Technology Tips for a Vacation House That Keep You Connected

Here are a bunch of well thought-out technology tips for a vacation house.

For a while now, I’ve been accumulating technology tips for a vacation house because one of my worst nightmares would be to have no connectivity for my Sacramento real estate business. I pride myself on staying in touch and being available, within reason, of course, for my clients. In fact, just yesterday an agent from Benecia called to say she was looking for an Elk Grove listing agent and had a referral. One of my networking friends in her office recommended me. She said she called 3 agents and I was the only agent who answered her phone. So I got the referral. It made me wonder why I was the third call. I should have been first.

Needless to say, I am in Hawaii at the moment at our vacation house. I am smart enough to know that calls that land in voicemail are lost opportunities. Nobody wants to leave a voice mail anymore. I sure as hell don’t. I’ll call somebody else before I leave a voice mail. My how times change and we so easily adapt. Potential clients are no different. Clients who call agents out of the blue often don’t know how special some of us Sacramento Realtors are, and they never will if one doesn’t answer her cell.

One of my technology tips for a vacation house is to set up internet right away. Sure, you can use a hotspot if you need to, but if your cellphone plan conks out at a certain data level, you’re hosed. Although I do use data stash just for that emergency. As an additional backup plan, one thing I do is always bring my iPad.

Another of my technology tips for a vacation house is to make sure the service provider for your iPad or tablet is a different carrier than the carrier for your cellphone. This way, if you use up your allotment on your cell as a hotspot, you can switch to your iPad / tablet. Plus, if a cell tower goes down for one device, odds are the cell tower for the other will still be available; well, unless Trump screws up the nuclear codes. That’s a distinct possibility.

But setting up internet service might be cheaper. Some companies have plans that will let you switch to vacation mode when you leave. The fee for internet at my house in Hawaii drops by 2/3rds on the vacation plan. You can also buy internet cards that don’t require a subscription at places like Walmart, which I actually shopped at for the first time in my life a few days ago. I mentioned this to Elaine, my manicurist in Kailua-Kona, her eyes widened, she gasped: Oh, then, where do you shop? 

Other good technology tips for a vacation house is to bring plenty of connectors. I left my iPad charger cord at home because it’s the same I use for my cellphone. I thought why bring two of the same thing? Well, for Plan B, that’s why. What happens if a charger cord gets a kink or goes on the blink. You’ll have a backup.

For connecting to the internet, don’t simply rely on your ethernet connection to do the trick. If your WiFi goes on the blink, if you have an adapter for your laptop that plus into ethernet, you can connect your laptop directly to the internet. Ditto for WiFi printing. If something happens so you can’t access WiFi, make sure you have a printer connection that you can plug into your laptop. Bring those adapters and cables with you, and you won’t have to read about technology tips for a vacation house because you’ll always be protected by a Plan B.

I love solar chargers for your phone, too, just in case electricity goes out. Stuff doesn’t work right all of the time. That’s the name of technology. So, you should develop alternatives. Or live with the sad consequences of failure to plan.