It depends on the construction details of your house. We are currently working in a home that was built in the 1930’s.
Running electrical wires to the first floor has been a problem, because all the walls have brick fire stops. The electrician has to drill through them. This requires the right tools, a heavy duty drill and long masonry and wood bits. Fishing wires is a bit of an art. It takes a little bit of “touch” to get the leads through. If you’re not sure, try drilling a test hole, up from the basement. Triple-check your measurements, to avoid drilling through the floor. Good luck.

I’m going to be the cog in the wheel here. Yes it is fairly easy to install a security system. Hardwire does involve a little more time but is definately worth the effort.
Wireless, particularly do-it-youself versions will leave you wasting your money. Anyone who tells you differently is trying to make a quick buck.
As for hardwiring, the easiest homes to install alarms in have an attic and or crawl space / unfinished basement.
Things to keep in mind:
– home run all wires – every window, motion glassbreak etc goes back to the panel
– Avoid splices if you need to make a splice solder the connections and make sure it is a tight splice. Bad splices result in high loop resistance which causes false alarms.
– Motion detectors detect infrared (hardwire and wireless) do not aim at heaters, windows facing the sun fireplaces fans etc.
– The strongest part of the magnet is the tip. Keep this in mind when installing magnetic contacts.

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If you do decide to get a system professionally installed, call around don’t get looped into a free package alarm hooked to a contract – Montoring is a good idea but it is a good idea to look at the company behind it. PLEASE do not waste money on a wireless alarm. I may be in the business and biased but chances are I am not in your area so I have nothing to gain or loose either way. I just **** to see people get hosed. You may want to stay away from department / home improvement store models of hardwire or wireless. These are typically cheaply made offshore and don’t come with any support.

Not hard at all – Get a Do-It-Yourself System from JC Surveillance.

That is JCSurveillance.com

hi i’m bill.you can get the wireless ones really simple to use and you can put the sensors anywhere you like.idone my own home in less than 1 hour good luck

I agree with the answerer above, my system was installed for free with the purchase of the system. My builder pre-wired for the motion detectors, window and door contacts, so it was fairly easy for them to install the keypads, connect to the phone panel, install the back-up battery and connect to the hardwired smoke detectors. That being said, I just saw over the weekend home security alarm kits at both Lowes and Home Depot. The boxes said “easy for homeowners to install” and “everything included”. I didn’t look carefully enough to see what was included, but you might want to take a look at what is at your home improvement stores.

I had a room-mate who installed these for a living.
They are very, very simple.

Many of them have wireless sensors.
The keypad / brains comes with a book that teaches you everything you need to know about setting it up (e.g. defining ‘zones’, adding devices to each zone, what number to call, how long to delay, etc.)

In order to be safe, however, you need to have it connected to a phone line. That means you will have to run a wire from the keypad to your phone block. Plus it needs electricity. So you have at least two wires to fish through the wall.

Plus, you should sign up with a monitoring service for a monthly fee. If you really wanted to stay cheap, you could just wire to a loud speaker, but that won’t bring the police or fire trucks.

Many companies will provide the basic hardware and installation for free if you sign up with their monitoring service for a couple of years.