1. Know Your Neighborhood
A criminal can often be discouraged by the mere presence of an alert neighbor. That’s why you should familiarize yourself with your neighborhood as much as you can. This will allow you to be able to notice strangers or unfamiliar vehicles with much more ease than you would if you weren’t so familiar with your surroundings. If a suspicious vehicle keeps turning up in the neighborhood time and again, be sure to note down its license plates and call the police.
2. Keep Your Mouth Shut About Your Whereabouts
Although it’s tempting to tell the whole world about your next exciting vacation, you should really keep your whereabouts to yourself, especially if you’re going overseas. Sharing this information on your social media channels just gives unscrupulous individuals scope to rob you blind while your place is empty. An individual could unwittingly share information about your vacation that gets overheard by a thief. Let people know about your vacation when you’re back home.
3. Know Your Dog-Walker Well
In life, it’s inevitable that you have people coming and going from your home for a variety of reasons. That’s why it’s important to research individuals that have access to your home for any period of time while you’re not there. Conduct background checks on such individuals, which could be vendors, house sitters, nannies, dog walkers or housekeepers. It isn’t an uncommon occurrence for homes to be robbed or vandalized by individuals that were trusted by homeowners.
4. Install a Smart Alarm
A smart alarm will go a long way toward securing your home – just make sure that you get one with glass break and motion detection technology. You’ll be able to monitor what’s going on at your home when you’re away via a smartphone app, and an additional level of security can be added by incorporating monitoring systems for housing components such as lights, thermostats, sump pumps into your smart alarm system.
5. Install a Perimeter Camera System
Cover all access points in your home by installing a perimeter camera system. A facial recognition camera with infrared capability for night viewing can be purchased for a several hundred dollars, so an amazing, high-tech system can be installed for a couple of thousand to protect your home.
6. Install Motion-Activated Lighting
Another excellent deterrent is motion-activated lighting. Exterior and perimeter motion-activated lighting is both a low-cost and efficient security measure that alerts the homeowner to an intrusion and scares the intruder away.
7. Fortify Your Doors
Are your front or back doors or windows weak in places? If they are, then make sure you see to them, because they provide the easiest way for an intruder to break into your home. Add bump-proof or pick-proof locks and use 3-inch screws on deep box strike plate to burrow deep into a doorframe and give it additional protection.
8. Strengthen Your Windows
Install 12-millimeter security film over windows and sliding glass doors to give them more resistance to breakage. Place a wood or metal dowel that fits snugly on the sliding glass door track to keep the door from sliding open even when it’s unlocked.
9. Don’t Forget the Garage
Secure the windows and doors of your garage just as you would secure the windows and doors of your home. Install an alarm on the garage door and use an electronic garage door opener to get in and out while in your car. Always make sure that you close your garage door when you leave home and be sure to lock it.
10. Get the Right Kind of Safe
Store your valuables in a safe that’s installed in concrete, hidden from sight, or both. Also, make sure that it’s hefty enough for it to be extremely difficult to remove.
11. Leave At Least One Light On When You’re Out
You should definitely always at least one light on when you’re out to give the impression that someone’s home, but you can also install a system that allows you to program lights to turn off at certain times of day and night. A radio programmed to talk is also a good deterrent, because it sounds like people chatting away inside your home.
