Key facts
- Homeowners are accumulating multiple smart home devices that do not communicate with each other.
- The real estate industry, particularly mortgage and title companies, largely loses contact with homeowners after closing.
- Contractors and service providers interacting with homes post-closing generate data that is not shared with the original orchestrators of the purchase.
- Companies that capture structured records at every visit, use customer history effectively, and connect operational data to adjacent systems see compounding gains.
- Homeowners are more comfortable sharing data with smart HVAC and air-quality companies than with general contractors, electricians, and plumbers.
- The speed of payment collection is a service quality signal, with in-app payment links leading to faster collections.
The increasing adoption of smart home devices is creating a wealth of data that the real estate, mortgage, and title industries are largely failing to capture or utilize, according to a report by Field Promax.
While homeowners are installing devices like smart thermostats, leak sensors, video doorbells, and garage door openers, these systems often operate in isolation, leading to fragmented user experiences and a lack of communication between different service providers. This disconnect means that crucial data about a home's condition and maintenance history is not flowing back to the entities that financed or facilitated its purchase.
Data from YouGov indicates a significant rise in smart home device ownership, with 65% of Americans now owning at least one device, up from 51% in 2020. Projections suggest approximately 77 million U.S. homes will be equipped with such devices. A Nationwide survey revealed that 34% of homeowners have smart video doorbells and 32% have smart security cameras, generating continuous usage and incident data.
Operators who are successfully leveraging this data are capturing structured records at every visit, using customer history akin to a doctor's chart, and connecting operational data to other systems like accounting, marketing, insurance, or homeowner-facing apps. This approach leads to compounding gains, whereas siloed data platforms result in plateaued growth.
Servicers like Sagent, with its Dara platform, are beginning to unify data across the servicing lifecycle to provide homeowners with a single view of their property. On the trade side, HVAC platforms are integrating with rebate programs, plumbers are feeding equipment data into insurance workflows, and property managers are linking maintenance records to tenant portals.
Trust and transparency are key to earning homeowner consent for data sharing. A survey by the Association for Smarter Homes & Buildings (ASHB) found that homeowners are more comfortable sharing data with smart HVAC and air-quality companies than with general contractors, electricians, or plumbers. Documentation, such as itemized estimates with photos, and faster payment processing are also becoming competitive advantages.
For the real estate, mortgage, and title sectors, the ability to consume and utilize data from trades will become increasingly important. As smart home penetration grows, those who build the infrastructure to connect this data will be better positioned to price risk and offer ambient value, transforming their relationship with homeowners from transactional to partnership.