What You Should Know About Home Security Systems

A home is where you go to feel safe. It’s where you want to relax with your family and lay your head down after a long tiring day. It’s not somewhere that you should feel worried about your safety. There are over 2 million home burglaries reported each year in the US. If you break that down: a burglary occurs once every 13 seconds, that’s nearly 6,000 a day. Despite this alarming amount of break-ins, only 17% of US residents have a home security system currently installed.

There are numerous articles across the web that go on and on about the pros and cons of having a home security system. We did the heavy lifting for you and comprised a list of the top advantages to making this decision.

# 1 Physical Safety: The main and paramount reason to invest in a home security system is to deter crime in your home. According to the Electronic Security Association’s, 9 out of 10 burglars said that if they encountered an alarm or home security system, they would not attack the home.

To break that down, 1 in 3 homes without a security system will fall victim to a burglary as compared to 1 in 250 homes that do have a security system.

The bottom line: Burglars are on the lookout for easy targets; so making your home more difficult to access is a strong way to deter a break-in.

# 2 Costs and Savings: The costs associated with a security system can vary with different fees and contracts. However, it is important to understand what a potential burglary could cost a homeowner.

About 33% of intruders enter a home through the front door due to hollow doors being exceptionally easy to kick in. Once inside the home, according to the FBI, the average dollar loss per burglary in the US is $2,185. When you factor in the potential physical damage to your home along with the cost of stolen items, paying for a security system might not sound like a lot.

To make it even sweeter, many insurance companies will provide a discount on home insurance policies if there is a functioning security system installed. Although this discount varies based on the company and type of system, in general, homeowners can receive a discount of 10-20 percent.

# 3 Control:  As technology has improved many alarm systems now have features that allow you to know what is going on in your home no matter how far away you may be. New security systems can alert you via Text or E-mail when there is something happening in your home that you should know about. Did you accidentally forget to close the back door? Or perhaps you didn’t close a window all the way the other night? Many systems can let you know about these instances.

You also have the ability to turn lights on and off, control your thermostat, and arm/disarm the system. Just these features alone can save you time and money. For example, you can manually set the temperature in your house to start cooling while you’re on your drive home. That way when you arrive home the house is already comfortable and you didn’t have to waste energy during the day.