How do people keep their homes safe from burglary these days?

It's a good question, and it's one that we know a lot about. Home security is markedly different than it used to be, although some of the same core concepts really still apply.

First of all, your home is not a bank vault, and you’re keeping everything in a safe. You might have a safe for specific valuables, which is a good best practice, but beyond that, you really don't want people breaking into your home at all!

So let's talk about some components of an overall strategy to keep your home safe from intruders.

Interchangeable Locks

One component of home security is your lock and key systems. You might have a front door lock operated with a traditional key that's 30 or 40 years old. What you should know is that it's fairly easy to replace this with a state-of-the-art modern keypad or even biometric lock.

Once your modern lock is in place, it will provide excellent security for your home. Take a look at what we offer for comprehensive home security (or for commercial buildings, too).

Make It Look Lived In

Although you can upgrade the locks on your doors and windows, there's also the strategy of deterring people from trying to break into your home in the first place.

One of the biggest tips is giving your property the appearance of being full of people, instead of empty.

There are specific strategies for going away on vacation, like:

• Getting mail picked up

• Taking care of the yard prior to leaving

• Moving packages off of the porch

Then there are also the usual everyday things, like maintaining the property's appearance and making it look like a driveway carport or garage is being used.

Know Your Neighbors

There's also power in numbers, and it’s a good idea to know your neighbors if you're worried about a burglary of your home.

Burglars are less likely to try to break in if they see that there are other people around watching the property. Then, if somebody does try something, your neighbors are likely to catch that, because they know what’s supposed to be going on day to day.

Hiding Valuables

Then, as we mentioned, you might have a specific safe in place for your most valuable objects. Then if somebody does get inside your home, they're not able to find and take the things that mean the most to you, whether that's monetary value or sentimental value.

A nice home safe can be great for:

• Jewelry

• Bonds or other paperwork

• Sensitive items

• Firearms

• Cash

You have a lot of choices, too, with new biometric and code-based safe systems. The burglar is not likely to be a professional safe cracker, so investing in one of these high-tech home security systems is going to work in your favor. Ask us about the modern products that will protect your stuff from criminals – or anyone else.