Ninety percent of American adults own a cell phone, and for 29 percent of them, their phone is “something they can’t imagine living without.” As more consumers get rid of landline phone service, staying connected to the world via a smartphone is becoming a necessity.
A house or apartment without a powerful and consistent wireless connection can frustrate current owners day-to-day lives, but it could also be a real estate deal killer.
“A strong cell reception is a prerequisite,” says Michael Graves, an associate broker at Douglas Elliman in New York City. At a recent private apartment showing, he noticed a number of potential buyers paying attention to the number of bars on their cell phones, indicating that strong cell reception was important to them. “If you’re living in Manhattan, you shouldn’t be getting the cell reception that you would in the woods, especially when you’re buying a multimillion-dollar apartment.”
Bad cell phone reception isn’t limited to rural areas. In apartment buildings and high-rises throughout the country, the struggle for decent wireless service is a normal cause for concern, and renters and buyers are taking stock of a listing’s cell service before they make an offer.
Angela Huffman, a renter in Manhattan, said she “checked the cell phone reception at every place she toured during an apartment-hunting visit this summer.” After visiting a few listings, she ultimately chose an apartment where the wireless service was the strongest. “It definitely played a part in my decision,” says Huffman. “If one of them did not have cell phone service, that would have been a no for me.”
The building’s the problem
In metro areas, wireless problems stem from elements of the building: thick concrete walls, reinforced steel floors and specially coated low-emissions windowpanes can interfere with cell phone signals. In addition, a condo or apartment unit that’s higher than local cell phone towers may have wireless signal interference. A resident could find that they’re dropping more calls in their living room than they do when vacationing in the woods.
In order to amp up wireless service, developers and property managers can build in-house networks called distributed antenna systems. These use fiber connections to channel network provider signals into the buildings themselves through smoke-alarm-sized covers on each floor. The systems are common in other commercial buildings and becoming the norm in new residential projects. They not only boost wireless signals, they also make it easier for a lot of people to use the wireless network at the same time.
“The conversation used to be along the lines of, ‘Listen, you might be able to increase values by doing this,'” says Angela Ferrara, the executive vice president of sales and leasing at the Marketing Firm, a development, leasing and marketing company. “Now, it’s, ‘You need to do this in order to be competitive.'”
Source: “The Cellphone Imperative: If I Can’t Text, I’m Moving,” The New York Times (Oct. 9, 2015), “Mobile Technology Fact Sheet,” Pew Research (October 2014)
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