If you’re a responsible homeowner, we’d be willing to bet that you put a major emphasis on your home security. Chances are, you’ve given thought to all the things you want to include as a part of your system and you may even have an idea of what you’ll need. But even when you do, there’s one thing that you must decide on – whether you’ll have a professional company install it or whether you’ll go the DIY route.
Make no mistake, this is a question many people ask themselves. And making the decision is a bit more difficult than it seems initially. To make things easier, we’ll talk about both ways of doing things and we’ll wrap things up with our suggestion. Let’s begin.
Going Professional
A professional installation is a great way to “have things handled” for you. It’s not for those who want to invest themselves and get to know the details of how everything works, but instead, for those who’d like to know a professional took care of things for them. So, what are some of the pros and cons of it?
Starting off with the pros, the most important one is that you don’t need to get your tools from the shed. You don’t have to do much as far as the installation goes, because you’ll have a professional (or a team of professionals) doing things for you. To add to this, some companies might even add a free security assessment, and most of them will give you a good tutorial of how everything works once they’ve set it up.
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One more thing that’s also key, is the fact that with a professional, you benefit from their experience. They know when a motion sensor is too high, for example, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg – trust us when we say they’ve made the mistakes you’ll do during your first installation. But they won’t do them now, and you’ll know that you get a well thought out system with no security vulnerabilities. It’s the peace of mind that matters, right?
Now, the downsides. The first one is that if someone has to come to your home to install things, that’s going to cost you. And with many reputable brands, that’s going to be a hefty amount of money. In addition to that, you have to schedule a time when you’ll be at home and there’s an installer available, something that might be a bit tricky for some. And last but not least, for renters, professional installation that includes drilling in walls, etc., might not be an option. That being said, let’s take a look at why you might want to go DIY.
Going the DIY Route
The other option you have is to go the DIY route. Now, usually, doing things yourself means that you’ll spend less money. If you’re even a tiny bit handy, you’ll be able to do things yourself without many issues and you’ll have your security system up and running in less than a day.
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However, by far the largest benefit of going DIY is the versatility. With a professionally installed system, the most you’ll get is a few packages to choose from. But you won’t get to pick which cameras, which motion sensors, and what smart home assistant you want – those are all things that will be predetermined for you. Going DIY allows you to pick and choose the hardware components you find best. Not only can you go for the things you like, but you can decide whether most of your budget should go on security cameras, or motion sensors, depending on your specific use case scenario. To add to that, you actually own all the equipment you get (some companies only allow you to rent it), and you can do with it whatever you please.
The obvious cons, on the other hand, are the fact that you’ll need to do all the work yourself, and if you don’t have the know-how required, you might get stuck. But to be honest, this isn’t too much of a problem since such systems are usually pretty easy to wrap your head around.
Which One?
Now that you know what the pros and cons of both options are, which one do you go for? Well, let’s put it like this. If you’ve got absolutely no know-how, and you don’t trust your abilities to do things yourself, you should pony up and get a professional to do things for you.
However, if you think you’ll be able to handle it, it’s best if you go the DIY route. You get to pick and choose all the products you’ll use, and you get to set them up just the way you like them. And yes, you’ll get the peace of mind you expect.
