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The answer really depends upon what type of alarm controller you have in your house. If it is a locked proprietary system such as ADT, your choices are limited to ADT. If it's a generic controller, such as a Honeywell unit, you can pretty much chose anyone to do the monitoring.
It's extremely unlikely you are going to find a monitoring service located in Apex, and that shouldn't really matter. Your system is just going to dial (or make a cell call) to a central monitoring location that could be located anywhere, and call you, the fire department, police, or whomever else you configure when you sign the monitoring agreement. You can find a local installer / maintenance provider, but chances are they will be using a national alarm monitoring center.
I have used alarmsystemstore.com which starts at about $8 / mo, and goes up depending upon what feature's you want, and what type of system you have. Decent service, and have been helpful for parts, phone support, etc. However, this is probably best for the DIY type.
Various companies can swap out the main panel if necessary.
We went with Southern Security Group (the guy we dealt with and continues to help us out whenever needed is named Jack Bauer, he's always been great). Ours is a cellular system so it's $25/month, if you have a landline it's cheaper.
They have no long term contracts (it's monthly so if you don't like it you can switch it whenever without penalty) and Jack has always been great and prompt - and every estimate (adding wireless detectors) has been very reasonable. There is no additional fee for the phone app to set/disarm your alarm remotely.
We had received quotes from the big names (ADT / CPI) and were not impressed with their prices nor their 3-5 year contracts.
I recommend Alarm Man, which is a local company to the Triangle area. They do not have contract locks, and their monthly rates are some of the lowest I've seen. I think you will definitely save money by going with Alarm Man rather than the big money hoggers like ADT, etc. They all use the same central call center in Statesville, NC.
About how much should it cost to swap out an ADT panel? We got one estimate, from a highly recommended company on this board, and it was around $700. We were shocked how much it was.
The last time I did this myself it cost me about $350 in parts, which included a new Ademco Vista controller, with key new keypads, and 2 keyfobs, which is a pretty basic system. Probably took me less than an hour to rewire it, another hour to reprogram all the zones (first time doing it), and then the time on the phone with the monitoring service having them do the configuration. Figure $300-$400 in parts, plus a couple of hours of labor at $100 / hr, $700 doesn't seem that far off. The other option is to pay close to nothing, but then get locked into a contract at $40+ a month. I figured the pay-off was pretty quick to get out of a "locked" system.
Figure $300-$400 in parts, plus a couple of hours of labor at $100 / hr, $700 doesn't seem that far off. The other option is to pay close to nothing, but then get locked into a contract at $40+ a month. I figured the pay-off was pretty quick to get out of a "locked" system.
Wow, you can buy an entirely new system from SimpliSafe for far less than that. They charge $14.99/month for monitoring. I installed one for my daughter in less than 30 minutes.
I recommend Alarm Man, which is a local company to the Triangle area. They do not have contract locks, and their monthly rates are some of the lowest I've seen. I think you will definitely save money by going with Alarm Man rather than the big money hoggers like ADT, etc. They all use the same central call center in Statesville, NC.
This! We've been with Alarm Man for 4 yrs. They can often re-program existing equipment in your home. They weren't able to do so with what our pre-owned home had when we moved in, so we had them install stuff. Rather than lease the equipment, you buy it outright & own it, so there are no contracts and just the low monthly monitoring fees. We do pay annually for the monitoring rather than month to month though (choice is yours) since it's cheaper.
Thank you all for the inputs. I also heard of safemart.com (livewatch monitoring) which seems to be $20 for monitoring and $135 for the wireless communicator which will will plugin into the current system.
We use American Alarms a local monitoring company with great personal service. It's a great feeling to keep your money in the community and doing business locally. After doing some research we found most alarm companies sub contract out there monitoring but we were very happy to know that american alarms did there own monitoring 919-460-5995.
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American Alarms in Apex
