As someone who has owned 9 homes with two of them alarmed I think it best to take some of the money that you would spend on an alarm system with monitoring and buy better home owners' insurance. Alarms break after time. Police response time is slow. Neighbors rarely will take any action. They go off by accident or due to a sensor problem.
The first time we bought the alarm. It went off a few times for various reasons. Police showed uo 15-20 minutes later when they were called by the monitoring company. Got two warnings and next time we would be fined so we stopped using the alarm.
Second time the alarm came with the house and after a year it started going off on it's own. Also a pain when we vacationed and had to train others how to arm/ disarm the system. Most asked us to leave it off. After two failed attempts to fix some problems I the wires to the sin unit out of the walll in frustration. There were other issues too with a lousy monitoring company.
We got a pair of killer Yorkies and they proved to be the best security we ever had plus the love they give us is priceless. Should any burglar survive the ankle biting of my two fierce guardians (assuming they survive the laughing fit after hearing two small dogs growling), my Smith & Wesson ( it is really a Glock ) security system is instantly put into action. When we are away I do not worry. Thry are only possessions. I do not get attached to possessions. For a fraction of whist it costs me for alarms I just added a rider on my home Owners' policy to pay me full replacement value for the more expensive items. I also now buy homes that are difficult to get to. Dead end streets in locations that do not provide easy access for quick getaways. Lights, both inside and outside, on timers that allow both static and random times are a great investment for those times when you are away from home.
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