After all, your house should be the place where your family is the safest. That includes when they’re not at home. Reading the following piece and gaining knowledge is the ideal way to protect your home.

If you keep a spare key outside to prevent yourself from being locked-out, think carefully about where you hide it. Intruders will more than likely check under your doormat or above your door frame. Think outside the box and put the key someplace unusual, like hidden in your dog’s collar.

Make your house look occupied all the time. Keep your radio, TV and lights on timers. This way it will always look as if someone is home, even when you are away. This is great for keeping a home safer from burglaries.

Turn the ringers off on all your phones if you will be away for a prolonged period of time. If your phone rings and is not being answered, criminals will realize that you’re away.

Home security systems have additional features to just being noise alarms. They often even alert you to any time a door is opened. For families with young children, this is excellent for alerting when a child has entered or left the house.

If you have an attached garage, don’t forget to secure it as well. Some people are concerned about burglars entering through an attached garage. You can use a C-clamp to stop the door from being opened.

Be smart about where you decide to hide spare keys. Hiding it beneath the doormat is very common and most intruders will look there. For a better solution, try tucking your spare key into your dog’s collar, provided you have an outside dog.

During summer, remove your landscape’s dead vegetation and wood. As it gets hotter, the chances of these igniting and putting your house at risk increase. Make sure your yard is clean for the sake of your safety – and that of your family!

Get advice from your friends before selecting a provider for home security. Your friends have gone through both bad and good experiences and they will be able to share them with you. Keep asking to get the advice that will help you make the right choice.

If you have a garage, increase your home security by using it to house your car, rather than just for storage. Keeping your car in your house will deter intruders from vandalizing or stealing it. Hiding your car away from plain view is a good way to keep intruders from knowing when you are at home or not.

You should never open your door to someone you do not know. People try many ways to convince others to open up their doors so that they can commit burglary or worse. Enforce a rule within your house that no one opens the door to unexpected people.

Remember to have an annual inspection of your home security system. This should be performed by a technician from your security company. There are many things that can be problematic with regards to home security systems, like wayward wild animals and the environment. If you cannot see a problem, you might not know one exists.

Garage Doors

Try installing motion-sensor lights. They turn on only if someone is nearby. These lights will not only let you know when someone gets too close, they will also stop potential burglars from breaking in. After all, burglars don’t want anyone to know they are there. Make sure you keep fresh light bulbs in your motion activated lights so that they will work correctly.

You need to secure your garage if it is attached to your home. There is a way to prevent burglars from entering your home through the garage. A C-clamp is very useful for garage doors that lift on tracks. It will prevent garage doors from opening up whenever it is near the roller and is tight on the track.

Go with your gut when choosing a home security company to install a system. If the installers give you the heebie-jeebies, it’s not a good sign. Don’t hesitate to request a different technician or to hire a new company altogether. After all, the point of the system itself is to help you feel more at ease.

Consult with your police department to find out about good programs for home protection. They may offer neighborhood watch programs, home inspections, engraving tools for marking code numbers onto items so that they will be easily identified if stolen. Contact the police department to see if they have something similar.

If you reside in the country, you may be less worried about break-ins than urban dwellers are. Interestingly, many think those living in rural areas are actually more susceptible to break-ins since neighbors may not live close by. Not everyone believes this, though.

Use your garage for your car, not just storage. Having the car in the garage will prevent it from getting broken into or stolen. This will also make it more difficult for burglars to track when you away from home.

You can hide things in your walls. Keep small, valuable items inside the walls of your home. Any phone jack or electrical outlet that isn’t being used is a great place to hide valuables. If you have no unused plates, you can put in a fake one.

You can hide things in your walls. You can hide small valuables inside the walls. Use an old switch plate, outlet or phone jack. If there are no unused plates, you can easily install fake ones.

Always lock your home when you leave it, no matter how soon you plan to return. Break-ins are often the result of unlocked windows and doors. Once a thief is inside, he can steal a lot of valuables in a short amount of time.

If your door is set in a rotted frame, you must replace the frame. Anyone can gain access to our home by prying away the rotted wood. Replace it as soon as possible.

If your home security system is installed, be sure its wires are well-hidden. An intruder can easily disable your security system by cutting the wires. Never make things easy for them. Ask the person installing it to bury the wires or hide them inside the walls. Your safety will increase.

Keep flashlights in your rooms. Flashlights are critical, and provide you with the freedom to move about as needed. This can come in handy if someone has cut your power and is attempting to break in.

Criminals are much less likely to target your home if it’s well lit. They don’t wish to be seen. With a well lit home there is no place for burglars to conceal themselves. Keep your lights turned on during the night.

Unless you’re moving into a brand-new apartment or home, changing the locks should be one of your top priorities. While you may trust those who lived there before you, you have no idea who lived there before them. You can even buy and install the locks yourself so you know that you are the only one with a key.

Be sure to make good use of the Internet when you’re trying to select your home security company. Many websites feature reviews, testimonials, and package details from home security services. You’ll find it easy to narrow your choice down to three top contenders; your next step is to arrange to meet each of them to discuss your specific security needs.

You now have the right information for your needs. Now you have only to decide which steps you wish to take for your own home protection. Continue researching information about home security to provide safety and protection for everything you love.

Consider a wireless home security system. While the wired systems are less expensive, they usually mean rather intrusive wiring for your house, which can also go out during power outages. The wireless systems are simpler to maintain and install and they don’t need power from the home to run.