Last week, we created a post sharing tips for Creating Rental Property Security. In that post, we shared the difficulties — and solutions for these challenges — behind securing rental properties from a landlord’s perspective. This week, we go through a similar process, but through the eyes of those on the other side of the renter/landlord relationship. In this post, we share some important security tips for renters!
Similarly to last week, we’ll begin with a look at the challenges created by this type of application. From there, we’ll tackle these issues one by one. First, we’ll review how renters can re-key their doors upon moving into a rented apartment or home. Then, we’ll focus on wireless alarm installation that does not require altering your living space in any manner. Then, we’ll shift our attention to a couple ways to keep an eye on your valuables. Specifically, these will include selecting a safe to keep your most prized possessions inside, as well as creating surveillance to watch over your home. Now, let’s dive in and see why this area of security deserves special attention.
What Makes Security for Renters Challenging?
When dealing with rental properties, we have a couple hurdles to deal with. For starters, renters do not usually have the power to alter the property they live in. Traditionally, many security measures involve running wiring. Specifically, installing cameras and burglar alarms have not always been an option to renters because of this very reason. Later in this post, well explain how modern security technology lets us overcome this issue.
Re-keying your locks allows you to keep anyone with old keys out of your rented home.
Our other security issue concerns the nature of living in a rental property. Specifically, you’ll likely need to let people into the area you live to make repairs and appliance upgrades that homeowners can either make themselves or make their own arrangements to complete. Therefore, we must keep this security factor in mind when designing a security plan for renters. Throughout this post, we’ll show you how you can secure your rented home against this unique variable. Now, let’s share some security tips for renters, beginning with the benefits of re-keying your locks.
Re-Keying Your Exterior Doors
We discussed the importance of making re-keying your exterior doors a priority in our post on Improving Security for New Homeowners. This need only intensifies when it comes to rental home and apartment security. Rental properties tend to change hands frequently. However, landlords and rental offices often have their locks re-keyed very infrequently. This makes it quite likely that several people have or have had a key to your home. As long as you provide your landlord with a copy of your new key, you can likely re-key your exterior doors without any issues. Doing so ensures that any previous inhabitant of your home (and any friends or family members they may have given keys to) cannot come back and enter your home uninvited. This is a very practical and inexpensive rental home and apartment security tip that we highly recommend! Let’s now turn our attention to the power of installing wireless alarm equipment in your home.
The Wireless Alarm Advantage
As we mentioned before, the wiring and drilling required for installing traditional alarm systems scare away many landlords. Therefore, many security companies also stay away. Fortunately for those in the market for rental or apartment security, we offer completely wireless alarms. These systems do not require altering the property where we install them. In fact, we can install our preferred security system panel, the QOLSYS IQ Panel 4, without running any wires at all!
For starters, this system communicates with long-range, wireless alarm sensors. We can install these contacts without drilling holes in your walls or door frames by using adhesive. Additionally, we can even install the panel and keypad itself without running any wiring! As you can see in the picture, we can mount this panel/keypad unit on a countertop without the need to mount it on your wall the way we would with an older alarm keypad.
We can install a QOLSYS IQ Panel 4 in your home and put it on a stand without drilling any holes or running any wires.
In addition, the QOLSYS IQ Panel 4 also comes with our Alarm.com cellular dialer, adding even more features to your security system. An Alarm.com dialer acts as a smart home hub, allowing you to control lights, thermostats, and other devices with your smartphone. You will also have the ability to turn the security system itself on and off with a smartphone and receive an immediate alert for events such as alarm activation, low sensor batteries or any other issues. We always recommend this form of interactive cellular monitoring thanks to its simplicity, convenience, and extra security!
Taking Measures to Monitor Your Valuables
As we’ve already mentioned, renters must often let others in their yards and homes. This occurs in rental properties such as condos or homes within larger living communities. It also happens in apartment complexes. Homeowners can schedule contractors to work on their homes. Renters, however, must often allow workers into their homes at the mercy of their landlords or rental associations’ schedules. Whether installing a seasonal air conditioner or performing maintenance such as fixing a leaky pipe, contractors must often enter renters’ homes on demand to complete their work. For this reason, we recommend taking a couple steps to look after your valuables.
Locking Up Your Belongings
Just about all of our customers can think of several belongings that they’d rather not have lying around in the presence of strangers. We have a couple ways to help add security against this danger. For starters, purchasing a safe can make it nearly impossible for workers inside your rented home to access your cash, jewelry, credit cards, or any other valuables that you leave at home. Small safes placed discreetly can help you keep these items out of sight and out of mind. Even if contractors do run across your safe, they have almost no chance of getting to its contents.
For an added measure of security against other dangers, we also offer a couple specialty safes. For example, our gun safes can help secure any and all of your weapons. In fact, Massachusetts law requires that you store your firearms in a locked container, such as a safe. Doing so helps prevent both theft and family-related gun accidents. Additionally, we also offer safes that secure items against a fire. Since renters often live attached the other living spaces, their threat of experiencing a fire increases based on the number of residences attached to their own home. Therefore, we certainly recommend adding this security. Now, let’s see why adding smart surveillance represents on of our most effective security tips for renters.
Installing cameras allows to receive instant alerts upon detecting motion, such as this Alarm.com smart camera alert.
Adding Surveillance to Your Rented Home
As we’ve pointed out, installing cameras traditionally involves running quite a bit of wiring throughout a property. In fact, we generally run a wire from a recorder located at a central location to each and every camera. Of course, doing this in a rented property would not fly with most landlords. For this type of application, we offer Alarm.com smart cameras that do not require us to run any wiring at all. These cameras utilize your home’s wifi to send motion-based video clips to an online accuont for your perusal. This means that they capture and save any motion event in the vicinity of their installation. As an added bonus, you can also watch these cameras live at any time, and you have the ability to create real-time video alerts when your cameras do sense activity. This allows you to immediately check in on any suspicious activity. The live and recorded video security offered by these cameras make them extremely popular with our customers!
Putting Our Security Tips for Renters to Work for You
We hope that you’ve enjoyed reading through these valuable security tips for renters. Additionally, we encourage you to contact us with any questions you may have about this post. We will happily answer any and all of your security-related inquiries. Moreover, we also invite you to take advantage of our free site survey program. We offer complimentary site surveys and equipment quotes to both new and existing customers alike. While on site, we can address your security concerns and match them with some solutions. Furthermore, we can also point out and address any security weak spots that we find during our visit. Together, we can create a complete security plan to keep your rented home as safe and secure as possible!