What should this actually cost?
The hardest part of starting a project is not knowing whether you're looking at $30,000 or $300,000. Answer three questions and you'll get a realistic range in under a minute — no email required to see it.
1 What's your home worth, roughly?
Used only to scale the estimate — a larger home means more rooms, longer cable runs, and more devices.
2 What are you thinking about?
Select everything you're considering, even if it's phased over a few years.
3 What level are you aiming for?
How to think about a technology budget
The Home Technology Association — an independent body that certifies integrators and publishes budget guidance for homeowners — recommends budgeting 4% to 8% of a home's value for professional home technology. They also say something most integrators leave out: in high-cost markets like Southern California, where the land is carrying much of the home's value, you should use the lower end of that range.
That's a genuinely useful anchor. On a $3M Newport Beach home, 4% is about $120,000 for everything — automation, lighting, theater, audio, cameras, and network combined. It's not a target you have to hit, and plenty of excellent projects come in well under it. But it reframes the conversation away from "what does a TV mount cost" toward what a properly engineered house actually involves.
The other thing worth knowing: infrastructure is cheap during construction and expensive afterwards. An hour of planning at rough-in saves a week of fishing wire through finished walls later. If you're remodeling and unsure whether to commit to the full system, put the wire in anyway — it's the least expensive decision in this entire document.
Let's design something worth living with.
Free consultation, no obligation, and a written proposal you can actually compare. We'll walk your space and tell you honestly what's worth doing.