Owning a home is the ultimate dream for many people. While moving to your new home is exciting and fun, it’s easy for the new owners to lose focus on keeping the place secure.
It is believed that in the United States, a home burglary occurs every 14.6 seconds. Even the safest neighborhoods are not immune to the occasional burglary. Due to the magnitude of property loss, it’s wise for the new homeowners to put home security in place. From pruning the hedges to installing an alarm system to eliminating hidden places, here are top 7 ways of improving your new home’s security.
- Landscape your Yard
Landscaping your yard plays a crucial role in improving your home security since some features may become an attractive target for thieves. Large shrubbery offers a hiding place for intruders while they survey your home. Large hedges, especially near windows, decrease visibility, making it hard for a neighbor to detect an intruder entering your house. Cut and trim your exterior bushes, keeping them below the window height, three feet or shorter. Additionally, it’s advisable to plant thorn plants and bushes near windows.
Cover the window areas with gravel. Gravel will make a crunching sound when someone walks on it, while the thorny bushes will discourage criminals from coming near your home.
- Invest in Monitored Home Security System
A home security system helps to deter burglary by putting a warning sign in your yard, and it also acts as a fail-safe in case the worst happens. A security system will detect a breach and emit piercing noise to scare the would-be thieves. Then, if they become bold enough to challenge the security system, the system activates an alarm notifying law enforcement. Moreover, having a monitored security system helps in watching over your family and property from anywhere and anytime. You may opt to add an extra security features like fire detection and environmental sensors. Adding the environmental sensors help to detect when the heating system fails and produces bad odor.
- Rekey the Door Locks
New homeowners should prioritize re-keying their exterior locks. For one, you don’t know who may have an extra key from contractors to previous homeowners to neighbors and family members. Having the exterior locks re-keyed will ensure no stranger will have access to your new home without your consent. Furthermore, the rekeying process may enable you to make some lock choices like controlling the accessible rooms in your home to create a master key system and installing mortice locks.
- Install Smart Security on your doors and windows
The most common site of entry for home break-ins is via the doors and windows. Putting mesh security screens on doors and windows acts as a security barrier while allowing the owner to open the house without jeopardizing safety. Additionally, most security screens are made of metal, making it a challenge to break. Furthermore, double glazing windows prevents intruders from breaking the glass.
Add a video doorbell, door and window sensors or a glass break sensor, strike plate, and install a deadbolt. Keep your windows locked and beef up the security with key-operated levers or locks. Reinforce the window glass with the security film and add window bars
- Light Up your Home
Burglars, vandals, and intruders don’t like being in the spotlight. Keep away unwanted criminals by having ample outdoor lightning. Likewise, having interior lightning that makes your home look occupied, makes you less of a target for potential thieves.
Place lights around your interior and exterior in strategic places like along the pathways, back and front yards, near the garage, along the corridors, balconies and other outdoor structures. Furthermore, make your outdoor security lights more effective by adding motion-activated lights, using save energy bulbs and solar-powered lights, and putting a timer.
- Embrace Smart Home Automation
Home security systems keep people valuables and property secure, but with added interactive features, it adds convenience and safety to a new home. Adding interactive features gives a homeowner direct and constant connection to their security system. The smart instructive feature technology allows the user to disarm and arm the security system using their smartphone. Also, they can receive an alert in case anything goes wrong at home. For example, buy automated curtain rails to enable you close and open curtains remotely.
- Deceive the Burglar
Amazingly, a majority of the thieves live within the locality of their potential victim home, enabling them to scope out the property’s weaknesses and monitor your daily routine. To deceive Bulgary, you can;
- Pull the blinds down and draw curtains when leaving the house
- Turn on the radio and invest in Fake TV device. A Fake TV device comes with various high-intensity LED lights that stimulate different light patterns like the ones produced TV.
- Get electronic simulators that sound like a dog barking or get a dog.
- Invest in Smart LED light bulbs programmed to be operated remotely. Also, use timers to help turn on the light in different areas of your home.
- Hide your valuables in an intelligent way away from the master bedroom, invest in a home safe, or rent a safe deposit box.
- When going on vacation, rent out your home parking lot, or leave a car at home. Also, entrust a neighbor to pick up your deliveries and mail.
Considering the cost of replacing things stolen, having a good security system is a bargain. Your home is your sacred space, and keeping it safe from violation by heartless criminals is crucial.
While the above tips may not completely eliminate the threat, they significantly reduce the chances of being robbed and they protect the possessions and people you love.
