Every house has something worth stealing in my opinion. Signs or no signs.
When we set up our present system, we went wireless and battery backup.
Motion in the right locations, contact points on the exterior points of entry.
My wife wants the sign on the lawn to deter them [ if they can read ], and it's there for all to see. My initial take was to not put the sign up and advertise the house was protected. Upon reconsideration, I believe the sign is a deterrent [ at least in part ].
What I did was have the alarm not go off at the house. If someone does get in and trips the switches, they do not hear anything. My idea is that I want them caught in the house.
The local PD types know me [ worked on their dept for awhile ]. If they get the signal to the house, they send three cruisers. Happened once since installed. No perps, the wife hit the panic alarm by mistake on her keyring when leaving the house one day.
The best part of the setup is that if the lines are cut, the battery backup fails, etc etc, I am paged immediately. So if they cut the lines, take out the alt power supply and enter, I'm paged and on the phone to the PD myself to respond to the house.
The beeper system worked great when my wife hit the panic alarm. I was on the phone with the locals before they could get to the house. Waited on line with the Sgt. until they checked it out and secured the area. I reset the alarm remotely from my location and later took the panic button off her keyring.
Until last year, I had a 100 pound Akita they had to get by in the house as well. Didn't want to think what would have happened if the bg's had entered with her protecting the place.
It's a two edged sword probably relative the signs on the lawn or not deterring the perps. Eenie, Menie, Mynie Mo I guess. For now, the signs are there for the public to see. As I'm the only one on the street with the signs up, perhaps they'll pick another house and pass mine by.
I'll let you know if I get paged and the outcome. I thought long and hard on the way I wanted the system to work before choosing the system and the way it notified people.
I trust the beeper to go off at the slightest problem with the alarm. It's been tested many times and has not failed in two years. They send a code to the beeper [ 911 ] and I know to call the PD to get to the house if they did not recieve the signal for any reason.
The alarm is also set up for fire detection direct to the FD and I'm paged for that as well.
Similiar to Tim Burkes setup, but I get paged if they cut the lines or mess with the system in anyway. My beeper notification plan is not an addtional charge for me.
Brownie