In this video, we’re going to go through, the seven mistakes that people often make when they’re buying an alarm system. So hopefully you won’t make those mistakes if you want to buy an alarm system.

Number one, when buying an alarm system is spending too little. Now obviously nobody wants to spend more than they absolutely have to, but there’s a very real danger and lots of people fall into the trap of thinking that something that’s cheap does the job to the same standard as something that’s expensive.

It’s very rarely the know, a Rolls Royce is more expensive than a mini for a reason. Now if a cheap off the shelf alarm system is all you can afford, then fine, go with that because it’s better than nothing. However, a professionally installed alarm system generally, has things like encrypted sensors, which an off the shelf alarm system probably wouldn’t have.

The electronic components used in them are likely to be cheaper quality and therefore they’ll fail sooner. And it’s far less likely, that you’d be able to find spares for a cheap off the shelf system, to be able to maintain your system. We’ve been able to maintain, our systems from kind of 10-15 years ago and that isn’t the case with cheap off the shelf systems. The old adage of buy cheap, buy twice is generally true.

Mistake number two that people make is over specifying. Now, we have never yet, suggested to a client or a potential client that they have a sensor in every single room. Now, I’m not saying it’ll never happen, but I think it’s going to be highly unlikely. We always assess each room based on the risk in each room.

Now if someone was to,  come into a room, sorry, come into your house, in your bathroom, it’s highly unlikely that they’ll be, content with stealing your toothbrush and then leaving the house without going into any of the other rooms. So there’s very little point in having a sensor in a bathroom, generally speaking.

Same with the kids bedroom. But maybe it might be that the kids have got an Xbox or something like that in their room and a burglar might think, well, I know there’s an alarm system here, I’ll just take the Xbox and be done with it before it goes.

So maybe you’d want to put a sensor in the kids bedroom. Maybe not. Depends on the circumstances. What about the master bedroom?

Well, in the master bedroom you’re likely to have jewellery, you could have cash so that is somewhere where, we’d suggest. Very often we suggest that you do have a sensor, particularly if you’ve got a lot of jewellery in there.

So basically the lesson here is only, is to assess each room on its individual risks, on the individual house that you’re in and make an informed judgement.

Then mistake number three is hiding the siren away, studies have shown that burglars are very often put off from burgling a house if it’s got an alarm system. So you want to make sure that those burglars that are looking around your neighbourhood actually know that there’s an alarm system on your house.

And that means having the siren box on the front with the installation company’s name and logo on it. There’s no point having it around the side of the house or around the back if it’s only the neighbours over the back can see it there. No point having it there.

It needs to be loud and proud on the front of the house. Remember, it’s a fallacy to say that having an alarm system shows, burglars that you’ve got something worth stealing. That’s just rubbish. Every house has got something worth stealing, whether it’s cash, jewellery, games, consoles, laptops, iPads, that kind of thing.

The majority of houses have got those things. So having an alarm system, nice and visible on the front of your house, or alarm sirens. Sorry, visible on the front of your house, is the right thing to do.

Mistake number four is relying on a bells only system. When alarm systems first came out, the alarm would go off, the bell would ring outside and people would take a look and they’d see what the problem was, these days we’re so used to hearing sirens go off, that false alarm, no one takes any notice.

So there’s no point having a bells only system, the technical term for it. A system that only has a siren and doesn’t communicate with the outside world. You can’t rely on your neighbours to do it. To let you know if your alarm goes off, you’ve got to have your system either monitored by a professional monitoring company or have it self monitored where the system tells you via, an alert to your phone.

Take number five is not having a plan for what happens, if the alarm is triggered. Many people just think to themselves that they want an alarm for peace of mind, but they don’t plan for the practicalities. What do you want to happen when the alarm goes off?

Who do you want to be told?

And when they get the message, what do you want them to? Do you need to make sure that your system is planned accordingly? Make sure that all the people have the means to be notified. Make sure that, if you want people to visit your house, make sure they have the means to disarm the system, cheque the house and rearm the system when they leave.

Mistake number six that people make is not thinking about the ongoing costs of an alarm system. When comparing quotations from different installers, it’s very easy just to look at the headline kind of price for how much it’s going to cost you to actually have the installation done and then not think about the ongoing monthly costs.

Many alarm systems have a monthly cost which covers maintenance and monitoring, as well. Now think about these two scenarios. Would you rather pay, 500 pounds for installation and then 40 pounds per month, ongoing? Or would you rather pay 1000 pounds for installation and, 15 pounds a month for ongoing costs?

Because after about three years that first initially cheaper scenario works, out more expensive. And once you go to four, five, six years you’re paying lots and lots, make sure you work out those costings before you say yes to a quotation.

Mistake number seven that people make is not having enough quotations, not having enough options. Who are you actually going to ask for a quotation for your system? We can all name the big companies who advertise on tv. Many people also believe that they will offer the best value because they’re large.

So their logic goes they buy more equipment and therefore pay less for the equipment and therefore they won’t charge as much for the equipment. But of course those big tv campaigns cost an awful lot of money and that’s got to be paid for out of the profits they make out of their customers.

So there are plenty of small installation companies around who might be a bit more expensive to start off with, but might offer better service. It might actually be that they’re cheaper to start off with and still offer better service. Or it might be that the large companies do offer better value for you, but you’ll never know if you don’t have sufficient quotations.