Your home is one of the most important assets you’ll ever own. As the house where you spend Saturday mornings cooking pancakes with the kids, Sunday afternoons grilling with the neighbors, and weeknights enjoying family dinners, you want your property to be as safe and secure as possible.
But not all homeowners have the same home security priorities. In fact, we’ve come to realize that home security measures are a very personal decision. Because even though security can create peace of mind, different security technologies come with their own pros and cons, and some may even make you less comfortable inside your home!
And while there are definitely emotional benefits to finding the perfect security measures for your family, you may also uncover potential cost savings on your homeowner’s insurance. In fact, many insurance companies offer about 5% off for having certain security measures in place, and some carriers may even go up to offering 15% off!
Depending on the company, those security measures could be as simple as a deadbolt—which your home may already have—or as sophisticated as smart home devices that offer video capture and even audio monitoring.
With that in mind, let’s look through some of the most cost-effective strategies you can use to keep your home and family safe, especially if you ever leave for an extended vacation.
Cost-Effective Ways to Improve Your Home Security
If you’re interested in low-cost strategies to enhance your home security, try these tactics:
1. Install smart outdoor lighting and cameras. The home security industry has produced a wide variety of automated outdoor lighting and high-quality cameras in recent years, and many of these products are available for under $50—very affordable for most households.
Keeping motion-activated floodlights focused on your best access points (like side windows and the front and back doors) will illuminate crooks before they have a chance to reach your home.
And products like the Ring Video Doorbell or the Nest Video Doorbell can give you a 24/7 view of who’s at your door—and the ability to communicate with them—even when you’re away from home.
2. Install extra locks (or more secure locks) on your doors. Deadbolts are excellent additions to standard doorknob locks, but even deadbolts can be picked. Instead of relying solely on a deadbolt lock for additional security, consider investing in pick-resistant locks.
And, if you’d like to go a step further, consider installing a barrel bolt lock or a chain lock, both of which can only be operated from the inside. While it’s true that a barrel bolt could be kicked through and a chain lock can be cut by large bolt cutters, these additional layers of security could be enough to deter would-be thieves.
3. Window stops. We all love a cool summer breeze at the end of a long day, but open windows provide easy access points for thieves. To prevent crooks from climbing through an open window, install window stops. These limit how far a window can open, so you can still get fresh air without providing enough room for thieves to slip into your home.
4. Maintain your yard and plant life. A healthy yard and trimmed foliage are good for more than curb appeal! Large bushes and general overgrowth can give crooks more places to hide from witnesses. Keep your hedges trimmed and yard clear to offer fewer hiding spots for thieves.
5. Keep your toolshed locked up. There are multiple reasons to keep your toolshed locked when it’s not in use.
The most obvious, of course, is the value of your tools and garden supplies, especially lawnmowers, weedwhackers, and other power tools.
But keeping your toolshed locked is also important because many of the tools inside your toolshed could be used to break into your home! Don’t give thieves a chance. Keep your toolshed locked!
6. Keep your curtains drawn at night. It’s hard to see into a home during the day. But at night, when the lights are on inside, you can often see directly into a house—which means you can look for valuables like TVs, video game systems, and other items from the sidewalk or street. To keep crooks from scoping out your home, keep your blinds drawn after sundown.
7. Keep valuables away from view. On a similar note to keeping your curtains drawn, you should generally try to keep valuables out of view from the sidewalk or street. This can be almost as helpful as keeping your blinds drawn!
8. Mind your garage (and garage door opener). Your garage can be another access to valuables—and the rest of your home. Keep the windows and doors to your garage locked. In addition, never leave your garage door opener in the car, especially if you sometimes park your vehicle outside. This can become an incentive to break into your car for the garage door opener, which then provides easy access to your garage and possibly even your home.
9. Don’t post about your vacation on social media until after you get home. If you set off for a week-long vacation and immediately start posting, that signals to everyone on social media that you won’t be home for a few days, giving crooks plenty of time to break into your house!
10. Be careful about what you post on social media in general. The background of the videos and images you post on social media can cue crooks into what sorts of valuables you keep in your home. Smart devices, big TVs, safes, and similar items can catch a thief’s eye and make you a desirable target.
Where to Find More Advice for Pittsburgh Homes
If you’re already thinking about upgrading home security, it may also be a good time to think about general maintenance and design.
For help in those categories, look through our home maintenance recommendation blogs and our assortment of design and staging blogs.
If you have questions, contact us! We’re always on top of the latest home security deals, so we may even be able to recommend a good limited-time deal that’s perfect for your family. Email us at theblocks@blocksintheburgh.com.
Cheers,
Julie & Ted