As I’ve made clear in the last few weeks, I’ve been looking at buying a new home. This is far from an easy decision, though, and sometimes it’s exciting, but often it is stressful. I mean, no matter how you look at it, it’s a lot of thousands.
I’m pretty spoiled in my current situation. Sure, I don’t want to live in someone else’s basement forever (wow, even typing that out made me feel a little sad) but it’s easy, affordable, and friendly here.
Also, I never, ever have to lock my doors.
simplisafe home security system
Living in this basement apartment means that to get to my entrance, you have to go up the driveway, open the gate, head to the back of the house, open the back door, go down the stairs, go down a hallway, and then open my door.
There are definitely some benefits — I mean, I didn’t even buy Halloween candy “just in case” since you’d have to be a special kind of ninja to figure that out! Also, my landlord lives in the rest of the house, and she works from home. So, she’s there during the day. Why would I need to lock my place? To keep her out? HA! She has a key!
In my future home, the one where I end up having a great deal of responsibility, I’ll have to rethink this policy. Not only will I need to lock my house, but I may end up needing a home security system.
This is just one of the thousand different things to think about when I’m the responsible party. Being a homeowner will be a big step.
A big, scary, kind of wonderful step.
Do you alarm your house? Do you use any home security systems? I’d like to know!
We don't have an alarm, but we have thought about getting one. Our neighbor's house was recently just robbed, which is extremely unusual for our neighborhood. We live in the same neighborhood as the police station, and they still got away with it.
ick! sorry to hear that.
I've had ADT for over 12 years now. My son recently installed his own system from a company …think he found it online. It was much cheaper. I would go with wireless if you want to have a security system. Even dope heads know to cut phone lines. Honestly, most robberies can happen very quickly, they will be in & out with your laptop, etc. The alarm will just let the police know your alarm has gone off. By the time ADT goes thru all the phone numbers (yours, friends, family) that they have on record, the crooks would already be in & out. I also have the fire alert too. Gue Iss I keep it, since I am out of state at times. My son can drive over to ck things out if an alarm goes off, & secure any doors, etc.
I know someone who had a borrowed ADT sign, no system. While he was gone for the weekend, local dope head cut phone line (no phone anyway), entered, ate his food, drank his Tequila…used his tools to break into his safe (there was nothing in there). They did find about $98. tapped underneath a dresser….good grief.
Guess I mainly keep it as a warning if someone breaks in while I am there. Gives me time to the the LadySmith ready to great them…ha
We don't have a home security system where we live here in Toronto but we have taken steps to better secure our house – things like strong deadbolt doors, secure windows, security company decals placed on outside doors (to give the impression that we do have professional house security), not letting our mail /newspapers pile up, keeping a car always in our driveway (even if it's really our neighbor's when we are away), timer lights, etc. That said, however, this is a personal decision for each homeowner to make, based on prevailing factors (such as crime rates in the area, etc.), In the end I guess you have to ask yourself – do you have anything valuable that you wouldn't want to have stolen from your home. The cost of security monitoring vs the risk of theft of a valuable possession is the trade off.
We have a security system but we never use it. I know this is probably going to come back and bite us in the future but it just hasn't been a priority yet.
I live in a one story triplex, meaning I guess it would be easy if someone was motivated to break into my apt., although my front and back doors are 20ft/7ishft respectively from the buildings next door, so it's a highly visible area making it difficult to be stealthy. I don't have any kind of alarm or security in place. I just have to trust that no one will break in. Kind of risky since my area has had a lot of break ins recently.
Portland does have some good local security company options to choose from if you are already looking around. I would suggest Secure Pacific if you want a company that does all of their monitoring in-house and provides verification for their systems.
Home security system is very much necessary and significant nowadays. I'm always careful about my home security. My home is secure under 12 security camera around it and I've fire alarm system. So thanks :)