Home automation provider Clare Controls has introduced the ClareHome Builder Program, and has formed a partnership with Medallion Home, a Bradenton, FL-based builder of semi-custom homes.
The partnership was designed within the ClareHome Builder Program, which allows builders to offer home automation, with a well-developed business model. Clare Controls customizes the program to meet the unique requirements of each of its builder partners, providing base systems and options that homeowners use to configure their solutions prior to construction.
“We’re excited about the value add to our clients with Clare Controls,” said Gregg Glasser, home director of sales and marketing for Medallion. “Now the automation of locks, alarms, security cameras, lighting, thermostats, music, television, etc. in a home are all at our clients’ fingertips, from anywhere in the world.”
As part of the agreement, Medallion Home will include a ClareOS Controller—the “brain” of the system—as a standard in its The Inlets and Riva Trace Communities. Medallion will also help kick off its customers’ “ConnectedHome” electronic lifestyles by making a gift of a ClareHome automated thermostat in the package.
According to Clare, the ClareHome Builder program creates a win-win-win opportunity for dealers, builders and homeowners, enabled by Clare’s loud-based system management methodology:
• Clare’s dealers get a turnkey package, complete with dedicated hardware and software, cobranded sales/marketing collaterals and technical support. The program delivers access to a high volume of easy, repeatable and profitable business, in a protected territory.
• The program lets builders embrace the growing demand for home tech by installing the Clare system core in every new home. While defining themselves as leaders in “TechSmart” home construction, builders in the program offer a full-featured home automation solution while making a profit on every sale.
• Customers get high-end performance—both scalable and extensible—at an affordable price that is rolled into their mortgage. Like the builders themselves, homebuyers enjoy the confidence of dealing with a local company for installation and service, backed by national manufacturer’s support.
The program has already been introduced in several test markets across North America. Audio West, a Red Deer (Alberta, Canada) integrator, recently hosted a residential technology summit to introduce the program to a group of local homebuilders.
“Their reaction,” reported Audio West president John Phillips, “was incredibly enthusiastic.” Citing the system’s price, its simplicity and its Apple iPod/iPhone user interface, several of the builders are incorporating the ClareHome core in every new home they build. “We’re looking at about 400-plus installations in the next 12 months,” Phillips stated. “I think it will be in every single house in 10 years.”
