Howdy All,
I’ve just put my first BUY/FIX/SELL on the market and I’ve been advised by the agent that a motion detector house alarm would considerably add value. I tend to agree given the house is in a bad area. Has anyone had any experience with this type of thing. I am looking for a cheap but effective motion detection system, that can be turned on and off by a remote control. I reckon this would be impressive to a potential buyer aswell.
Your comments as to whether you think this is a crap idea, and if you think its a good idea, could you recommend any products.
Thanks a million
Bluey
“Its all beer and skittles really.”
I think it is good idea, but check first if your house has small gekoes. I have great security system in my house but these small creatures are setting it up through movement censors all the time and neighbours are sick of it.
Gekkoes being so small, its hard to imagine them trying to make off with too much of your stuff??
“Its all beer and skittles really.”
As an electrician I advise that the cheapo motion detectors are very difficult to adjust. You will get lots of nuisance tripping (geckos/cats/rats/possums/wind/rain/fog etc)no matter how much you play with settings. Get a good quality one installed and set up by an electrician….. or spend endless hours adjusting it yourself!
penguin chick, there should be sensitivity adjustment screws on your motion detectors. Adjust these so that you only detect human sized forms….. unless the geckos are climbing over the lens themselves……hmmmm…….maybe a guard over lens if this is so.
cheers
Live, Learn and GrowLifexperience
Hi all
I deal with alarms a lot in my line of work and for private premises i advise every single person that deals with them that they are quite possibly the biggest con since moses was a boy. Alarm monitoring companies are extremely dodgy and will do anything to get people hooked on ‘monitored’ contracts etc….please dont….in 6yrs in my current posisiton dealing with alarms on a daily basis, i have NEVER had an alarm on a residential premises that has turned out to be legitimate (and i deal with approx 50 per day..over 6yrs…u do the sums) it always turns out to be a codepad error, a cat , bug, moth, window left open etc etc etc….due to every single alarm on a house being false, the police have very strict guidelines on when they will attend and alarm companies will never disclose this to their clients. In terms of adding value to a property, whack a ‘monitored alarm’ sticker on the front window of the house, it will be just as effective as a fully installed monitored system.
I in no way mean to sound harsh at all but i see every day at work how much of a waste of money house alarms are and i hate seeing people conned.
Cheers
Tim
LiveX,
thanks, I will try to correct movement censors.
Cheers,
DanielaDaniella, do you live in Penguin Tassie?? It is nice there, very relaxing.
DD
Buyers Agent (Dip Financial Services(FP)
Don’t sweat the small stuff,and it’s all small stuff!!Daniella, do you live in Penguin Tassie?? It is nice there, very relaxing.
DD
Buyers Agent (Dip Financial Services(FP)
Don’t sweat the small stuff,and it’s all small stuff!!Hi Tim,
Thanx for your insights. We have just settled on a house that came with a monitored alarm system. We paid absolutley no extra on the property deal for this (ie the previous owners would have added no value through this feature). However, now my partner and I have to decide whether or not to maintain the contract with the security company who monitors the alarm.
The alarm system and installation, are fully paid for already it is just the monitoring that is on a month by month basis. We have organised home insurance based on the fact that we have a monitored alarm system and they gave us a 20% discount on our premiums (approx $180/yr). So after taking this discount into account, it only costs us a few dollars a month to keep the system monitored.
In your opinion, is it worthwhile keeping it this way, or will it be too much of a hassle? We have only been living in the house 3 weeks, and the suburb has a fairly high burglary rate.
Your experienced thoughts are welcomed.Chris
Hi Chris
Yeah mate if it doesnt cost you anything at all to keep it monitored (i.e taking into account discount from insurance) then keep it going. I always get really angry at insurance companies whenever I get an insurance policy as they always ask if the place has a monitored alarm because they are useless. Just a couple of questions that you could ask the alarm co to critique their authenticity and credibility:
– Ask them if they are an AUTHORISED alarm company with the Police Communications centre. The monitoring company has to pass strict eligibility criteria to be put onto a list of alarm companies that Police patrols will attend too, otherwise no matter what type of alarm activation it is they wont get any police help. Soooo many dodgy backyard monitoring centres try and put alarms through, i feel very sorry for their clients and wonder what they are told by the company.
– Ask them if a private security patrol will be tasked if the alarm goes off.
– They may state that police will be called when the alarm goes off, ask them if they are aware that the police will only attend if the alarm sensors are activated in multiple ROOMS only, not 2 sensors in the same room. Some companies will state to their clients that police will be called if the alarm goes off under any circumstances, but they know full well that no police patrol will attend. However they will ring up Police and state that they just wanted to have a phone record that they did in fact call the police just so they can handball the blame to the police, if the customer wonders why no patrol showed up.
The best alarm company story i have is a company that wasnt authorised and when they were told that no police patrol would be attending (they ring thru on an alarm co hotline), they then rang 000 and tried to put the job thru that way…needless to say they got a little bit in trouble.
After all that mate I highly recommend alarms for commercial premises as they actually are legitimate a lot of the time, just not residential.
Cheers and good luck!
Tim
Have a look at http://www.goldsec.com.au and have a look at thier products, they have a great WIRELESS ALARM SYSTEM..
No electricians (sorry LifeX)[biggrin] it’s “Totally” wireless and comes with a swisho phone..
You can self monitor by having it go to you mobile, or if no answer the next contact on the list, or the next OR a Monitoring Centre
from my experiences you need at least 3 PIR’s (Passive Infa Red Detectors) in a Property to get a discount on Insurance for a property and as stated above Police will only attend Multiple Zone Alarms.
Haven’t seen anything else like this ophone/alarm and I got one for myself and the outlaws..(in-laws..NOT the motorcycle gang)
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