The 5 smart home upgrades worth doing before you sell your house in Pueblo or Colorado Springs

Somewhere between painting the front door and hiring a stager, most sellers in Pueblo and Colorado Springs ask the same question: what's actually worth spending money on? Smart home upgrades come up constantly, and the honest answer is that most of them don't move the needle. A few of them do.

A December 2024 survey of more than 1,000 homeowners by American Home Shield found that 29% of buyers would offer more for a home already equipped with smart technology, with an average premium of $2,633. That's not a life-changing number, but it's also not nothing, and it doesn't account for the buyers who simply feel better about a home that signals "cared for" before they've even walked in the front door.

The upgrades below are the ones worth considering. Not because they'll double your sale price, but because they're cheap, fast to install, and they change the way buyers feel during a walkthrough. That feeling matters more than most sellers realize.

Start with the thermostat

A Nest or Ecobee thermostat costs $130 to $250 at retail, takes about 30 minutes to swap out (assuming your system is compatible, which most are), and is the one smart upgrade that appraiser types have the easiest time pointing to. The reason is simple: it has a documented energy story. Nest's own data shows an average savings of 10 to 12 percent on heating and 15 percent on cooling. That's a number you can put in the listing.

Beyond the energy angle, a smart thermostat looks good. Buyers open closets, peek at water heaters, and press buttons on appliances. When they walk over to a Nest on the wall and see a clean display showing scheduled temperatures, it reads as intentional. Someone thought about this house.

Leave-or-take: thermostats are hardwired, so they're typically treated as fixtures and convey with the sale. Make sure you factory-reset the device before closing so the new owners can set it up under their own accounts. Your realtor will probably remind you anyway, but it's easy to forget.

The doorbell does more than you think

50% of American homeowners already own a video doorbell, making it the most-recognized smart device on any walkthrough.

Video doorbells, Ring and Nest being the most common, have become the default "wow" feature in home showings according to real estate agents who stage smart homes for sale. Part of it is name recognition. Part of it is that buyers can immediately picture themselves using it: getting a phone alert when a package arrives, seeing who's at the door while they're at work. It's tangible in a way that "smart home ready" in a listing description never is.

The AHS survey found 50% of American homeowners already own a video doorbell, making it the most-recognized smart device on any walkthrough. When a buyer sees one and knows the brand, the friction drops. They don't have to learn what it does.

Wired video doorbells run $100 to $250. Battery-powered models are easier to install (no electrician needed) but are typically treated as personal property rather than fixtures, meaning you'll need to specify in the contract whether it stays. If it's wired, it generally conveys. If it's battery-powered and you want credit for it, list it explicitly as an inclusion. Your realtor at the Pikes Peak Association of Realtors (for Colorado Springs listings) or through REcolorado (for Pueblo) will guide you on how to handle it in the agreement.

A smart lock makes showings easier for everyone

This one is less about impressing buyers and more about practical logistics. Selling a home means strangers walking through it at all hours, and coordinating a physical key is a headache sellers underestimate until they're in it.

A smart lock at the front door, something like a Schlage Encode or a Yale Assure, lets your listing agent generate temporary access codes for showings without you needing to be home. Some integrate directly with ShowingTime, the scheduling tool most Colorado agents already use. The agent enters, the lock logs it, you get a notification. It's a cleaner process than a keyed lockbox hanging on the knob.

Cost is $150 to $300 installed. Install time is under an hour if you're replacing a standard deadbolt. And smart locks are almost always treated as personal property unless the contract says otherwise, so you can take it with you at closing if you want. Plenty of sellers do.

One thing to discuss with your agent: if they prefer a traditional SentriLock electronic lockbox on the door (standard in the Colorado Springs market), you may end up running both. That's fine. The smart lock still adds perceived value during walkthroughs, and the two systems don't conflict.

Wired outdoor cameras at two or three corners

This is the upgrade that signals security without saying the word out loud. Buyers notice outdoor cameras the way they notice deadbolts and motion-sensor lights. They don't consciously think "this home is secure," but they feel it, and that feeling accumulates over a walkthrough.

The emphasis here is on wired. Battery-powered cameras are fine for renters and temporary setups, but wired cameras at the corners of the roofline, covering the driveway and back yard, look permanent. They say this was planned, not patched together. Hardwired Reolink or Arlo Pro cameras run $80 to $150 per unit. A two-camera install at the front and back is realistic for most Pueblo or Colorado Springs homes.

Because they're wired and mounted, outdoor cameras are generally treated as fixtures and convey with the home. Make sure the system isn't tied to a cloud account that will stop working after you move. Either factory-reset the system before closing, or set it up with a generic email account you can hand off. Buyers appreciate not having to rewire the house before their first night in it.

Whole-home Wi-Fi mesh that the buyer can actually use

This one surprises sellers. Wi-Fi doesn't feel like a selling feature because it's invisible, but dead spots kill open house impressions faster than almost anything else. Buyers pull out their phones, check their signal in the back bedroom, and register something is off even if they don't say it. In a market where remote work is common and every buyer has a smartphone in hand during walkthroughs, connectivity is a physical experience of the home.

A basic two-node mesh system, an Eero, Google Nest Wifi Pro, or TP-Link Deco, covers most homes under 3,000 square feet and costs $150 to $350. Installation is genuinely simple: plug one node into the modem, place the second in the dead zone, run the app. An hour tops.

The practical question is whether to include it in the sale. Mesh nodes are personal property by default, but many sellers offer them as an inclusion because it's a goodwill gesture that costs almost nothing compared to the total transaction. If the buyer is already relying on the Wi-Fi during the walkthrough and you offer to leave the system, that's a positive memory attached to the house. It's a small thing that lands well.

On the other hand, if you're moving locally and want to take the system to your next place, that's completely reasonable. Just be upfront about it in the listing disclosures so it's not a surprise at the final walkthrough. Buyers who plan for it don't resent it.

Pro install or DIY, and what realtors usually want included

Honestly, most of these upgrades are DIY-friendly for anyone comfortable with a screwdriver and a smartphone. The thermostat swap is the one exception if your wiring is old or your system runs on something unusual like a multi-stage heat pump, in which case a quick professional check is worth the $75 to $100 service call.

What realtors typically want included in the sale: anything hardwired (cameras, doorbells, thermostats) defaults to staying unless explicitly excluded. Battery-powered and plug-in devices default to leaving with you unless explicitly included. The cleanest approach is to decide before listing, write it into the contract, and put a note in the showing instructions so buyer's agents aren't fielding questions mid-tour.

If you want someone to handle the install before you list and make sure everything is working cleanly, that's exactly what the GTZ Smart Home care plans cover. We work with homeowners in Pueblo and Colorado Springs on exactly this kind of pre-sale setup: clean installs, proper factory resets on transfer, and making sure the buyer walkthrough goes smoothly on the tech side.