Excellent Business Idea for a retiring farang

[Butterfly]

Well since I was robbed 2 months ago, I have been looking for a home security solution for my house here. As usual, with everything here, it's difficult to find anything of quality. First I had to deal with the usual dysfunctional Thai companies. Basically your options are limited: eitheir it's a big company providing all kind of security solutions, from the security guard to the full size room for a Cam control center, or some local Somchai shops with nothing to show but cheap imports from China at inflated prices.

As usual when faced with that kind of situation, I turn my attention to Europe and even the US. Strangely, do-it-yourself home security solutions in Europe is not mainstream. The market is dominated by VARs working with insurance companies and selling only solutions based on their expensive remote monitoring options. I used to be sollicted by those guys all the time back home.

This is when Google and the Internet becomes very useful. I turn my attention to the US, which is despite all his evils, is the best place for consumer electronics and gadgets, with a huge market and a diversity of solutions. I was able to find exactly what I wanted in 10 min. I was looking for a full Wireless solution with discrete sensors and a remote access to control arming and disarming, and voice alerts that could warn me of alarm events by telephone or SMS. If you have the money, you can find it, and interestingly enough at a bargain price from what you could get here in Thailand for the same Chinese made, yet inferior, solutions.

And it works despite the expensive shipping costs. Now after investigating that industry, it turns out that there is much more to it. First for US residents, there is a lot of solutions available to receive full monitoring solution from the Internet, with your Control Unit reporting directly through the telephone line or even through ADSL pending you have the right equipment. To make things better, Software can be used to monitor the whole house and download the whole thing to a remote station by standard modem connection. There are a lot of different applications you can do with those equipments, and yet nobody to implement them and service them outside the US.

Examples of things you can do:

- Warn you by SMS or mobile that a back door was left open or was opened during your absence
- Warn you by SMS/Mobile if the kids didn't come home on time to disarm the alarm
- Warn you during stay of different sensor events (low battery, open doors, lost communication etc...)
- Intruder Alerts (Siren/SMS/Mobile) by motion detection or breakin (window or doors)
- Auto-Dialer to police station in case of intruders
- Fire detection with auto-dialer option to call fire station
- Remote monitoring to arm/disarm or download sensor events while you are away (even from overseas)
- Remote listening of activity in the house while you are away

With nobody having the imported technology here or the experience to set up such solutions or even provide local monitoring service with dispatch for English speaking expats, this would be the perfect farang business for the expat residential market. With the number of robberies exploding in Pattaya and Phuket, this business would make a lot of sense if done properly. There are guys doing Security in Pattaya, but they charge a fortune (between 70,000 and 200,000) for doing some little wiring, while someone smart could offer all those WIRELESS solutions for half the price and charge on the top a small monthly fee for remote monitoring, dispatching and maintenance.

So, any taker out there ?

[watterinja]

This is old hat in South Africa. Try Googling what their security industry gets up to. It used to be pretty cost-effective.

[Little Chuchok]

Funny you shoild mention that BF,but I was thinking of it the other day.On another channel in CM,there were a few people asking for the same.

had a mate in NZ that used to install alarms.

In his opinion,the biggest mistake that people make,is that they don't make the alarms loud enough INSIDE the house.He used to put these cheap,but mega,fcuking insainly loud sirens inside a house.Nobody,and I mean nobody could stay inside the house when they went off.It was not just loud,but very fcuking painfull.

It all got quite techo,so depending on the system you got,you could dial in with your mobile and have a look around etc.great way to catch the missus playing ....with her toys!

Everything came out of Tiawan and was bloody cheap too!

[dirtydog]

Most police stations and fire stations in the world wont accept auto dialers, they need to go to a monitoring company first.

[Butterfly]

The Taiwan equipment is kind of crappy but would be ok in a Thai home. I mean for the same price, you can get GE, ADEMCO, etc... with a much better design

The loud speaker is nice, but in case of false alarm, you would drive your neighboors crazy, and yourself. Imagine someone breakin in the middle of night, would you like to be waken up with such a loud siren and sustain brain damage ? too much. Actually, it's recommended to have the alarm as quiet as possible in some cases, so burglars can't locate the Central Unit so that the system can dial quietly. Different options for different needs.

Burglary in Thailand has gone 1000% since last year, I am surprised nobody is on top of this already. Thais are brain dead so they are excused, but the lazy and retired farangs ? no excuse, and it beats running a bar.

[Butterfly]

Most police stations and fire stations in the world wont accept auto dialers, they need to go to a monitoring company first.

Correct. And exactly my point. How many farang friendly monitoring stations do you have in Pattaya ? none. The fucking software to run all this is quite basic. It's a modem and the software run under Windows. The whole investment of the monitoring station is less than 5000 USD. There could be issues with the multiple incoming phone lines however to handle a peak in monitoring, but hey there is also the voice alerts by mobiles as a backup.

[Little Chuchok]

Well the false alarm thing is correct,but he had a couple of places that were broken into(Nothing taken) and the fokwits fled.Imagine what a Thai would do?They would shit from arsehole to breakfast time.

Had one of his systems at my place and no false alarms in two years.

What Thai would know the difference between GE and "Lucky Good Guy Bad Bastard Catcher" For that matter,many farang would not know the diff either,esp if you used a GE look alike casing...

[Little Chuchok]

Monitoring is shite.By the time people get there,the cockroaches are normally gone.

[Butterfly]

Monitoring is shite

it is, but the owner who is away still want to be alerted, regardless of what he or they can do. However useful in case of a fire alert

[dirtydog]

The only people that buy burglar alarms are people that have just been burgalled

[Butterfly]

^ exactly. And it will be your turn, DD, count on it

[Spin]

I heard that importing finished electronic items into Thailand is made difficult by the cnuts at customs. its easy to bring in componants and assemble here.
This may explain why this idea has not been done to death already.
I looked into doing exactly this 2 years ago when i first came here and after a little research i canned the idea.
Maybe someone elase has experience of importing electronics, like i say, i heard it was a royal pain in the ass with anything electronic attracting a huge import duty.

[Little Chuchok]

^Just a matter of finding a "friend" at customs.

[dirtydog]

exactly. And it will be your turn, DD, count on it

I have a burglar alarm, it's about 40 kilos and black and tan, may buy a new boy one though to keep her company