Video doorbell for upper levels of multi-fam brownstone?

Hi, we can’t see out our front door and want to use a video doorbell. There is an old buzzer intercom in place for two of the apartments. I had a company come out to give an estimate and it was over $1500 to replace with a video system which is not in the budget right now. I’ve done so much research on the ones you can buy but I can’t really figure out how it works best in the city. Can we just use one of the battery powered options on top of that intercom or do we need to take off the old intercom and install video doorbells for both apartments? Or is it best to get a wired one and have someone install somehow? Also does anyone have recommendations for these products that are secure and good? I mostly care about being able to see who is at the door, not 24-7 video surveillance and want to avoid companies with unsafe privacy practices. Thank you so much for any insights.

Guest User | 2 years and 2 months ago

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Guest User | 2 years and 2 months ago

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string(6) "201933"

Thank you so much!

workisfun | 2 years and 2 months ago

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We use a Simplisafe doorbell cam that we wired into the foyer switchbay. The doorbell wiring was too old and we opted to get the plug in bells that sync with the doorbell cam. Works great. Like $40.

Guest User | 2 years and 2 months ago

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You are right — I just looked again and it was more like $3,000 and that was two years ago. I’m not complaining about that price though, just that we are looking for a more DIY option as a lot of people seem to use them and we don’t want to spend that amount on the door at the moment.

cate | 2 years and 2 months ago

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$1500 for a wired video doorbell sounds cheap to me. We paid many times that when we needed to repair/rewrite our three existing doorbells.