3 Tips To Help You Keep Your Home Safe From Break-Ins

Having your home broken into and valuables stolen can make you feel violated and unsafe. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to help increase your chances of remaining safe from a break-in. Here are three tips to help you keep your home safe.

Make Friends With Your Neighbors

Often a family moving into a new area does not take the time to get to know their neighbors. Working full time, transporting children around town, and other outside activities can make your life busy, but it is important to take some time to get to know your neighbors. Doing this can help you by giving you allies living next door to you who can watch your home while you are away and alert you to any possible break-ins. Befriending a neighbor who is home all day long is especially helpful, as they may see strangers lurking around your home when you are at work.

Take a few minutes next weekend to take a plate of cookies to your neighbors, which can give you a chance to get to know them and them to know you. Then, if you are planning to go out of town, you can mention it to your neighbors so they can be aware of your upcoming absence and keep an eye on your home while you are gone. They can also collect your mail and any newspaper delivery and take your trash can to the curb and bring it back in on trash day.

Use Current Technology

With all the available technology on the market today, you can keep an eye on your home's exterior by installing a security camera that you can watch on an app from your smart phone. Many homes are being upgraded to smart homes, so you can turn lights on and off in your home while you are away.

You can also sign up for a continual home monitoring system with a home alarm, motion detectors, and security cameras. Then, if your home's alarm sounds, the security company will follow up with you and can even send someone to your home to check it. Just having a security system installed and promoted on your home's exterior can help prevent a burglary, as 90 percent of convicted burglars avoid breaking into a home that has a security system. Contact a company like Videotec Corporation to learn more about alarm systems.

Another type of technology you can use in your home is programmable timers to turn your home's interior and exterior lights on and off at different times of the day. Be sure to keep the timer backed up on a battery so that, if the power goes out for a period, the timer does not stop and the timing of your lights turning on and off is not altered. Also install a motion sensor on your exterior lights, which will turn on when someone walks around your home's exterior. This is a good way to alert your neighbors and light up the darkness to reveal an intruder at the same time.

Leave Your Home Looking Occupied

Another way to protect your home against burglars and break-ins is to keep your home looking occupied so an intruder won't attempt to burglarize it, which can be completed in many different ways. First, hire or ask a neighbor to mow your lawn and shovel any snowfall from your sidewalk and driveway while you are away. An overgrown lawn or snow-covered pavement can give the indication you have not been home for some time.

As you leave your home for the day to go to work, turn on a television or radio, which can give the appearance to anyone casing your home that you are inside. You can even turn on a light while you are gone at night that illuminates to flicker inside your home just as a television appears at night. Set this on a timer to come on at night and turn on at around your bedtime.

Use these tips to help keep your home protected against a home burglary.

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