I believe that having a system that will make enough noise to alert your neighbors is a good idea, but paying to have it monitored is a waste of time. I know 2 police officer personally, and both of them say that a monitored alarm system does nothing to deter a professional thief because they will get in and out before the alarm company does anything about it.
The problem is that the alarm company will go through several steps of confirming there is a real issue before contacting the police, and then it is still going to take the cops a few minutes to get there. Even if all of that only adds up to 6 or 7 minutes, that is probably 4 minutes longer than the thief needs to get all of the good stuff - electronics, jewellery, and cash. A case could be made for the fire monitoring aspect, but honestly, what are the chances of your place burning down? 1 in 100,000?
I would finish the system off yourself and just hope your neighbors pick up the phone when they hear the alarm.
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