Lennar New Home Consultant Brittney Svach is selling "smart homes" at the Amazon Experience Center in Black Diamond, Washington, about an hour south of Seattle. Lennar New Home Consultant Brittney Svach is selling "smart homes" at the Amazon Experience Center in Black Diamond, Washington, about an hour south of Seattle. When the Ferguson family decided they wanted to live in the Seattle suburb of Black Diamond they weren't in the market for a smart home. But they wound up with one, a house packed with Internet-connected devices. "I just feel really fancy," she says about having Amazon's Alexa there to turn on the lights for her, or to remind her when to go to cheerleading practice.

Amazon.com has set up model'smart' homes across the United States for shoppers to experience what it's like for voice aide Alexa to dim the lights, turn on the TV or order more laundry detergent. The rollout underscores how Amazon aims to make Alexa and the company's growing list of services, from shopping and entertainment to home security, an everyday part of consumers' lives. It also steps up competition with retailers such as Best Buy Co Inc that focus on showcasing technology and advising shoppers. Inside the Amazon house: An Amazon Echo Spot is seen on a bedside table in a bedroom in an Amazon'Experience center' in Vallejo, California. The so-called'Amazon Experience Centers' are now open near 15 cities including Los Angeles, Dallas and Washington, with more to come Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, said it has partnered with Lennar Corp to convert some of the home construction company's model homes into showrooms for Alexa.

The homes all come with WiFi, smart thermometers, lighting, doorbells and locks pre-installed, and Amazon's voice-activated Alexa personal assistant devices to run them. The experience centers offer customers the chance to interact with the technology in a real-life setting. Lennar announced Wednesday that standard features in its new homes will include built-in Wi-Fi, smart locks, doorbells, thermostats and lights -- all controlled by Alexa, Amazon's voice-activated digital assistant. Each house will come with two Alexa-enabled smart speakers, an Echo Show and an Echo Dot. New homeowners will also get a free visit from an Amazon technician to help set everything up and teach them how to use it.