Any Home Security System Users Out There?

marnold

marnold

Cathlete
I am looking for a system which can be installed in Pine, Colorado, at my parent's house. Long story short, a relative who happens to be a criminal is lurking and I want my parents to be protected. The house is in the woods and my first thought was to install it on the house only because critters like elk, deer, bear and racoons frequent the property (too many false alarms). Does anyone have any experience with these systems? I am out of my element here and want to see my parents protected but not ripped off. Any advice is welcomed.
 
I have had a security system in every house I have lived in and(thankfully!) have never had it go off. I do feel better knowing we have it, though. Being that the house is already built you would have to have a system which is NOT hard-wired--unless you want them ripping down walls, etc. Basically, you get contacts for doors and windows and you can have motion detectors installed. Most companies work on the you pay for what you want plan--although some do have packages. In my current house and my previous one we had window contacts on all the first floor windows and doors. We also had motion detectors in the basement in case someone crawled under our deck and broke in through one of the basement hopper windows(we didn't get contacts on those). The install and contacts themselves can be a couple thousand dollars--depending on what you get, of course. But the monitoring(which you have to pay for seperately and on a monthly basis) is relatively inexpensive(our's is $30 a month). Most states give you a discount on your homeowner's insurance if you have a security system. I'm on the east coast so I'm not sure what companies are out your way, but I have had very good experiences with HomeSafe and ADT. I would definitely STAY AWAY from Guardian if that is an option for you. HTH

Jennifer:)
 
We've had Monotronics and currently have ADT and have been happy with both companies. Service is relatively inexpensive for the peace of mind and as previously stated most insurance companies will discount your home owners policy for having a security system
 
I have adt. Hard wired system in my home. It can be set on the doors and windows when you are home and on everything , motion detectors when away.
I have it at the salon here too. I just juiced them down on the monitoring cost.
It is something that i am glad i have , but don't know if i would blow the money on it again at home. It takes the police over an hour to get to my house.Thay could steal the house and kill you in that amount of time.
I will always have it at work.
Feel safer.
Anne
http://www.picturetrail.com/acatalina
 
Thanks all! Hopefully I can talk my parents into installing a system. It would give ME peace of mind. :) Have a great weekend!
 
We have a security system and frankly, I don't feel any more at ease now than I ever did. If you live in a good neighborhood you probably don't need one. Yes, it will reduce the cost of your home owners insurance but not by very much. I just looked into this because we wanted to change over to digital phone service which is not compatible with our older, analog security system. We called our insurance company to see what it would add to out premium if we stopped monitoring the alarm and it was a piddly amount. You pay far more to monitor your alarm than any savings you might get on your insurance. Let me put it to you like this; my insurance agent does not have an alarm system for his home--lol!

I realize security systems are standard fare in new homes, but if your older home doesn't have one I wouldn't lose any sleep over it unless you live in a horrible neighborhood. You can always call the police and ask about the crime rate for your particular neighborhood.
 
We have something different. We have a system of cameras and a monitor that shows all views at once, sort of like the ones you see in commercial establishments.

The ones they make now are wonderful and have some very nice features. We bought it at Costco (discount warehouse store).

It's called a Sentinel CCTV. Ours is similar to the top item on the following linked page: http://sentinelcctvstore.lorextechnology.com/default.aspx

The great thing about it (if you have a need for this sort of thing) is that it will record nonstop for 2 weeks, then continue recording over old footage. In other words, it has its own very large hard drive which holds 2 weeks (or more, depending on how you set it) worth of material, with audio.

To see footage from a specific time and date, you just press a "search" button and fill in the time and date, and it starts to play. You can record any footage you want onto other media (removable) for backup.

It has a motion sensor and an alarm (very quiet, this is not a burglar alarm) to alert you depending on how you set it to go off.

HTH
Connie
 
I don't have a security system. To me a monitored security system is a waste of money. By the time they have someone out, I could have been killed or raped.

I don't like some of the scare tactics some of those companies use. I had a few of them call me and when I said thanks but no thanks, I was told if I knew how many women get raped or killed, blablabla and that I was "irresponsible" and he would probably read about me in the paper.

Some of my clients had good experience with ADT. But I have no first-hand experience with them. To me a security system is too much hassle, I am technology challenged anyway :)

We have our live-in security system though, we have 4 dogs, they are pretty well-behaved but if someone that doesn't belong there approaches our front door or backgate, they will bark. One of my friends is a police officer and he says that dogs are a more effective security system, I guess no burglars in their right mind would approach a house with barking dogs, but they would have no problem disarming a security system.

Good luck!

Carola
 
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