My husband and I were excited to find a house in our price range with upgraded features like a smart thermostat, smart lighting, and radiant heated floors.
The previous owner worked for a tech company and the person had all of the features installed at the same time.
The smart thermostat controls the radiant heated floors, the AC, and even the dehumidifier. We have a separate control box for the smart lighting. It’s an extremely sophisticated system, which makes it very expensive to fix. My husband and I did not realize that the repairs would be so expensive when we bought the house. We’ve had to repair other HVAC systems in the past, but a few months ago we had to pay a repair person to work on the radiant heated flooring. When the contractor gave us the repair estimate, my husband nearly fainted. The guy wanted $1500 to fix the radiant heated flooring issue. My husband thought it was excessive, so he dismissed the contractor and called around for a few additional estimates. Each new person gave us roughly the same amount. We knew at that point that we were going to have to pay the large fee to fix the heating issue. I had to take a loan from my 401K to pay for the heater repairs. We thought it was fate to find a house with these lighting and HVAC smart features in our price range. Unfortunately, we might not actually be able to afford to live here. If we have to spend a fortune on repairs all of the time, we will have to move.