Monitoring service or self monitor

I know that I am in the minority on this but even after several users here have strongly advised me to get a central monitoring service I still choose to monitor my system myself through email, text message and pots.
 
What prompted me to post this just now is that my wife went walking this morning on a nearby walking path. When she was there a man fell on his bicycle and apparently broke his arm and may have had other unknown injury. She dialed 911 and waited with him along with a couple of medical pros who were luckily there to help. Twenty five minutes later a policeman arrived but still no medical help so they were still sitting and waiting when she decided to go on her way. This was a medical emergency and you can die waiting for help in the existing system. How fast should I expect a response to my home alarm?
 
My reasoning in my decision to  self monitor is that by the time a monitoring system gets alerted, calls me to confirm the alarm, calls the police, and the police dispatch and get to my house. all that they will be able to do is to confirm that there has been a break-in. "Yep looks like the door was bashed in". My thinking is to have the alarm make a racket, turn on lights and scare the thief and cause them to want to get out of there quickly so that they just grab a few things and run. If I can accomplish that much I feel that the system has done all that it can do. If it fails in doing that then the thieves will get what they want and be long gone before the police arrive whether I have a monitoring service or not.
 
So I would like to hear from the non-professionals here on their opinion and whether they use a service or not. I'd also like to hear from the pro installers with a good argument to convince me that I'm wrong.
 
Mike.
 
 
 

I think the response time to a home alarm is going to depend a great deal on where patrol cars happen to be on the road, and whether they are tied up with other higher priority emergencies, such as a traffic accident.  I've seen it take anywhere from a couple of minutes to 20+ minutes for police to arrive.
 
For medical emergencies, the response has always been good in our neighborhood.  Here, they dispatch both the local volunteer ambulance corps (who are EMTs) as well as the for-profit paramedics.  So you almost always get two sets of responders.
 
Even though the response time for a burglary alarm can sometimes be longer than I'd like, I still see value in having someone show up.  A few years back, a neighbor's house was burglarized.  They didn't have an alarm, and the thieves spent over an hour cleaning out the house and loading up a truck.  Even with a 20 minute response time, they might have been caught.  Eventually, they were caught robbing another house.
 
My thinking is that 25% of the value of an alarm system is in advertising that you have one and convincing potential thieves to go somewhere else.
 
Another 50% of the value is in having the the alarm make a racket and scaring anyone who does break in to get out quickly before they can take too much.  It doesn't always work out that way, but you hope it does.
 
And the remaining 25% of the value is in having someone respond to the alarm.   Not exact numbers... just my opinion.

Since I'm local to you Mike, I'm guessing it was somewhere along the Cheshire greenway? I think that you also said that's your locale? I won't get into details, but I can tell you very specifically there was a very large event that occurred in proximity to where you may be referring, with many responding parties. Hasn't made the news as far as I know.
 
I can't comment for the response time, but from working in 911 centers (on the hardware and monitoring) and the like, usually response is dependent on how busy the area is at any given time and available manpower with a "triage" system in play. The same goes for with what information is given the operator, including location. If you're talking about the path I think of, depending on the location on the trail, think of where the closest officer may be at any given time and the number of them in the locality....sometimes maybe only half a dozen, spread out and doing whatever they're assigned to at any given time. Going from XY location to Z, with traffic, even with lights on, may be a delay. Now, in Cheshire's case, they do not have their own EMS from what I can see/know, and the FD is volunteer, so again, more delays involved.
 
The whole monitor vs. self monitor can be a lively discussion to say the least. I'm not saying there's a right and wrong answer for everyone out there.
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Personally, I'm sure some people are content with self-monitoring, but in specific cases, what is the response/intent if the alarm goes off? Do you respond to the property? What do you do if somebody is on the property? Did you just put yourself in harm's way? What occurs in the case of a fire alarm or critical condition (CO, flood, etc)? Discounting the panel's attempts and programming options, how many times or people can it call? Does the system call until it's acknowledged or a handful of people until it finally gives up? What occurs or what could happen if unable to reach whoever you wanted it to (cell dead, email down-like the Frontier DNS debacle, POTS down, etc.) What occurs on a system trouble event (battery, fire trouble, etc.)

Mike, I've had accounts (installed and monitored by other "pros") where the CS template was ambiguous and they never dispatched on a fire trouble to a house...burnt to the ground (Weatherstone in Sharon, FYI. I wired it when being rebuilt). I've also witnessed the self monitored systems, where someone kept triggering the system to the point where the HO thought the system had faults and stopped responding then were broken into with a lot of items stolen (tractors, lawn mowers, dirt bikes, snowmobiles, etc.). Those are what I'd call a point/counterpoint for each position.
 
I think the end suggestion on my end would be to recommend pro monitoring (assuming the host system is stable and well installed) and use the discounts provided by most, if not all, HO insurance policies to pay for the monitoring for a net-zero or close to net-zero cost to the end user (assuming DIY friendly pro monitoring via resellers).

I don't have CS monitoring, but I have set it up for others. It's a risk management thing for me. There are 4 police officers who live on my street, another on an adjacent street at the end of mine, and another on the block behind me. I "feel" that the probability of our home getting broken into is low; we have low crime here (city) compared to many other places anyway, then add the above... and I'm just not that worried about it. Maybe I should be, but I'm not.
 
Again, it comes down to risk management to me... almost like a life insurance policy that you hope you never have to use. I feel that the risk is low enough that I don't see the "reward" of the monthly cost. I've had decent discussions with my wife about it and she feels the same. If she felt differently (e.g. uncomfortable/unsafe without it), we'd probably have it. It's because of the "safety" factor that I've setup CS for others. In both cases, the wife felt unsafe when the husband would go out of town for work and having the monitoring gave them that sense of safety - if someone were to break in at night while they were alone, the cops would be dispatched immediately vs. them having to try and call under such stressful situation.
 
But don't forget... When seconds matter, the cops are only minutes away!

Personally here utilize central services and self monitoring in Illinois and Florida.   I do play / tinker with the speed of how fast calls go out and I get notified.  
 
You can also talk to your local town police department and ask how many calls they get.   Do a face to face.  There are typically logistics / recording keeping which is typically utilized for funding and related stuff.
 
I do get a reduction in the homeowners insurance with CS monitoring.  % cost savings is negligent these days.  
 
Mostly noticed I get much less today and pay more with the same homeowners insurance company that I have now utilized for some 40 years. 
 
Commercially here locally have tested response times relating to alarm services companies / local resources.  Bottlenecks / gotchas have been related to the sometimes lackluster vendor services rendered.
 
Try both methodologies and see which fits the best for you.

Call your insurance company and ask them how much of a discount you will get if you have a monitored alarm.  For me it was 10% or about $250.  The cost of Nextalarm is $145.  So I am $100 ahead with monitoring.  That pays for some of the alarm system.  Your mileage may vary as they say since here the Insurance is very expensive. 

Yeah here we utilize State Farm for all of our insurance (cars/house) and discount currently is just under $100 (which is not really 10%).  It used to be better a few years back.
 
Googling discounts specfically relating to State Farm it has shifted a bit with State Agents tweaking discounts up or down and geographical demographics and stuff like that.
 
Been using Nextalarm (yearly paid providing the monthly discount)  now for about 7-8 years now and have had no issues with them.

Digger said:

Call your insurance company and ask them how much of a discount you will get if you have a monitored alarm.  For me it was 10% or about $250.  The cost of Nextalarm is $145.  So I am $100 ahead with monitoring.  That pays for some of the alarm system.  Your mileage may vary as they say since here the Insurance is very expensive. 

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Thanks for that, I'll give my insurance company a call and if I learn that the monitoring service saves me money it is definitely a push in that direction but my next concern is false alarms. I've had more than my share of false alarms in the past year being a tinkerer and first-time installer. I mess with the system and I do cause an alarm now and then and I like the freedom to mess with it without worrying about that. It's like I'm uncomfortable with the added responsibility of having to answer to the monitor system for my actions when I work on my own system. I can see where an installer can install a system and connect it to a monitoring system knowing that the system will be static when they walk away. The home-owner is not going to play with the install. I think that I will be more likely to use a monitoring system if the day comes that I stop changing and adding things to the system.
 
I'll have to go look and see if it is easy to turn the monitoring off in the M1 when I'm messing around.
 
Mike.

With Next Alarm you can just put CS in test mode for a few hours or the day if you want to tinker.
 
 

Understand that the discounts will vary depending on what you have monitored... burgler alone is obviously less what you would get if you have smoke/fire too.

drvnbysound said:

Understand that the discounts will vary depending on what you have monitored... burgler alone is obviously less what you would get if you have smoke/fire too.

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Yes, the additional discount for having fire alarms monitored can be as significant as the discount for just burglary. 
 
I didn't mention this in my earlier post, but the faster response time from having a monitoring service for smoke/fire is something you just can match with self monitoring.  Getting the fire department to your house a couple minutes faster can make all the difference between minimal damage vs losing the house.  If you are away from home and your cell phone happens to be out of range, even for a few minutes, when a fire starts, self monitoring isn't going to be worth very much.

That's another factor in my decision - I don't have any smoke detectors tied into my Elk. It's burgulary only... well and automation of coarse

RAL said:

I think the response time to a home alarm is going to depend a great deal on where patrol cars happen to be on the road, and whether they are tied up with other higher priority emergencies, such as a traffic accident.  I've seen it take anywhere from a couple of minutes to 20+ minutes for police to arrive.
 
For medical emergencies, the response has always been good in our neighborhood.  Here, they dispatch both the local volunteer ambulance corps (who are EMTs) as well as the for-profit paramedics.  So you almost always get two sets of responders.
 
Even though the response time for a burglary alarm can sometimes be longer than I'd like, I still see value in having someone show up.  A few years back, a neighbor's house was burglarized.  They didn't have an alarm, and the thieves spent over an hour cleaning out the house and loading up a truck.  Even with a 20 minute response time, they might have been caught.  Eventually, they were caught robbing another house.
 
My thinking is that 25% of the value of an alarm system is in advertising that you have one and convincing potential thieves to go somewhere else.
 
Another 50% of the value is in having the the alarm make a racket and scaring anyone who does break in to get out quickly before they can take too much.  It doesn't always work out that way, but you hope it does.
 
And the remaining 25% of the value is in having someone respond to the alarm.   Not exact numbers... just my opinion.

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I hadn't looked at that way and agree that the monitoring service adds some degree of security to the overall system. I have yet to put stickers in my windows and plan to add a screecher to each building to make it even more uncomfortable to be there when the alarm is active.
 
Mike.

pete_c said:

With Next Alarm you can just put CS in test mode for a few hours or the day if you want to tinker.
 
 

nextalarm.jpg

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Very nice, that's a big plus for me.

RAL said:

Yes, the additional discount for having fire alarms monitored can be as significant as the discount for just burglary. 
 
I didn't mention this in my earlier post, but the faster response time from having a monitoring service for smoke/fire is something you just can match with self monitoring.  Getting the fire department to your house a couple minutes faster can make all the difference between minimal damage vs losing the house.  If you are away from home and your cell phone happens to be out of range, even for a few minutes, when a fire starts, self monitoring isn't going to be worth very much.

Click to expand...

 
Yes smoke/fire is a horse of a different color. I only have one smoke detector in the house right now and when I am done installing more of them I do plan to get a service to monitor for fire.
 
EDIT
 
I should have said that I have only one smoke detector that is attached to the Elk control. There are several of the battery operated stand alone type of detectors in the home.