What Will An Alarm System Do For Me?

1. The Police, Contrary to thought are not your private security force: In most towns you are lucky to see a police car drive by once or twice a day. That kind of police presence will not discourage burglars in any way. The estimates are all over the charts but it is typically projected that homes not protected by alarm systems suffer 3 to 7 times the burglary rate of protected homes. With businesses that number skyrockets even further. Oh and by the way, far more burglaries occur in broad daylight than at night.
2. Protects the Pets that you think are protecting your house: The simple fact is that Ferocious Fido often becomes a little distracted when a big juicy tidbit is thrown in front of him. For his sake that is a good thing because someone aggressive enough to break into your house is more than likely aggressive enough to marginalize or eliminate pet / guard dog issues.
3. Allows you to keep track of keyholders: Sometimes you give an extra key and an alarm code to a friend or relative for access to the house in case of emergency. Now you will know if they are coming and going without your consent or knowledge.
4. Make sure the Pet Sitter is actually feeding and letting pets in and out: You are sitting in Disney world and can’t enjoy the vacation because you are worried whether or not the kid down the street is actually coming in twice a day like he is supposed to and feeding the critters. With our radio monitored system you can tell every time they come and go. If what they are doing should take 10 minutes but they are hanging around in the house for hours, you know you have to change sitters or at least question them as to why they are spending so much time in your house.
5. Monitor when the Kids Come & Go by way of your Smart Phone: We can program your system to text you every time the kids turn the system on (leaving) and off (returning).
6. Prevent you from losing hundreds of dollars’ worth of food: All systems automatically report to central and then central turns around and calls your call list if power is lost out at your house for more than an hour. Nothing like coming home to a fridge that hasn’t had power for a week.
7. Woried about Pipes Freezing when you are away: We can add a Low Temperature Warning Device to your system. If you are out of town in the winter we will call you and, or a list of persons on your behalf to deal with a faulty heater before all of your pipes freeze up.
8. Peace of Mind: You can leave your home without worrying about your things. You can return to your home without worrying about interrupting an intruder. You do not have to worry about a burglar disabling your pet to get him quiet or out of the way.
9. Annual Insurance Discount: While we cannot guarantee it the vast majority of insurance companies insuring homes and businesses give between a 10% and 20% annual discount on your premiums if you have a 24 hour monitored system. Some insurance companies will not insure your business if you do not have an alarm system.
10. Contrary to popular believe Neighbors make lousy security guards: Much like the police, your neighbors have their own issues to deal with throughout the day. Almost every reluctant buyer of an alarm system claims that their neighbors keep a pretty good watch on things during the day. Unless you neighbor is in a guard shack in the center of your house 24-7 he is not watching your house all day and night. We know that it sometimes seems like he is, but he is not. He has to run errands, do the wash, cook dinner, vacuum the house and so forth and so on.

I have a gun – No one is breaking in here – Why do I need an Alarm?

1. Often when you are not home your spouse along with your children and pets are home.
2. Are you familiar enough with the laws in your state to unequivocally say you know exactly under what circumstances you are allowed to shoot or even threaten an intruder? We mean without going to jail yourself or being successfully sued by the burglar’s heirs.
3. Most of us who own guns have them extremely well secured, especially so if children or others are commonly about. Getting to a gun – loading it and confronting an intruder after waking from a deep sleep is not as easy as one might think.
4. An alarm system is far better at protecting your guns than your guns are at protecting you. Guns are among the hottest theft items by the way.

What if I accidentally trip the alarm?

Unless you request otherwise, we typically set up response to your alarm to include first calling your house/business and requesting a “Password”. If you answer within the first few rings and give the correct pass word, you can abort having the police dispatched. If you did not cause the alarm simply do not answer the phone and we will dispatch the police.

Should I buy an alarm system for my elderly “Stay-in” parent?

Systems can be designed to be quite basic in terms of simply turning it on when they go to bed at night and turning it off when they rise in the morning. Today’s systems can even be programmed such that if they do not see Pop Pop walking around for more than 2 days in a row, a text will be sent out to you whereupon you can call them to make sure everything is alright. Additionally of course we can provide a wireless pendant that permits your loved one to summon help if he/she should become incapacitated.

Do I have to be home for you to install the system?

A responsible adult has to let us in and a responsible adult has to be there when we finish so that me may teach them how to use the system. We refer to this as an “In-service” on alarm use. We much prefer that we teach those who will have to use the system (the entire family or the entire staff) all at once. Having you teach others what you have learned often times ends up with confusion about how the system works.

How long does an installation take?

It depends on several things. A typical system install can take anywhere between 2-4 hours depending on the equipment the customer is looking to purchase or install.

I don’t want my alarm siren to make the neighborhood crazy

All modern systems can be programmed to shut down the siren after a pre-set time of sounding. Most people who have outside sirens program them for 10 minutes of run time. If you live in a really densely populated area you might consider taking that down to between 3 – 5 minutes. Additionally once the siren stops it can be programmed to run again if another sensor or even the same sensor is tripped again. Once one particular sensor has tripped multiple times that sensor is typically automatically shut down until the whole system is re-set. This prevents a runaway alarm condition that never stops.

Will my children be able to operate the system?

It generally takes about 15 – 20 minutes to teach an older adult how to use a full blown relatively sophisticated system. It takes about 10 – 15 minutes to teach younger adults how to use the same system. The children generally learn to use any electronics quicker and adapt to using the system faster than the adults.

Still have questions?

Reach out to the team at Vivint East Dallas to help answer any questions you have or to schedule your free consultation.