How to Protect Your House from Intruders

Posted on September 2nd, 2010 by Ricardo Louis

Moving into your new home is only half the battle; the other half is keeping it safe and secure from burglars. After all, you’ve probably invested quite a pretty penny and your life savings into the house, so the last thing you want is for it to be ransacked by a bunch of hoodlums.

No matter how high the level of security is in a certain area, every home is at risk of being broken into. There are certain preventive measures you can take as soon as you move into your home, in order to keep robbers away from your house.

Ensure resistance – Making the path to your home harder to get into is one of the main deterrents of robbers. Having multiple items in your backyard, like a clothesline, large barbecue grill, a swimming pool will be objects that take time to maneuver around and give the property a cluttered appearance. The one thing robbers hate is having to duck and dodge around a whole bunch of objects, so if they see a bunch of lawn gnomes in your front yard and a full children’s playground in the backyard, they’ll think twice before taking the time to scope out your place.

Fake Occupation – One of the main things that scares robbers away is a house that still has people in it. Most burglars do their damage when no one is home, so if they’re under the impression that people may still be in the house, then it spooks them off. See if you can generate the impression that someone is home by parking an extra car that you may not use outside of the garage, or keep an extra set of lights on in the attic or basement.

Manually program your radio/lights to turn on – Intruders are absolutely terrified of lights. Whether it’s the huge yard lights in the backyard, or any lights they see inside the house, the fact that their cover may be blown is chilling. Have an old radio that you don’t need go off randomly in the middle of the night, or set up some lights to do the same thing. These random disturbances create the illusion of people being home, which of course works against the would-be intruders favor.

Don’t let items stack up – One probable sign of a house that’s empty is a pile of mail that’s on the doorstep, or grass that hasn’t been cut in a while. If you’re going to leave town, be sure to have a neighbor or family member stop by the house occasionally to not only check it out, but also collect your mail for retrieval when you get back.

Unless you hire the National Guard for 24-hour protection, there’s really no sure-fire way to make your house completely impenetrable from burglary, but these tips will help ensure that your prized abode is not a magnet to robbers. Following these simple precautions will guarantee that your relocation is a complete success.

Related Articles:

1. How to Protect Your New House
2. Setting Up the Backyard of Your New House
3. Last Minute Things to Remember when Moving House

Tags: home, relocating, security

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 at 10:00 am and is filed under Moving Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.