You ever thought about getting a home security system installed? Unfortunately things happen no matter what neighborhood you live in. I have known a couple of friends that had their homes broken into and they have been very shook up from it even though they had no encounter with the robber. Although I had never been robbed inside my house, I had my car broken into when I was a freshman in college. I commuted to my university four times a week for classes and the incident took place during one of my many twelve hour “Tuesdays from hell” with two back to back 3 hour labs. I left school at 9 o’clock in the evening and it was pitch black outside, got in the car and started it up. I had really “pimped” out my ride, with two 12” JBLs and a 1000 watt amp along with a 6-disc changer and about 100 CDs in a CD case laying in my front passenger seat. I didn’t realized that my car had been broken into until about 2 miles down the street when I decided to blast my radio only to notice a lack of bass.
I felt horrible that day, the insurance covered everything except for my CDs, and since we lived in an apartment and did not have renters insurance I could not be refunded the amount for my CDs since they are not secure to the vehicle. It wasn’t the CDs, or the stuff they took, it was the feeling of being taken and being cheated. To this day it makes my stomach turn to think back to it. I can’t imagine how people feel if their home is broken into or if they ever actually have an encounter with a robber. Now I have thought about owning a gun, but due to how clumsy I am I really do not want to temp fate and get one. My wife and I have talked about getting a home security system installed even though we live in a good family friendly neighborhood, and after seeing many ads on TV I thought we can at least listen to how much they cost.
We have two cats, and when we are asleep at night the cats like to run around and play or fight, and it was a night when the cats were fighting that we both woke up scared of what that noise was. After that night we decided to give ADT a shot, they are one of the largest if not the largest home security company and I want to mention that this is not a sponsored post in any way. We called the ADT rep and set up an appointment for him to come to our home. The rep was very nice and on-time and helped answer all of our questions regarding the system. ADT has many options, from motion sensors in the house (which you should not consider if you have pets) to the ability to turn on/off the unit from your smart phone. They have systems where you can have cameras installed and you are able to view the video feed inside your house at all times.
So the pricing went a little bit like this: $200 per door, $50 per window, and the lowest package started about $35 a month. They install a unit at each door and window that will send signal to the alarm (and to ADT) as soon as the door/window is opened while the alarm is on. Once the alarm is triggered, you have 1 minute to put the code in or ADT will be contacting the police on your behalf and calling you to confirm the situation. At the time they had a deal where they would cover up to $800 of cost, but we had three main doors into the house and probably about 20 windows in our first floor alone. So after the discount we would have had to pay about $1000 out of pocket with a monthly fee of $35 a month and our plan did not include anything fancy just the barebones system with ADT 24 hour monitoring. My wife and I decided not to install the security system at that point due to cost, but we also agreed that once we had kids to look into it again, and possibly go through with it at that time. A monthly fee of $35 is tough to take on when you are trying to be financially frugal so I decided in the meantime to install a couple of additional entry barriers to our main entry doors.
My father-in-law recently passed away leaving my mother-in-law alone in her house. After researching it and getting support from my wife and me, she decided she would feel much safer if she got the security system installed. Many security companies offer discounts for AARP or AAA members as well and she was able to receive 10% off installation and her monthly bill. The cost is high; the monthly fees will never end as long as you have the system but is peace of mind worth the price to you?
We have a non-working system in our house that was here when we bought it. It basically tells us when doors are open but if we want to get it to work, I’m guessing we’d have to get the parts and pieces replaced. It is something I’ve thought about.
Probably have to pay a monthly service as well if you wanted it to be monitored by an outside company. At least you have the equipment incase you ever make the choice to do something with it.
Being that I don’t have a landline, I’m not able to get a monitoring service. I even called a couple services and they said that that’s the most secure way, and that even using voip isn’t that great of an alternative. To be honest, I would rather set up a monitoring system with wifi cameras, as that would catch any activity rather which I think would be more helpful after-the-fact than an alarm would. After all, even with a monitoring service, there is still the time it takes to alert the police and the travel time which give potential robbers plenty of time to get in and out. At least with the cameras, there is a shot at catching any distinguishing marks or even a glimpse of their face to work from.
Definitely a good idea to get camera, to me it would be more about the “loud alarm” if a thief was to enter the house, it would be enough to get them to leave without a confrontation.
I had my car broken into at one point too, and it really is an issue of feeling pretty darn angry. I got lucky, that all they wanted out of my car was the stereo equipment, as I had my hunting rifle in the car as well. They weren’t adventurous enough to steal that and try and sell it off, thankfully.
As for home security, I’ve given it some thought, but we don’t have a landline either, and no plans to get one. The added cost of a landline, and the monitoring service would be pretty expensive. Living where we live, the chances of someone breaking in while we’re here is pretty minimal, but it does happen. It’s a risk we take, I guess.
Good to know about the AAA and AARP discounts. We live in L.A. I’ve been phone jacked and GPS stolen out of our car. It’s our ‘city tax’ for good weather and sushi.
I heard that you do not need a landline to get a home security system installed. I know some of them are using Wifi now and I heard that was a good alternative.
Our security system is worth every penny of the piece of mind it brings me….