If I were in your shoes.. buy the starter kit you mentioned with an additional wireless switch and play around with it. i would guess that once installed you will take the socket rocket and place it in other rooms to see if it works then the madness begins soon you will want to take "control of other things".
The signal problems that were mentioned usually do not happen as far as my experiences go (in a 1998 home as well as a 1950 home with electronic gadgets everywhere). The people who mention it are experts and answer questions about it all day. The only problem is that for the most part the stuff works and most people only post when things go wrong, so take that into consideration from another newbie
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