Home Security

Love4Labs326

Does anyone know about different home security companies out there?  How much they run?  Do you pay yearly or monthly?  I know you have to pay for all the equipment and the home installation, then probably an initial activation or something.  Then I'm assuming there is either a monthly or annual charge for the actual monitoring.

 We had an incident occur in our home and I'm looking into getting a security system put into the home now.  Anyone with any advice?  We live in Michigan and have an 1,100 sq ft ranch in a busy neighborhood that isn't perfect but not horrible either.  We have good neighbors directly next to us but don't know many more than that. 

brij2006

We have ADT. It is okay, but we live in an old victorian so we have some issues with the sensors. It is turned off more often than it is on.

Ours costs about $400/year, but it's more if you have it go to a cell phone number (something around $600/year). So we pay a monthly fee for our home phone, just to have the ADT at a cheaper rate.  It was already installed in our home when we bought it, but I believe the previous owners paid $500 to have it installed (3,000 sq ft home).  I would also ask what their fee is to have someone come out for technical issues. Our sensors never line up correctly, and it has cost us $100 each time to have them come out and try to correct them.

Also check with your homeowners insurance to see if you get a discount for having it.  Ours saves us $75/year on premiums from having it.  

atlcatlover

Check out SimpliSafe.  All of our equipment was around $300.  We installed it oourselves, we have no contract and we pay $15/mo.

wesleycrusher

We just go a system with Vivint.  Installation was free we just had to pay a 100 dollar activation fee and a 50 dollar permit fee (required for the city we live in).  It's cellular and is $600/year, but we get a discount on our homeowner's insurance, so that makes it a little less. 

Love4Labs326

Thank you for the responses.  I will have to look into it some more now that I know that.  I was expecting it to be much more than that.  I actually didn't even think about the possibility of having to pull a city permit where we live or our insurance rates being better too.  Thanks for the help!

kcircell

We're a little anti Home Security systems, but everyone has their own opinion.  Here is my best FREE tip, get a google document going with all your electronics serial numbers and estimated cost.  It is time consuming to start, but once it is going it is easy peasy to keep up to date.  Also take pictures of all you expensive jewelry and keep them in the cloud as well. 

Big disclaimer, IMO, but most home burglaries are smash and grabs. Before Law enforcement is even dispatched the security system has to call your home and then they call the police and then law enforcement has a chance to show up, most criminals are out way before that. 

 

edentriggs

I have recently installed security systems from ness corporation at my place as they make our home a safer place to live in. You can have a look at their web site to know more about their various security systems.