Ok so I am new to this DIY alarm stuff and I am asking myself the question of why go DIY versus using a an alarm company.
DIY seems to have a high up front cost and comparable monthly costs to what I have been quoted by an alarm company who came around the neighborhood. I was offered a 2GIG panel with 12 window sensors, 4 door sensors, a glassbreak, and 3 smoke detectors for an upfront cost of $180 and a monthly fee of around $50 per month. (I would design my DIY system a bit differently but for the purposes of comparison it is pretty close to what I would want.)
I know the alarm company is going to recoup their hardware money somehow, my concerns are two-fold…what’s the catch and if I go with the alarm company I am beholden to them for upgrades and expansion of my system.
Can someone give me some insight into this whole alarm company vs. DIY conundrum?
I know the alarm company is going to recoup their hardware money somehow
In general with installed systems you are looking at a contract (standard is usually 3 years) which bundles the monthly service contract with financing for the equipment/labor. With suretyDIY you are yanking the labor cost, financing, and service contract out of the equation.
If you purchase equipment from us, it is yours, not under financing lease. Our service agreement is month to month from the first day. Flexibility is a big benefit of DIY. It just depends on whether you feel it is right for you.
Keep in mind you don’t need to buy the equipment from us to use our service. Alarm.com compatible equipment can be purchased from any retailer and used with suretyDIY. The things to watch out for are communication modules and cameras, as they can be locked to a provider or account and may not be properly removed prior to sale if found used.
comparable monthly costs
To monitor what you are describing through suretyDIY, if you are not interested in additional automation options, would just be Basic Interactive, currently 22.95/month including 24/7 monitoring. (less than half the monthly monitoring cost you mention)
what’s the catch and if I go with the alarm company I am beholden to them for upgrades and expansion of my system.
We could not answer regarding the policies of a local provider. You would need to contact them to find out if they give out installer codes or if the end user adding devices is possible.
By far the feature which I like the most is the ability to build the system myself. I have both DiY and Vivint (2 locations). DiY takes the training wheels off the system. They are nearly identical, but i pay more than 2.5x the money for Vivint and have less than 1/2 the functionality.
If you are really shopping around, consider a wifi based system if you have good internet. Those systems seem to be pretty economical, although i have no personal experience.
The reasons to go DIY, as I see it, are: 1. No contract, 2. Lower monthly cost, 3. The equipment is immediately owned by you, 4. With a little bit of time invested in this forum you can build a system that is, in my opinion, far superior to anything that a traditional alarm company will offer you.
I can not fathom having my service through one of the well known “traditional” alarm companies. It seems to me that it is an antiquated way of doing business and will be gradually replaced by the DIY model.
Again, all my opinion but I think that’s what you’re asking for.
There’s only one reason I didn’t go DIY - The monitoring.
I live on an island in the pacific northwest. My cable/phone/security company are all the same. If an alarm gets tripped, the phone rings at the 24x7 tech support group just down the road from me and they call the Sheriff’s office who they know on a first name basis and he gets right out to my house. (run-on sentence, I know…) I just think he’s going to be much more responsive to the local company than he is if he gets a call from “Monitor America” somewhere in Kansas.
My “buy-in” cost was much higher than I could have bought the parts myself, but I do own them. And now, if I want to ad a sensor I can get it anywhere, install it myself and call them and they’ll enroll it.
