Nobody Will Give You a Price Over the Phone. Here's Why That's Not a Runaround.
You call three monitoring companies, describe your property in about 90 seconds, and each one says the same thing: we'd need to see the site. It sounds like a sales tactic designed to get someone into your parking lot.
It isn't. How much remote video monitoring costs depends on about 10 variables, and the only honest answer starts with someone seeing the property.
This sits within the wider remote video monitoring guide(opens in new tab) if you want the service explained end-to-end first.
Remote video monitoring is custom-priced based on your property's camera count, coverage hours, site risk level, and deployment method. No published rate applies to every commercial property. Valley Alarm's process starts with a site walk, where a security specialist visits your location, identifies coverage zones, and provides a written quote.
What follows is what actually moves the number, so you can walk into that conversation knowing whether or not a quote is reasonable.
Jump to: What drives the price | Equipment vs monitoring | Guard cost comparison | The site walk | Before you call
How Much Does Remote Video Monitoring Cost? Five Things Drive the Number
Camera count and coverage zones. Not square footage; sight lines. A rectangular lot with clean corners takes fewer cameras than an L-shaped property with a building blocking half the yard. Two sites of identical acreage can differ by several cameras.
Hours monitored. After-hours-only coverage, meaning roughly 6 PM to 6 AM plus weekends, costs less than 24/7. Worth knowing before you assume an overnight stay is enough: 43% of ValleyGuard's logged incidents occur during normal business hours.
Site type and risk level. A vacant building with copper in the walls is a different exposure than an occupied office park. Providers price against what's likely to happen, not just what's there.
Deployment method. A permanent install, where power and network already exist, is the cheapest path. Solar-powered pole-mounted cameras cost more up front, but they reach places conduit doesn't. A solar-powered mobile security trailer costs more still, and it can be moved next week when the work moves.
Rule complexity. Every zone, schedule, and exception takes configuration and ongoing tuning. A site with one gate and fixed hours is simpler than a distribution yard with three shifts, a delivery window, and a section that's only off-limits on weekends.
Equipment and Monitoring Are Two Different Line Items
This trips people up more than anything else on the quote.
The equipment cost is one-time: cameras, mounts, speakers, the solar unit or the trailer if you need one, and the labor to install it. The monitoring cost is recurring and pays for someone to be watching.
You can spend well on equipment and still have nothing to watch it, which is the situation many properties are already in. Cameras alone record. The recurring line is the part that intervenes.
What Guards Cost, for Comparison
Most people asking about monitoring price are really asking whether it beats guard coverage. Here are the industry figures.
Security guards covering overnight construction sites in Los Angeles run $50 to $60 per hour at base rates, which works out to $600 to $720 for a 12-hour overnight shift. Industry-wide, a single guard shift runs $3,000 to $5,000 per month, and round-the-clock coverage for one property typically exceeds $10,000 per month.
Those are industry numbers, not Valley Alarm's. What they tell you is the shape of the comparison: guard cost scales with hours and headcount, monitoring cost scales with cameras and zones. On a large property with long periods of inactivity, that math tends to favor monitoring. On a small site that needs someone checking IDs at a door during business hours, it doesn't.
The full breakdown is in ValleyGuard video monitoring vs live security guards.
What Happens at a Site Walk
A specialist walks the property with you.
They're looking at where people can actually get in, and it's rarely the front gate. They map camera positions against those approaches, check which power and network infrastructure exists, and note what's already installed and can be reused.
Then you get a written quote covering equipment, installation, and the recurring monitoring line, with the coverage zones spelled out so you can see what's watched and what isn't.
What to Have Ready Before You Call
Four things make the conversation faster and the quote more accurate.
The property address and rough acreage. A satellite view does a lot of the early work.
Your hours. When is the property occupied, when is it empty, and when do deliveries or crews come through.
The actual problem. Theft, trespassing, vandalism, encampments, or an insurance requirement. "General security" produces a generic answer.
Temporary or permanent. A nine-month construction schedule and a distribution center you'll own for twenty years call for different hardware.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is remote video monitoring cheaper than hiring security guards?
Usually on properties with long unoccupied hours, because one Intervention Specialist covers every camera zone at once while a guard can only cover one patrol route. Guard coverage runs $3,000 to $5,000 per shift per month industry-wide, and 24/7 coverage for one property typically tops $10,000 per month. Monitoring's quoted per site, so the honest comparison comes from your quote against those figures.
Why won't companies publish monitoring prices?
Because the inputs vary too much for a rate card to mean anything. Camera count, coverage hours, deployment method, and site risk all move the number, and a published price would either be so padded it's useless or so low it's bait.
Does a bigger property always cost more to monitor?
Not necessarily. Sightlines matter more than acreage, so a large, open lot with clear views can require fewer cameras than a smaller site broken up by buildings, fencing, and parked equipment.
What if my site has no power or internet?
Solar-powered pole-mounted cameras and solar-powered mobile security trailers run on battery and solar power, with cellular connectivity. There's an equipment premium over a hardwired install, but it beats trenching for power. That's covered in commercial security without wiring.
Get an accurate number for your property.
A Valley Alarm specialist walks your site, maps the coverage zones, and puts a written quote in front of you. Serving Greater Los Angeles, Ventura County, and the Inland Empire.
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