With the ever increasing number of burglaries worldwide, do you feel secure?

Especially since over two-thirds of them happen at residential properties.

Now, good home security systems can both help you prevent a burglary, and if they don’t prevent it, they’ll certainly help quite a bit when it comes to catching whoever is responsible.

One major question that homeowners have when they’re getting a new security system is whether to go the DIY route, buy all the components themselves, and build out the system by themselves or go for a monitored solution from a reputable company that’s going to do all that for them.

Now, make no mistake, most monitoring companies will give you a lot of choices and options when you’re building the system, making sure that all the necessary things are covered.

However, versatility is undoubtedly lower than the one you get from a DIY system.

So, how do you decide whether or not you go for a monitored system or you DIY things? When is a monitored system a better choice than doing things yourself?

What’s the Main Difference?

As their name implies, the main difference is that with a DIY system, you’re the one that’s supposed to monitor the alarm system, cameras, door and window sensors, smoke detectors, basically everything.

This saves you money, but you’ve got a lot of responsibility on your hands, and if something happens, you don’t have the option of going “I can’t do this right now”.

You have to, otherwise, your home, or even worse, someone in your family, might suffer.

With a professionally monitored alarm system, there is a dedicated office that works around the clock, 24/7, to make sure that everything is in working order.

If a sensor malfunctions, they’ll know within the minute, and they’ll be able to dispatch a team to check things and see whether or not everything is in good working order.

And if something does happen, there’s a very big chance that they’ll be able to react a lot quicker than you would.

What Else Is Worth Mentioning?

What we mentioned above is the main difference, but there are a few other things, too.

With a professionally monitored alarm system, you get a much better assurance that everything is installed and set up properly.

You get the ability to test out the entire system (and this is actually encouraged pretty often, both by the general public and by the monitoring companies), which will give you a bit more peace of mind.

With a DIY system, you don’t know when your camera’s motion sensor will give out, and you might not be able to react on time.

Any kind of issue you might have, or any regular maintenance that needs to be done, such as changing batteries, is done by the provider themselves.

You won’t need to bother with this, and you know everything is in good shape all the time.

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Last but not least, when you’ve got a professional setting everything up, you also have a professional that can help you and answer any questions you might have.

Whether it’s something to do with how the alarm system works, or what you should be doing in certain situations, they’ll have the answer to your questions and you’ll have a much better understanding of things.

What Are the Downsides?

Of course, not everything is perfect with monitored alarm systems.

If it was, nobody would go the DIY route and everyone would have one. The first one is the pricing.

The equipment might be a bit more expensive, but you’ll also need to pay an installation fee in many cases, which varies depending on the complexity of the system and the provider.

To add to this, that 24/7 monitoring will also set you back a monthly fee, and you’ll need to sign a contract for a specific period of time.

Even if you decide you don’t need it anymore, or you find a better option, you might not have a choice.

And last but not least, even though you do have options, chances are that the monitoring company will give you “packages” to choose from when it comes to the equipment.

There’s a very big chance that you’ll end up getting something that you don’t really need, just to get something else that you do need, which can be costly.

However, if you’re good with paying a bit extra for the peace of mind and would rather be sure that everything is in perfect working order, by all means, go for a monitored alarm system – you won’t regret it.