Hey, welcome to the You Ask the Pros Answer podcast, your questions answered by the

pros you trust presented by pro exteriors. Today, we are going to dive into a topic

which I know is important for most homeowners listening, and we're going to answer

the question, "How can I best protect my family at home?" Yep, today we are

tackling the topic of home security. Now, to help us Answer this question and tackle

this topic. I'm excited to have a couple of pros in this space. On today's episode,

we have Darren Moore and Chris Maddox of Safehouse. Darren is the founder and

president. He retired from law enforcement after 25 years of public service. He

started Safehouse wanting to use his training and knowledge of law enforcement and

turning that into a security company that focused on high quality products and

service. Now after 10 years with the company, Darren is part of the team he helped

build to continue serving the community. Now Chris Maddox recently joined the team

and he is focused on helping customers understand their systems and to meet the

needs of new customers. The mission of Safe House is simple. It's to provide safety

for you, our customers, through advanced digital technology -driven monitoring,

accompanied with the experience of our highly dedicated security specialist, to be

prepared for any urgent requirements and to provide these services during emergency

situations. The bottom line is that they want to make the world a safer and better

place. Daren and Chris, welcome. This is the You Ask the Pros Answer podcast.

Do you have questions about an upcoming exterior contracting project? We've got

answers. Welcome to the You Ask the Pros Answer podcast. All right,

Daren, I was wondering if we could kick this off by having you share the origin

story behind Safe House. Absolutely. So I actually was a victim when I was a police

officer Living in a community like many communities occasionally you'll get crime way

you go through the community Somebody broke into my personal vehicle Stole $500 worth

of gear for me And my residents with unmarked patrol car or a patrol vehicle in

the driveway. So they knew who I was, and they just kind of rubbed it in my face

a little bit. So it kind of pointed out a vulnerability to me. And I was already

familiar with alarm systems and camera systems. I mean, we would view video for

police purposes. So it piqued my interest. I was near retirement and I said,

"You know what? I've got to look into this." I started looking at camera systems

and alarm systems and what was out there. I didn't really like everything I saw or

some of the people I met in the industry. Nothing personal. I just didn't like the

vibe. So I got into some details.

I got my feet dirty And I said I can do better and you know safe house was born

You know, we started small But I think we initially started putting in camera

systems and we went with high quality gear And we just tried to make a difference

right from the start Were there so you mentioned that like on a personal level some

of the The individuals or companies that you looked at maybe left a little bit to

be desired What were some of the gaps in the market that you you observed that you

tried to fill from the get -go? I Think it was quality to be honest.

I mean there was lots of devices out there. There were a lot of systems in place

It the quality wasn't being offered to me or I couldn't find it direct. Some of

the information I was getting wasn't, I don't want to say it wasn't accurate, but

it just was polished a little bit. It made things look better than they were. So,

you know, actually I put in a camera system on my own before I started and I was

totally unhappy with it a year or two later. And I had spent, I don't know,

like $700 on this system that I installed and I ripped it out and threw it away.

This is just as junk. So, you know, from there, just seeing the need to be

upfront, honest and caring and just putting in quality products and really going into

the details. The details matter when you're talking about somebody's security. Oh,

yeah. Yeah, we often talk about how the home especially is where memories are made

and it's one of those things when we talk about roofing and siding, we talk about

it being the first line of defense for the exterior of your home. And so it's a

very personal thing, I'm sure, for the clients and the customers and the homeowners

you talk with that their family's safety is probably near the top,

if not at the very top of their priority list, as it should be. - Yeah, absolutely.

safety is, you know, safety is first. I think people, we get calls for a variety

of reasons, but either something has happened that has made them feel unsafe, or

they're already aware of what alarm systems can do and camera systems can do,

and they're becoming more the norm today. Yep. Now, Darren, I know the guy sitting

next to you, and our audience might know them by name now because I mentioned his

name at the outset. But I've known the guy sitting next to you for years and I

know he wears many different hats. And today while he's not wearing an actual hat,

we'll have to get you a pro exteriors hat at some point. I know he's wearing a

new hat. And so I'm wondering if you could officially introduce this guy sitting

next to you and share just a little bit about what he's bringing to the safe house

team. Oh, absolutely. For sure. Work static to have Chris on our team. Chris Maddox,

friend of mine, I've known him for a good number of years. We met actually through

work. He worked for a customer of mine, which, you know, through the years we had

several interactions. And then, you know, became friends through that. And then even

he reached out to us to do some work at another location. We continued to talk and

be friends and realized that we had other mutual friends in common. And Chris is a

natural. He's just honest, a real sincere person who cares about people.

And that's what we were looking for. I mean, he's, I don't want to say too much,

but he's a smart guy and he cares about people. And those two things are really

important, you know, that's kind of where we're looking. - So Chris, at the core of

it, what is it that you're gonna be doing? What are you doing now with Safehouse?

Kind of what area are you focusing in? - Yeah, so my role is to help customers'

residential or commercial design systems that meet their safety needs for whatever

building or property that they're trying to make sure is both safe and they're

trying to manage. As a customer previously, I kind of know what safe house,

what kind of services and technology we can provide for customers. And so I'm able

to kind of speak from both sides of, "Hey, this is what I know we can do for you

as a company, but also I know what that means as a customer." kind of twofold,

because I've been a customer in two different capacities of Safehouse. And so my

area of operation, I guess, is in the Delaware Beach area. So that's kind of my

area focus. A lot of the people that I'm interacting with networking with are mostly

going to be in that western Sussex County, Kent County region,

region, which have a lot of friends down there. We have a lot of people that, you

know, have second homes, new homes even are going up in this area.

And, you know, the communities are are still relatively new or some are very well

established, but may not have either a security presence for their home or for their

business. And so we want to help them kind of gain that that level of security and

defense for the things that are important, whether it be their, uh, their family,

you know, or, or even for the, the business that they've invested time and money

into, we want to help protect that as well. Yeah. I imagine you'll be working with

a lot of folks, like you said, who have second or third homes and they aren't

physically there for a significant portion of the year. Yeah. Which, so the security

side of that is, is good and helpful helpful for that as well. But the other side

is, you know, Darren mentioned camera systems and different devices that can be

linked to your security system. We have a lot of customers that use their security

and camera systems, both for security, you know, but also for home management.

There's a lot of things that you can monitor or make sure or working correctly when

you're not there that you can get alerts and just different things that are very

helpful for people to have total control of the property or the space they're trying

to keep safe, but also make sure that is taken care of when they're not around.

Yep. Well, that's a really good segue to what I want to ask you guys next. But

first, Chris, if you were wondering if you're working for a good company, I can

tell you right off the bat, any company that's going to stick you in a spot like

the Delaware each area as your first assignment, I mean, come on. Yeah,

yeah, for sure. Yeah, I get I get a beautiful office every day. It's great.

Alright, so what are the core services that you guys offer? And I'll let you guys

fight over who wants to take this. So I guess, you know, we're like a blanket,

I think we're going to cover everything security based, but we're security

integrators. So Access control, which would be, you know,

cards, key fobs, codes to get in. A lot of that is commercial.

There is some residential applications. We do alarm systems. Alarm systems across the

board. You can get into so many different things with alarm systems. Like Chris

mentioned, you know, with even home management determining, You know, if you have a

water leak or if you've got the temperature issue security cameras, they're huge

Everybody wants cameras now. It seems like There's so many cameras out there to

choose from it gets confusing. There's misinformation

That's where you know, we come in and kind of lay things out and get into the

weeds we do a lot of commercial stuff. In Maryland, we do commercial fire systems.

We're currently, you know, considering what we need to do in Delaware. Delaware is a

little different for commercial fire. We do structured cabling on network cabling. So

we have run, we've got jobs that we've run 150 ,000 foot of cable on.

So we're qualified. We've got an excellent team. I put our team against anybody in

the business. Lots of different certifications and licensing and processes that we go

through. But I guess to answer that question, you know, I hate to just say we do

it all, but I think security -wise, from residential to high -end commercial, we can

pretty much do anything you need done. All right. Well, let's focus in a little bit

then on the residential side of things. When you are talking with customers.

And Darren, like you said, you started out as a victim. So you kind of were a

customer before you were the president of this business. What are the most common

security concerns that homeowners communicate to you?

Honestly, it's probably one you didn't think I would say, but residential, especially,

it may revolve around price to some degree. And I think there are offers out there

and there are options for people to get things cheaply. That's probably not your

best and most secure way to go about things. I'm not saying that we're expensive

'cause I don't think we are. I'm just saying, you need to be price conscious, but

you need to worry about the quality of what you're putting in. Like me, when I

purchased the camera system, and it ended up in the trash the following year later.

I literally blew that 700 bucks. You know, at the end of the day, the video

quality was poor. It, uh, it didn't work as it was supposed to work. So I think

concerns are in general, um, besides that, it's making sure that the basics are

covered, you know, doors. Um, a lot of people will say they want a smoke detector

added to it 'cause that's a great idea. And then everybody wants cameras.

Everybody's asking for cameras along with some type of alarm system. So how can they

integrate and what their options are? And we could talk for days about different

products and what they do, how they're connected, what we have to do to install

I think that, that pretty much in a nutshell is, is your residential answer. That's

what people are thinking about. Chris, I know like you are, you're just a few weeks

in, right? Yeah. When, when you go to sit down or meet with a homeowner,

what are some of the first steps that you're going to encourage them to take when

considering the system? Well, - Well, I think the first thing that I would ask is

what's your goal with your system? Is it just to have some awareness of somebody on

my property that shouldn't be? So maybe we're looking at cameras. Is it just to

defend the four walls of my home? Okay, are we looking at just a burglary system?

Is there other things that you're trying to monitor and protect. So I think the

ultimate goal of the customer, of the residents especially, is really important to

helping us design the system to do what a customer is desiring. Darren mentioned,

there's some really inexpensive options that you can pull off of Amazon or go pick

up at Lowe's or what have you. Sometimes those are, they're just you're going to

install that and it's might meet some of your needs, might meet some of your

concerns, but you might find there's things about it that don't quite get you what

you want. And then you also mentioned the quality aspect. A lot of those devices,

they're well marketed, but you have to be the professional on when that thing,

whatever it is, fails. I ran into a situation with that recently, I had a device

that disconnected from my network and I had to become the professional on how to

reset it. And so, you know, that's the other aspect that a lot of people either

don't really have the time or don't have the desire to have to fiddle with a

device they've paid for, not working the way that they hoped it would. So I think

the biggest thing would be to find out, you know, what are you, what are your

major concerns? What are you, what are you trying to accomplish with a security

system or a camera system? And then making that, that, you know, designing that

system to meet those needs, to meet those, those desired goals. So I would imagine,

uh, Darren, when you started out in law enforcement, uh, and this is the same for

when I was growing up and Chris, I'm sure the same for you too. It seemed like

there were two primary options for home security. One was a all -encompassing,

like you hire a company. I'm not gonna mention the name, but they come out, they

install all the things, and then you pay them for a monitoring service as well. So

that's option one. Option two is you get a big scary dog that may or may not

work. A lot has changed. Technology has changed.

I think homeowners have become, I don't know, our society has changed too. You know,

we used to be a front porch society where we sit out on the front stoop. We all

know our neighbors. So many of us now pull in our garages at night.

We might not see our neighbors for weeks at a time. I am inundated with

advertisements on streaming platforms and podcasts for do -it -yourself a la carte kind

of systems. So what is the difference between a DIY system that maybe I go and buy

some stuff on Amazon or from one of these other companies that may have some really

great products? So what's the difference between that and going with a company that's

that has a track record of not only knowing the technology side, but also serving

this local community. So what are the differences there that you've seen?

So in many cases, your DIY equipment that you buy from Amazon or anywhere is

proprietary. So if something breaks, you're going to have to go back to that company

and try to find a apart or a piece that's going to work with it. Everything right

down to the cabling, the wire could be a lesser quality, lesser grade.

You have to remember that they're in business to make money, like everybody is, and

we are too. But I'm honest and upfront with all of our customers, and if you find

a DIY solution that actually works for you, I'll say, "Hey, that's

or whatever questions I can answer and you know, we're here if you change your

mind. I think quality and those types of things that you don't see,

they show you the shiny bells and whistles but you miss what's in the box until

you start putting it together and then you're like, was this worth what I paid for

it or is this going to do what I want it to do? And then, You know, having a

company that's local that can respond when you need help, we have a dedicated

service team, we've got dedicated office staff, at least for people in the office,

most all the time to take questions and answer calls and send service tax. You

know, that's invaluable. When you need something, I mean, I picked the phone up,

I made myself available last night for a public meeting regarding a system that we

had quoted and I answer the phone whenever it rings if it's a customer or somebody

calling that needs help you know we've got a dedicated service line for the same

reason so I guess you're not just buying an alarm system you're buying the company

so you've got us there kind of in your back pocket if something goes wrong you

know we want to help we're happy to help so So I think that's the biggest and

noticeable difference. And then we've got people like Chris that will come out and

meet you. And these systems are expandable. So knowing what they can do,

you can start off small, you can add to them. And a lot of times when you get

something that's DIY, it's like, did I buy a kit that I can add to in the future?

You know, what if we add a room on or what if I decide I want more sensors or

my security needs have changed, you know, that's that's where you pick the phone up

and call us. Yeah, I would imagine, you know, I'm kind of making the assumption

that when you go to the DIY route that somebody might be under protected. But I'm

sure there are people out there that will just throw cash at gadgets and go

overboard to the point where the system isn't even like maybe the the different

devices don't talk to one another and there's there's all sorts of unseen holes in

their whatever you want to call it in the system that they've installed. Have you

guys come across that where somebody is just like, I got all the cool things, but

they're not actually doing what they were designed to do even get absolutely.

Yeah, and, you - And I can give you a prime example is we've had people that have

maybe smoke alarm that's installed in an improper area. So you don't wanna put them

around vents and those types of things that could false alarm, false trip it due to

dust. A lot of times when we start explaining how the system works, it's really

more or different than what the customer thought from the beginning. So they're like,

oh, okay, so now I get it. I understand why I need this to do that. You know,

so many times, like I said, that they'll read that cut sheet, they'll read that

information online or the one person who put up a, I won't say the name, but put

up a DIY camera and they loved it. And they're like, this is what you need. You've

got to get this. This is the greatest. It's not even what the person is looking

for or what they have to have. Maybe they need to read tags or, you know, maybe

they need personal identification to send them a notification if somebody's at their

door. I mean, it's just endless. All right. I think this is the perfect place to

hit pause for this week. Next Friday, we will finish up the conversation that I had

with Darren and Chris. Hey, would you please help us continue to get the word out

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