Every year, over 2 million homes are victimized by a burglar, hence the growing popularity of burglar alarms throughout the US today. You can purchase very basic alarms or those that are extremely sophisticated. It all depends on one’s budget. However, before you purchase any of these burglar alarms, here are 6 things that you want to consider before making your purchase.
Survey the home and its property – how many doors and windows do you want to integrate into your burglar alarms? Remember that 2/3 of all break-ins involve a front door or window entry.
Make a list of 3-6 burglar alarm companies in your area – always support the local economy whenever possible. You can check with numerous agencies or your own family members as well as neighbors regarding who they might recommend. It’s also a great way to figure out who you want to do business with and who you want to avoid.
Don’t forget about 24-hour monitoring services – granted, burglar alarms are the best first step to take for protecting your family, home, and personal property from the deeds of a burglar, but not having a monitoring service for your burglar alarms system doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Look at the lifestyle of everyone in the home – not everyone works an 8:00 am to 5:00 pm day. Additionally, if there are children in the home who are going to school, there will be times that they leave and re-enter compared to working parents in the home. Additionally, there are 3 different work shifts to be aware of – daytime, swing shift, and graveyard. This affects exit and re-entry times as well.
The key component is the central control panel – you want to make sure that you purchase burglar alarms with the basic control panel or some type of keypad control to operate the system. This is the component that monitors each one of the “zones” in your home (typically includes your doors and windows). The basic systems will monitor up to 8 zones in the home. However, systems can be upgraded and can monitor up to 32 zones if necessary.
Always do research before making your purchase – you want to be sure and compare anywhere from 4 to 6 burglar alarms companies as thoroughly as you can before making your final purchasing decision. Don’t be afraid to ask management personnel of the company for credentials or contact the Better Business Bureau (BBB) regarding any complaints that may have been registered about these companies.
