Because most burglars enter homes by simply opening unlocked doors or windows—or pushing and kicking locked ones until they open—even the most basic protective measures will improve your security. A few improvements will shore up your home and are more effective—and much cheaper—than alarm systems: Secure all doors with good deadbolt locks; lock all windows that are accessible from the outside; and improve your own safety habits.
You can also DIY your own system by using home security components controlled by a smartphone app or similar interface. Dozens of companies now sell security system components that can easily connect to smart home hubs.
All this competition and choice means lower prices. Instead of paying a home security service $750 to $3,000 for a professionally installed system plus $1,500 or more each year for monitoring, for $400 or less you can assemble a basic DIY system and then pay as little as $200 per year to have it monitored—or nothing at all if you monitor it yourself.
While there’s some evidence that home security devices might deter burglars, they may not be worth the cost if:
- You live in a low-crime neighborhood.
- Your house is well-secured with locks and other measures.
- Someone is almost always at home.
- Your neighbors keep an eye on your house and will call the police if they notice anything suspicious.
- You possess little of substantial value that could be stolen, and you have good insurance.
- Children, houseguests, or others are likely to frequently trigger false alarms.
- The hassle of setting the alarm and avoiding false alarms would deter you from using it regularly.
Still want a professionally installed system? You’ll want a company that ensures your system is effective, convenient, and unobtrusive; minimizes false alarms; and controls costs. Have several companies come to your home to propose systems and quote prices. Some will be much better than others at designing a smart solution at a reasonable price. Even for the same basic setup, you will find substantial price differences.
Read the contract before you sign. Some companies make it very difficult for customers to switch monitoring services by refusing to provide programming codes or to reset systems to their default modes. Choose a company willing to contractually agree to provide you with programming codes.
