a smart TV that's still logged into their YouTube account or who knows if they downloaded their bank app on that. So you really have to walk through and make sure you're getting a list of every single item because you tend to just bundle in technology as technology. Same thing now, the refrigerators and your appliances now are connected to apps. I can control my stove on and off and the temperatures from an app. I don't do that. I don't use it that way, but you can. And people just generally, you know, they have some hundreds of apps. So they forget. So you always really need to get a full list, make sure I generally just send sitting down with the clients, making sure that they're really taking care of all of the items, removing email addresses, phone numbers. Commonly also when they're listing their property, I'm really capturing it then on what items they have, because I'm also writing down what are the serial numbers and looking up any warranty information. So they're able to also pass that along in some sort of, you know, sales document to also estimate the value of the items that they're leaving behind. So Lindsey talked a little bit about what the sellers need to be concerned about. Brandon, talk a little bit about what buyers need to know when they're buying a house that's already connected, that's a smart home. It's really important that when you're viewing a home that has smart home technology to really document what you're seeing and what you expect and make sure that's written into the purchase agreement. And it really starts with understanding what's a fixture and what's personal property. So that smart lock, that thermostat, those are things that would typically stay with the home, but that smart speaker or maybe the hub that's connecting the different devices, that may actually get removed by the seller when they move. And you might need to get some of those components yourself or get that all reset up. OK, some consumers may think they want a smart home, but they don't really understand, they don't have the knowledge or the experience to be comfortable in one. So how do you determine if your clients need a smart home, if they really want a smart home and if it's right for them? Lindsey? Commonly, I'm not starting with, do you want a smart home to somebody who's very techie? If you say, oh, this is a smart home and has three items connected, they're going to not consider that a smart home. Adjectives can be very broad terms to people. I'm really drilling down on what are your needs and what are you're looking for as a bare minimum that you want to see in that home? What's the purpose and what goals are you trying to achieve? And I think it's a lot easier to work backwards on working needs-based as opposed to, hey, let's make this a smart home. Commonly now when people are getting some of these new HVAC air conditioning, those units are already coming with the smart thermostat. Some clients now when they're purchasing it, call it a new construction home or spec home, it might actually already include a lot of those devices from the back. Another important thing also is factoring in what kind of internet you have in the area. If you tend to lose power, there's other considerations as well that I'll say that are a factor depending on if you're not necessarily in a really, really metropolitan area. Right, that strong cell signal is a big deal, especially in rural areas. So you need to investigate which tools work best in that situation. So Brandon, same question, but talk to me about the buyer who wants a more safer, secure home. What are some of the smart home features that could make it safer to live there? Yeah, definitely. So for buyers right now, they're really looking for the thermostat that's going to save them money. They like that video doorbell so they can see who's there. They can identify packages. Of course, security cameras are always nice to have for that peace of mind. I have a semi-smart home, so I have a few devices. And what I like about it is that I can control it and I'm not super, super techie. So in thinking about how to add value to the relationship with the consumer, I always tell agents to lead with safety. So having the conversation about how these devices can make the home a little more safe as well as secure is so important. And you mentioned cameras. When we talk about how to use the cameras correctly, I say notifications is a big deal. So when you tell buyers, you know, the camera's here, but you also need to make sure you have the notifications on so that if someone is on your property, you get it on your phone and you can either have a conversation with them or you can sound a siren or a signal to let that person know that you see them. Do most of the doorbell devices have it and AR doesn't endorse any specific products, but Ring has that kind of feature and I know Blink does as well. Are either of you familiar with any of the other cameras or devices that offer the multi features? Yeah, so there's a lot of great brands out there like Reolink, Eufy, they all are going to have those rich notifications. Now a lot of the cameras are using AI as well. And so you can detect, you know, is it a person? Is it a package? Is it somebody you know? So like with Google, it can say, hey, John is at the front door and that way you can just let them in or maybe a package is detected. And so that's really helpful. And then even when that package is removed to get that notification, like, wait a minute, it wasn't me that removed it. Who's there? Who did that? So that's a really great feature to have. Right. Imagine a vacant property and we know that land scams are a big deal. There's a specific camera that can monitor that property. That way, if you have sellers who are out of town or landowners who are out of town, they can monitor it and make sure there are no signs that pop up from criminals who are trying to hijack the property and sell it, as well as homeowners who are out of town and they can, what I do, no matter where I am in the world, I can control the lights in my property so I can turn them off and on randomly and I can also schedule them to come on and different fixtures to come on. And I've also connected my doorbell to the lights. So if someone steps on my property, all of a sudden the lights are coming on in the house. So that is a conversation the agents can have with landowners as well as sellers, especially if it's a vacant property. Here are ways to make your property look like it is occupied. Can you talk a little bit about the risk if there's a camera inside the house and the agent hasn't advised the buyer that there's one there? Yes. And I'd also say that anytime you're going into a home, I would assume there is some sort of camera or something capturing audio. I think people might be able to forget that the nanny cam was on and then they accidentally get a recording. So I would just say, always assume there's a camera there, even if you don't know that there's one there. And if I'm showing a property before we are entering, even before I get to the driveway, right? Because like those ring doorbells might pick up, I've seen ones that are copying in almost the neighbor's yard. Before you go to the appointment, if you're on the phone with your client, just say, assume there's going to be some sort of audio recording. You know, please keep your opinions to yourself until we leave. You know, we can point things out if I notice something in the property that I need to address. Obviously, if it's something that I have to point out to them, I will. But if, you know, little minor things, you can just take a picture of on your phone. So Brandon, what is the conversation you have with the sellers regarding cameras and how they should use it? And be careful when the house is on the market. Yeah, so it's great to know like who's coming and going in your home, but we also need to respect the buyer's privacy. So your state may vary, but here in Minnesota, we are not allowed to record audio within a home. And we do need to disclose if there's cameras present. But I do have a story where I had a seller that had one of those ring doorbells. He was with his kids and his dog just down the street at the park, waiting for the showing to end. The agent and their buyer were in the driveway, and they had talked about their offer strategy. They said what they were going to come in at and that they were willing to go to a higher amount. And so because my seller had heard that, because he was just waiting to get back in his home, they ended up spending an extra $20,000 more than what they would have accepted. So you just always want to assume that you're being recorded and disclose, disclose, disclose. Right. And what an excellent point. And Lindsay mentioned that always assume that there is a camera. Lindsay, before we go on, you have a smart home designation. Can you talk a little bit about that designation and why it would be beneficial for other real estate agents to consider earning it? Yeah. One, I think in general, getting designations is really important as an agent to continue your education. But I think the designation is also going to be helpful to market yourself as an agent, understand the technology, be able to talk about it. Even though I had worked in telecom and IT for over 15 years before being an agent, when I took the courses, there were some devices on there that I wasn't familiar with. And I think it really, the designation just gets people, you know, gets your mind thinking. And tell us the name of the designation and how long it took you to earn it. The smart home certification, I think it was like 12 or 14 hours. I first did it during the pandemic where we had lots of times. I like winding up with action steps. I'm going to ask each of you if you have any specific tools or recommendations for any smart home features that houses have to have, not only for the consumer, but the agents as well. Let's start with you, Brandon. You know, I think for agents, it's really important that we get educated on what's available. You can go to like new construction and check out what the builder has there. There's a lot of great resources online, such as Realtor Magazine. We have the whole smart home series. So that's a great way to learn more. And then YouTube is just an incredible resource. There's guys like me out there that are testing these products daily, sharing our experiences with you. And that way you can recognize the products out in the field and kind of throw your two cents in and let your client know what they're looking at. So you're saying use you and use Realtor Magazine as a resource. What's the name of your smart home series? It's the Ultimate Smart Home Series. Okay, perfect. Do you have any specific tools that you would recommend or any smart home features that agents need to talk to their clients about? I think it's really important that when we're conveying a property that has like smart locks and thermostats, things like that, that we factory reset them prior to removing the internet because a lot of these devices do require that connection in order to make account changes for security purposes, of course. And so you're going to save yourself a lot of headaches by doing that ahead of time. Some of the smart locks, they actually have their master code printed on the back of the battery lid. So just make sure that that lid is either secured or just remove the code or change the code. That way, when someone comes in your house, they don't just take the lid off and get the code and come back later. Excellent, excellent point. So Lindsey, what about you? Any specific tools that you would recommend agents share with their consumers, buyer or seller or even themselves? What's the tool of choice? I would first say that start somewhere, for one, whether that is lighting, a doorbell camera, those are some of the easiest entry-level items. Remember that you don't have to have an internet connection or electricity necessarily to have something in place. There are items that are based off cellular connections, batteries and solar power. And then even Amazon is a great resource because you can look for something fairly inexpensive while you should stand with like a more standard brand for something that's of a higher security, at least even a floodlight, for example, that on a long driveway, you can get pretty inexpensively. Excellent points. Keep in mind that October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month. So often we think about protecting our devices, our laptops, our tablets, our cell phones. Now we have to protect our homes, our smart homes to have those cyber features that criminals are looking for. I want to thank both of you for your insights on making homes smarter and safer and also more user-friendly. And to our listeners out there, everybody, stay safe. Thank you for joining us on Drive with NAR, the Safety Series. New episodes drop every month at magazine.realtor.com or wherever you get your podcasts. NAR does not endorse any product and does not take a stance on any specific safety tool. Members are encouraged to use only those safety tools in which you are properly trained. Find more safety resources at nar.realtor.com.