Last Updated on 09/04/2022 by hortonteam
When it comes to home security, you can never be too safe. Not sure where to begin? Check out these four ways you can reclaim peace of mind in your own home.
1. Don’t Make it Easier for Them
If you’re looking to bolster your home security, there are plenty of steps you can take with spending little to no money. Prospective burglars will often scope out a home before attempting any kind of intrusion or thievery. With that in mind, you should do your best to hide any information that may reveal that your home is an easy target. Are you planning a long vacation, or perhaps you’ve already landed on the beach? Don’t blow up your social media pages with photos showing that you’re away or planning to be away; instead, wait until you return to post all of your favorite vacation memories. Even if you aren’t planning on heading out of town, you can still make the task harder for anyone wanting to snoop around your home. Make sure all openings to your home are locked and secured, including windows and garage access doors. Sometimes a locked door is all it takes to dissuade an amateur thief from choosing your home. You may also want to get creative when it comes to hiding any spare keys. Instead of placing a key underneath the stereotypical door mat, try hiding it inside a planted pot, inside a covered, exterior electrical outlet, or in the safety of your neighbor’s possession!
Prospective burglars will often scope out a home before attempting any kind of intrusion or thievery. With that in mind, you should do your best to hide any information that may reveal that your home is an easy target. Click To Tweet2. Is Anyone Home?
Another breach in home security that many thieves look for is whether or not someone is living in the home. With so many homes for sale in Evansville, it’s not uncommon to find homes that are vacant or unlived in. Does your home present a drab exterior that looks like it hasn’t been touched up in some time? If so, you could be on someone’s radar. Fortunately there are plenty of cheap and easy fixes for this problem. Try adding some landscaping to the front of the home or seasonal decorations around your door or porch. If you have a garage, mix up your routine by parking in the driveaway once every few days — just don’t forget to lock your car doors! Just like with the locked doors mentioned before, many burglars will pass over your home as soon as they see that someone is living there and actively taking care of the home. Another age-old trick is to leave a light or two on throughout the night. With the advancement of light bulb technology in recent years, you can find a wide variety of light bulbs at your local hardware store that are both bright and extremely energy efficient, meaning you can dramatically increase your home security while minimally affecting your electric bill.
3. Take Your Home into the 21st Century
For a long time, the only technological defense you could purchase was a subscription-based security service sold by several different home security companies. While these products can be highly effective, they’re often expensive and must be professionally installed. With the introduction of smart technology into consumer homes, you can now find similar types of tech-enabled security designed for consumer installation from many retailers. Some of these items include doorbell or porch cameras, smart door locks, motion sensors, and several other pieces of tech. Along with their relatively low cost, most of these items can be controlled and monitored through mobile apps, meaning you can check up on your home or make sure your doors are locked from across the country. Even if you aren’t keen on creating a “smart home,” you can still set up things like motion-sensor flood lights with minimal effort. Just like with the light bulbs mentioned before, you can invest in energy efficient flood lights (or those that come with shut-off timers) to save on your electric bill.
With the introduction of smart technology into consumer homes, you can now find similar types of tech-enabled security designed for consumer installation from many retailers. Click To Tweet4. Don’t Sleep on Internet Home Security
When it comes to home security, most people immediately think of the topics we’ve already covered. Unfortunately, thieves are always getting smarter, and your internet technology could be their next approach to gaining an upper hand. Just like your physical home, your internet data can reveal lots of private information if not properly secured. Even if the average street burglar doesn’t know how to access your data, a professional may know how to hack into your home Wi-Fi and steal things like credit card numbers, bank account information, or even your identity. If that last sentence scares you, don’t be too alarmed: there are plenty of steps you can take to prevent this phenomenon, and most of them can be accomplished for free. Some of the best advice you can take is to properly secure your Wi-Fi with a WPA2 password, regularly change your most important passwords, and utilize industry-recognized anti-virus and anti-malware software. You can find these types of programs for free, and many of them will run scheduled system checks to make sure your computers and other Wi-Fi devices don’t contain any information-stealing viruses or programs.
No home is ever completely safe from burglary, as criminals are always trying to stay a step ahead the law. However, with a little effort and diligence, you can dramatically increase the odds that your home is passed over by anyone looking for a target. Are you interested in learning even more about home security? Send our page a message and we’ll get you in touch with local security professionals in Evansville.