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, and no email is 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.