Houses of the Future: Tech-enabled homes are hot new selling point

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Your home could soon be coming to life. That's the hope of one startup, looking to bring houses into the 21st Century. CGTN's Mark Niu takes a look at the company based out of Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon and brings us this report.

For Giao Tran, having her hands free makes life more productive and relaxing.

"Echo, turn off kitchen lights and turn on living room lights. Echo, Play music."

The new apartment Giao's renting comes with motion sensors, a smart thermostat, smart lighting and a smart speaker.

GIAO TRAN RENTER "The more they get in the ground floor of all the new developments and it becomes a mainstay, then it would become expected."

Smart tech comes in every unit of this apartment building, one of hundreds of complexes outfitted by the Portland startup IOTAS.

CHAD SUMMERS VICE PRESIDENT OF SALES, IOTAS "So as you walk into the unit without having to touch a light switch, open up an app. Certain things happen. The Welcome Home Story is triggered so certain lights came on, speakers, the TV in this case. So the benefit there of course, just walking in, your home, your dwelling is excited to welcome you home."

Now in more than 40 markets across North America, IOTAS provides apartment buildings with a gateway that seeks to seamlessly integrate smart tech.

That means equipping units with an average of more than 14 different smart features from switches, to security, to lighting.

CHAD SUMMERS VICE PRESIDENT OF SALES, IOTAS "So when that resident moves in, they just download the app. And everything just works. When they leave that building and they are no longer a resident, everything goes back into default mode and there's no control of those former devices."

MARK NIU PORTLAND, OREGON "With the IOTAS app you can customize your own personal favorite settings in something called Stories. To activate mine, all I have to do is say 'Alexa, turn on movies.' Now I'm ready to watch my movie."

Step inside IOTAS headquarters and you'll see plenty of testing to find out what's really smart enough to make life easier for a potential resident.

JEREMY STEINHAUER CO-FOUNDER, IOTAS "We're failing if we're just a remote control for a home. We really believe to be a smart home you have to have a home that reacts around you, and not only reacts around you, but also learns about you."

IOTAS is working on taking that concept much further by using machine learning to create what it calls a living profile.

JEREMY STEINHAUER CO-FOUNDER, IOTAS "We believe that home is no longer four walls and a roof. That it's actually the settings and the preferences that you have that travel with you. So now when you go to your hotel room, it knows that you like your lighting at a certain light level and knows the temperature you like to sleep at."

Steinhauer says IOTAS encrypts user data throughout and has baked in privacy from the beginning.

GIAO TRAN RENTER "You are taking the company at their word. Where does one company start, one company end? Is it Amazon listening, is it IOTAS, you don't know. There's a big leap of faith for customers. That's not a big deal for me."

While IOTAS believes renters and landlords will find immediate value, it's their hope that smart home tech ultimately fades into the background and becomes just a part of daily life.

"Echo, next track."

Mark Niu, CGTN, Portland Oregon.