As a homeowner, your priority should be to keep your family safe. Nothing is worse than seeing your home destroyed or seriously damaged. Your home is a giant investment and a place to build the memories of life. You can do more to protect your home and its occupants by checking out the advice presented below.

After getting a new home, make sure to change its locks. You simply do not know how many keys to the old locks are floating around. To make sure you’re the only person that can get into your home, contact a locksmith. Do the same thing if you happen to misplace a key.

Do you let your dog outside when you leave the house? You might consider leaving your spare key with your dog. Put it on their collar. This is the perfect place to store a spare key, especially if your dog doesn’t care for strangers.

Providing a key to the person cleaning your home can be acceptable, but you must be sure they are honest and worthy of your confidence. If you do give your housekeeper a key or plan on doing so, it is imperative that they are honest and upstanding. Go over their references and do some background research on the company they work for. Call the Better Business Bureau to see if their firm is well-reviewed.

When placing your spare key outside for emergencies, give careful consideration to where you put it. Common places to hide a spare key are above your door frame or underneath your doormat. Therefore, thieves are more likely to check these places out first. A better place to keep your key is inside your outside dog’s collar.

Home security systems offer other triggering features besides having an alarm sound. Most security systems can facilitate alarm sounds anyone enters. Parents riding herd on small children will be thankful for this feature which makes it harder for kids to sneak outside without supervision.

It is important to invest in building supplies that are as fire resistant as possible. This helps protect your home when you dwell in a more dry climate. Keeping fire hazards away is a great safety precaution since fire can cause lots of destruction.

Use a safe to protect your valuables. A safe is the best way to protect your diamonds, gold and important documents. The safe should be kept hidden in a basement or attic.

You should never open your door to someone you do not know. You have no way of knowing if the stranger on the other side of the door wishes to do you harm. Only open the door for people you are expecting.

It’s important to comparison shop for alarm systems. Prices can differ a lot among companies for the same type of protection. Get quotes from several companies so that you can get the best price for your home security system.

If you live more out in the country, you may think that you’re not at risk. Some people think that country folk are mainly targeted since they don’t have nearby neighbors. Others think that rural places have less of a chance of being targets for burglars.

If your garage is attached to your house, make it secure. Intruders could easily break into your garage and access your home. Try putting a C-clamp on your garage door track. This will stop the door from rising if you want to keep it closed.

It is important that your valuables are not visible from anywhere outside your house. Large windows let in a lot of light, but they also allow outsiders to see inside your living space. Keep your windows covered and your belongings private.

Remember to have an annual inspection of your home security system. Have a worker from the security company take a look at it. There are many things that can reduce the quality of your system. It’s quite possible for there to be a fault in your system even if you can’t see it.

Be sure to replace all locks on a home you have bought. You have no way of knowing whether the previous homeowner is trustworthy. If the previous owners have never changed the locks, there could be people out there who owned the house before them and still have keys to your house.

Keep valuables hidden within the walls. You do not need to remove segments from your walls. There should be pre-cut spaces throughout your home that will suffice. For example, place jewelry in an unused electrical outlet.

Get flashlights with good batteries, and have them in each room in case you lose power. Having these in an easy to find place will allow you to see in the dark much quicker. Make sure each member of your family knows where the flashlights are and how to operate them.

Lock your home at all times to err on the side of caution. It may be a little surprising, but most burglaries and break-ins happen because the intruder just walks right through an open door. It does not take long for thieves to steal your expensive stuff.

Now that you’ve reviewed some solid home security advice, you hopefully understand that improving your home’s safety isn’t all that hard. It is important to do more research on home security before you decide what kind of system you want to invest in. Use what you’ve just learned to secure your home. Do not neglect even one of these tips, because they all help ensure your home is safe.

Hide your security system’s wiring. Many intruders bypass a security system by cutting the wires. Do not make things simple for a burglar, but rather bury all wires or hide them in the wall. This way, you will be safer.