If you are into DYI, check out
http://www.aesecurity.com/
I installed an Ademco system in a previous residence and replaced a brinks in our current house with an ademco. They are nice alarms. You still have the option of monitoring at lower rates than the national firms. Or you can run the system without monitoring and just use the sirens and lights. There are options for dialers that can call your cell phone if your are away and have an alarm.
I tried one of the national monitoring firms for a couple of years and was not impressed. They took forever to call when the we accidentally set off the alarm.
Funny story, when we first moved in to our current house, the previous owner had been using brinks. The alarm had been canceled prior to the move. I was out of town and the wife was home with the kids. My youngest (2 yrs at the time) is the kind of kid that has to touch everything. He decided to push the "fire" button on the alarm panel. The siren starts wailing... The kids and wife are freaking.... The wife calls my cell in a panic, wanting to know how to shut it off. Since we didn't have a code, I had her pry the box open and pull the battery and power. We ended our call and I had a good laugh. About 5 minutes later, she calls back and there are 3 fire trucks in front of the house.....