Lots of people realize the importance of home security, but not everyone possesses lots of knowledge of it. To properly protect your items and home, you need to study home security. Continue reading for some tremendously valuable tips on how to ensure the safety of your home.

Keep your most precious belongings inside a safe. If an intruder breaks into your home, at least these valuables will be secure. Your safe should be placed somewhere it is not readily noticeable.

Be sure that your home is always occupied. Use timers to make electronic devices and lights turn on and off at intervals. This will give your home the appearance of someone being there. This helps you keep your house burglar-free.

Before agreeing to work with a security company, check with your friends and family for recommendations. Your loved ones likely have dealt with this situation before. Spending a few days asking for reviews is useful in helping you choose correctly.

Don’t let people into your house that you don’t know. Remember that intruders have a lot of experience with tricking people. Some people want to enter your home just to see if there is a security system in place. They may be scoping the place to come back when you’re gone.

Keep your jewelry, vital documents and other expensive items in a safe. If an intruder breaks into your home, at least these valuables will be secure. Keep your safe in your basement or attic to make it hard to find.

See if your area police department has any home security programs. Many police departments will offer expert advice, arrange inspections, sponsor neighborhood watches, and help you mark and register your valuables. Speak with the police in your area to see if they have these things.

Place your valuables in cut-outs in your walls. Don’t make it obvious by cutting out big chunks of drywall. There should be pre-cut spaces throughout your home that will suffice. How about unwiring your electric socket and using that as an area to stash your jewelry?

Don’t open your door if a stranger is on the other side. Burglars are getting creative, and they will do anything they can to gain access to your home. You should only open the door to people you were expecting.

Change all of the locks in your new residence. Regardless of how trustworthy you consider the last owners to be, neither you nor they can be sure that there aren’t others out there with keys to those locks. Also, there have likely been other owners of the home, and you don’t know them either.

If you are moving into a home that had a previous owner, then you should immediately change the locks. You do not want anyone to have a copy of the key. You can purchase the locks and install them yourself to ensure you’re the only person that has a key.

Make sure to clear your yard of brush and dead wood in the summertime. This can be a fire hazard, especially if you live in an area with high heat. Clearing your yard keeps your home, belongings and family much safer.

Having light on in your home at night will scare crooks away. Most burglars rely on concealment to approach a home. When you have a well-lit home, crooks won’t be able to hide and it will be hard for them to break in undetected. This makes it a good idea to keep the lights on.

If you are going on a vacation, ask a neighbor to pick up your mail and check your home for flyers. Often burglars will place these at homes and wait to see if people take them down. Fliers that are not removed let the burglar know that the home is vacant.

Those living in rural areas often don’t worry as much about intruders compared to city dwellers. Interestingly, many think those living in rural areas are actually more susceptible to break-ins since neighbors may not live close by. Others hold that burglars are not as likely to target rural areas.

If you just purchased electronics, do not leave empty boxes outside. These boxes are a signal to burglars that you have something worth stealing. Cut up the boxes when they’re empty.

When you will be away from home, keep the curtains and blinds shut. When they’re open, it would be easy to see no one is there. They’re going to want to get in your house if they can see items they want. You should also have them down when you are sleeping.

Always lock your home when you leave it, no matter how soon you plan to return. It might shock you to learn that most break-ins occur due to unlocked doors. It can be a quick job for a burglar to steal items of great value.

Store those items you can’t bear to lose in a very secure area. This can include items like important photos, passports, pricey jewelry, and legal documents. Purchase a safe with a lock to store all of these items. Or, a better idea, is to place them in a deposit box outside of your home.

Try not to get sliding glass doors in your home if security is a serious issue. They can be unlocked with a bit if jiggling. Without a security system to protect your home, you should shove a pipe or rod behind the sliding door–between the sliding half of the door and the door frame–to brace it against the frame. This helps keep your door closed and makes it not easy to open.

Before allowing any security company reps to come into your home, make sure they have on a uniform and they have valid ID. Intruders can easy pass themselves off as an employee of a security company just to get inside your house. This could be quite dangerous. Be cautious to stay away from those potential dangers.

The best locks you can get are deadbolts that include captive keylocks. These devices include a thumb latch so that no one can reach around and open the lock through a broken window nearby. Only leave the key in the door when you are home, just in case of an emergency.

Women are targets for thieves, especially those with kids. Keep some shoes on your porch to make potential intruders think a man lives here. This will drive away thieves.

Always get references from anyone you are considering hiring to do work inside your home. You need to do background checks in order to find out about their criminal history. You can never be too sure about anyone you hire to enter your home, and giving them access can work against you.

When it comes to locks, remember that you have to be able to lock it from both the inside and outside for maximum security. Deadbolts are the best locks. The ones that are key operated on the interior and the exterior are burglar proof.

There are obviously benefits to owning a large dog with a scary bark. Burglars are often deterred from homes with scary sounding dogs, as they want to avoid bites and attacks. Consider a new pet who can help to protect your home, as well as offer companionship to you and your family.

One relatively inexpensive way to add an extra layer of protection to your home is to install motion sensor lights for the exterior of your home. Motion detection lights will turn on as soon as something or someone enters your yard. By carefully placing them around the outside of your property, you create a perimeter that cannot be breached.

Try to hide any indications that there are women and children in the house, like leaving toys on the lawn, from view from the outside. Intruders will guess that women are living in this home. Homes with women living inside them are usually targeted more due to the fact that women typically own more expensive jewelry than men.

Avoid letting people outside see inside your home. Remember, if you can view it from outside, so can any thief. Install window coverings to block the view. If this isn’t an option, make sure your valuables aren’t visible from outside.

When you hire a security firm, be certain to review all contracts carefully. There may be some hidden fees, or a need to buy more equipment later. You are going to want to avoid these kinds of hidden fees, so know about them up front.

Many people know how vital home security is in our lives. Not all people understand how to truly protect their homes and personal property. Consider the information that has been given to you as a resource for making sure your home is safe.