Welcome to the new digital condo age; it’s the age of Alexa, Google Home, Amazon Key and smart home technology additions that can regulate temperatures, turn on/off lights and allow you to view your home from your phone while you’re away. The digital condo age can help provide solutions to age old problems like package management, energy conservation and security for condo management teams.
Gadgets for the Digital Condo Age
Let’s face it, most of us enjoy our gadgets and that’s good in the digital condo age. Alexa and Google Home devices are becoming more popular to voice control many of the functions in their homes. These devices interact with various smart home peripherals via Bluetooth or Wifi. In the digital condo age, Nest thermostats, doorbells with built in cameras and electronic locks are providing a new level of energy conservation and security. Products are flooding the market and the race in on; some devices will flourish, while other will flounder. Check out this smart socket introduced at the recent electronic consumers show (https://www.cepro.com/photo/new_smart_home_iot_devices_ces_2018_innovation_awards_winners/0).
Package Management in this Digital Age
Package management has long been a problem for management companies, but this digital age could provide some needed avenues for improvement. In the digital condo age here are some tips and suggestions that can be implemented to help: (https://www.advancedins.com/resolving-condo-association-package-management-issue/)
- Make sure tenants know where the liability for missing or mis-delivered packages that are not delivered directly to the management office lay. Even in the digital condo age, don’t take on a responsibility that is a liability.
- Consider installing package lockers as a capital improvement. Package lockers can provide an easy solution for deliveries to be secured. Amazon is currently working with communities to develop locker locations in a program known as Amazon HUB. (https://weather.com/weather/tenday/l/99336:4:US)
- Another choice in the digital condo age for package management is the installation of smartlocks. Smartlocks can be used on a specific space for deliveries and accessed via key cards/codes for resident and package safety.
Amazon Key System
You may have residents who opt to use the Amazon Key System in the digital condo age. This system is not inexpensive coming in at almost $300 to set up. Then there’s the issue of someone you don’t know having access to your home while you’re not there. Some are comfortable with that, other’s, not so much. You can read more about how this works and the pros and cons in this article ( https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/10/amazon-key-unlocks-your-door-for-in-home-package-deliveries/).
The impact of the Digital Condo Age
It remains to be seen what new rules or amended rules may need to be put in place to accommodate the digital condo age. For instance, with the Amazon Key System, what is the liability to have delivery people going past the management office, wondering around looking for an individual unit they are delivering to? Who pays for the installation of digital options and once installed, what becomes the property of the unit?
Want to more about the digital condo age and how to manage the challenges it can provide, check out RISE at riseamg.com or contact RISE at (713) 936-9200 or [email protected].
