When we work with homeowners to secure their homes, we take a multi-faceted approach to creating this security. Of course, each and every application that we work in has its own unique security difficulties. Homes and yards have different layouts, and each customer has different worries. However, we always have a fairly similar overall goal. Generally speaking, we want to make your home as unattractive to thieves as possible. After all, criminals do not attempt their crimes unprepared. By the time they breach a home, they’ve generally planned a way in and out, as well as what they wish to take. Therefore, we have ways to anticipate and prepare for your house getting “scouted” by thieves. In this post, we show you how you can go about making your home unattractive to burglars.
First, we’ll discuss how you can make it less evident that you have coveted items. Temptation often comes in the form of inadvertantly-advertised items that thieves seek out in order to sell for money. From there, we’ll focus on how to make your home’s exterior unattractive to anyone thinking of trying to break in. Then, we’ll share some security equipment-related means of making your home unattractive to burglars. Specifically, we’ll review the importance of installing burglar alarm and surveillance systems. Now, let’s dive in with an overview of how to hide evidence of valuables in your home!
Hiding Evidence of Electronics and Valuables
When burglars think about their ideal “haul,” certain things always have value to them. For example, cash, credit cards, and receipts or papers with banking and personal information can go a long way for them. They can use these things directly after leaving the home. Moreover, thieves also want items with street value to sell upon leaving your home. If their victims’ house sits in a rural area, big-screen televisions and expensive audio systems may appear tempting. Of course, these items prove harder to carry out inconspicuously in more urban areas. In these settings, laptops, video game systems and phones may take precedence as the desired items to grab before leaving. Either way, we recommend taking steps hide the purchases of these prized items from the outside world.
Placing expensive electronics within reach of windows creates a tempting situation for burglars and negatively affects your security.
For starters, consider what people walking by your home can see as they pass your house. Do you have an office with a laptop in the front window? How about a clear view of a large television playing for the whole neighborhood to watch if they choose? We advise you to stay aware of what people outside your home can observe. Finally, consider hiding evidence of large purchases from sight until the last minute. This means holding onto boxes from your electronics until recycling day, rather than having them sitting outside for multiple days. Following these tips can go a long way towards keeping criminals from targeting your home. Next up, we’ll check out some “housekeeping” tips to add security to your home’s exterior.
Making it Hard to Enter Your Home Unseen
As we’ve mentioned, thieves usually “scout” out potential targets looking for a handful of things that act as an “invitation” to attempt their crime. Right near the top of this checklist lies the presence of hard-to-spot areas within a property. These areas allow burglars to scheme and then conduct their crimes out of the sight of passersby. So, what do these blind spots entail? For starters, areas with poor or even nonexistent lighting make for great places for burglars to get closer to their target without detection. Furthermore, tall bushes and shrubbery outside of windows allow for some up-close snooping and waiting before gaining entry. Finally, wood fencing can turn any yard or property exterior into one large “blind spot!”
Fortunately, the nature of these issues makes their solutions quite simple to deduct. Installing exterior lighting that illuminates your entire property adds quite a bit of security. This often involves installing motion-based lighting for residential properties. Keeping your shrubs and plants well-groomed, and even planting thorn-bearing bushes and shrubs, can also help. Finally, consider chain-link or wrought-iron fencing over a wood fence if you wish to fence your property in. With these exterior security tips in mind, we’ll turn our attention to installing some security equipment to help turn burglars away from your home.
Installing — and “Advertising” — an Effective Burglar Alarm
When it comes to securing your home, installing a monitored home security system provides some of the most valuable security available. These alarms provide a couple layers of security against burglary. For starters, they create a blaring siren response upon detecting a breach. Additionally, they also create a central station response that can lead to a police dispatch if nesessary. We’ve worked with over a thousand customers to design effective burglar alarms for their property. Of course, every home comes with its own unique layout. We especially look for potential “weak spots” that will attract burglars and work to secure those with alarm equipment.
Moreover, we will also work with you to create the security experience you desire. We offer alarms that provide a simple “set it and forget it” approach. We also offer equipment that can connect your security system to your smartphone and to a variety of smart home appliances for added security. Just as every house we secure is different, every homeowner we work with also has a different expected experience for using their alarm as well.
Advertising the presence of your burglar alarm makes your home a much less likely target for a burglary!
Finally, we also highly recommend advertising the presence of your burglar alarm. We offer free yard signs and stickers with our company logo to all of our customers. The mere presence of a security system can greatly assist in making your home unattractive to burglars. With knowledge of your security in mind, they will likely pick another target for their crime. Now, let’s look at a form of home security that’s gained quite a bit of popularity in recent years!
Surveilling Your Home and Yard
If you’ve paid attention to security trends over the last several years, you’ll have noticed a sharp increase in home surveillance installations. We can point to a couple different reasons for this. For starters, cameras used to represent a fairly cost-prohibitive security measure. Only certain businesses had the money to install these devices. However, technology increases have actually made cameras more cost-efficient while also making them more effective than ever! Additionally, technology improvements have also had the effect of making surveillance easier than ever to install. This lets us install cameras in homes where we could not have done so in years past.
We have a couple methods that we can use to create home surveillance for you. Traditionally, we run wiring from a dedicated recorder to each camera location around your home. This creates 24/7 recording of everything that happens within your cameras’ field of vision. Lately, we’ve also seen the rise in popularity of smart cameras. Our preferred Alarm.com smart cameras work without the presence of a recorder, providing a quicker and more cost-effective installation than traditional cameras provide. Rather than recording video to a recorder, these cameras capture motion-activated clips and store them in the cloud. As an added bonus, Alarm.com cameras can also send you live video alerts upon detecting motion. This greatly enhances your security and peace of mind during any extended absence from your home!
Putting it All Together and Making Your Home Unattractive to Burglars
We hope that this post helps you in your attempts at making your home unattractive to burglars. Of course, we encourage you to contact us with any questions this post may raise for you. We will happily answer any and all of your security-related inquiries. Furthermore, we also encourage you to take advantage of our free site survey program. We offer complimentary security audits and equipment quotes to both new and existing customers alike. During our visit, we can address your existing security concerns and fears. At the same time, we can make suggestions of our own based on our observations of your property. Together, we can create a complete security plan to keep you, your home, and your family as safe and secure as possible!