Overlooked Home Security Tips For Spring Break Vacations

Overlooked Home Security Tips For Spring Break Vacations

Spring break is here! Its a time when many families take a vacation with their children. While the focus is on family fun, you don’t want to come back home to find you are a victim of a house burglary.

I am sure you have a routine to make your home secure while you are away on spring break. Below are some overlooked suggestions from the police department on ways to make your home more during a spring break vacation.

Use a trusted neighbor for more home security. Let the trusted neighbor know your plans. Have them pick up any packages or stuff left at your front door. Have them stop by periodically to check on your home and open the drapes. They can shovel your snow or cut the grass to be make your home look like people are home.

There is a tendency to leave an outside light on while you are gone. Having an outside lights on 24 hours is a good sign that no one is home. Install motion detector lights or dusk till dawn lights on the outside of your home.

Secure your garage doors by padlocking your door. Automatic garage doors can be made inoperable by unplugging it from the electric outlet or by using a vacation switch on the control box.

Do not leave valuables where they can be easily seen from the windows. Certain valuables can be put in a safety deposit box or taken to a relative or friend’s house for safekeeping.

Set your telephone ringer on low volume. A loudly ringing, unanswered phone is a sure sign no one is home.

Have a neighbor park in your driveway.

Do not let your travel plans be widely known on social media. Thieves use social media sites to target potential homes.

Cover your garage windows to prevent anyone from seeing the contents of your garage or looking to see if your vehicle is gone.

Have a neighbor or relative put your garbage out on pick up days.

Conclusion

Follow the above overlooked tips to make your home more secure during a spring break vacation. If you use a neighbor to help with your home security, pick them up a special treat from your spring break or return the favor when they go on vacation.

More Home Security with Less Effort

More Home Security with Less Effort

Residential robberies account for 70% of the burglaries in the United States according to National Statistics. Statistics also show that homes without home security security alarm systems are around 3 times more likely to be burglarized than houses along with security alarm systems. Yet only 20% 0f the homes in the US have a home security system.

The problem with traditional hard wired home security systems is that arming the system is easy to forget. People stop using their systems. New technology changes the playing field.

Here are some of the latest technology for improving home security systems that makes it easier for you the home owner.

Within the wireless alarm techniques, (WIFI) the components of the home security system sends signals over the airwaves. Sensors like carbon monoxide and smoke detectors can be incorporated into the main alarm. There is not need to run cables and lines through your existing walls.

With a wireless system you can arm your home security from your car or anywhere. No need to give out codes or punch buttons.

You can get email alerts every time your front door is opened.

You can open the door for your children when they come home from school right from your workplace or any phone.

You can get video clips from a camera watching your door.

Security camera are part of the new home security technology. Today the presence of cameras has become common place. You can even check your cameras from your phone.

Conclusion

With today’s wireless technology and mobile apps, you can add more security to your home with far less effort. Want more information about wireless home security systems? Give us a call and let us explain your options for using technology to improve security with your Atlanta home.

Tools for Total Home Security Protection

Tools for Total Home Security Protection

Wireless technology for home security has come a long way.  Today’s home owners are using tools from Protection Concepts that allows the homeowner to protect their home from more than just the bad guys.  These new tools can also protect the home from other dangers.  Here are some additional tools Protection Concept home security system owners are using.

  • Automated lights: With our system tools you can remotely control your lights from a smartphone or tablet. Forgot to turn off your lights.  No problem from your smart phone.
  • Panic buttons: These buttons are ideal for your bedrooms. Right from your room, you can signal the alarm to call for help without having to leave your room. These are great for a home invasion.
  • Water sensors: Protection Concept users can install water sensors that detect moisture and mold in the home. If your pipe should burst while you’re away from the home, the sensors will send an alert to your smartphone. You never have to come home to extensive water damage.
  • Intercom system: This Protection Concept tool allows you to speak with the people at your front door from anyplace with your smart phone.
  • Fire and carbon monoxide monitoring: These sensors go beyond the battery operated tools on the market. They can track air quality and will notify you to alert if smoke or carbon monoxide is occurring.
  • Interactive Thermostats: If you have an interactive thermostat you can control you heat and air conditioning from anywhere with your smart phone, tablet or computer.

Conclusion

Smart phone technology and wireless home security systems can now provide more than just protection against burglars.  They offer tools that provide protection against many house dangers.  Learn more about these tools by giving us a call.  We can show you tools that will add to your home security.

Spring Security Tips for Your Atlanta Home

Spring Security Tips for Your Atlanta Home

Spring Security Tips for Your Atlanta Home

Spring cleaning is here.  It’s a time to open the windows, let in the fresh air and clean your home from the closed up winter months.  Spring is also an excellent time to do a cleanup on your home security.  Here are my favorite spring home security tips.

Doors and Windows

Winter snows or spring rains can warp frames and caused your door and window sashes to swell. Check the wood on your sashes to see if they need repairs.  Windows and doors are the prime access point for criminals. Do the windows still lock securely?  Check your front door to see that if it has a dead bolt lock securely engages the solid frame.

Trim the Bushes

Spring is a time to beautify your home and at the same time make it more secure.  Pruning bushes around your home can help them become healthier.  The trimming can also eliminate places where burglars can hide.  Spring is also a good time to check overhanging trees to make sure they do not give access to upper windows in your home.  If you are going to plant new bushes near the home, consider planting prickly types.  Criminals hate these!
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Lighting

Winter weather can be very hard on outdoor lighting especially motion sensitive lights. Check all of the bulbs and replace those that have not weathered the winter months.  This may be the year you install low-voltage lights along your pathways.  It beautifies your home and provides greater home security.

Walkways

Weeds and overgrowth are part of spring. Your walkways should be cleared so they do not become an insurance hazard for someone walking.

Your Garage

Don’t forget about your garage.  Garage doors are less resistant to intrusion and your garage contains many valuable tools and equipment.  Is the door from your garage to your home equipped with the proper deadbolt?

Do an Inventory

If you are sorting thought your spring cleaning items, now would be a good time to take pictures of your valuable items, record serial numbers on their makes and models.  If you should have a break in, this information will help the police in their tracking efforts.

Plan for the future

Spend some time with family members talking about any security issues they feel personally or about the home.  Then put in place, a plan to address these issues so that you can make your Atlanta home more secure for everyone.

More Home Security with Less Effort

What a Burglar Can Teach You about Home Security

What a Burglar Can Teach You about Home Security

What do you think you could learn from a home burglar that could help protect you and your families’ belonging?

That’s the subject Debra Roberts and ABC TV set out to explore in a recent 20/20 newscast. They worked with a reformed home burglar to learn his secrets on how burglars identify, target and rob a home. He also identified those items that deterred him from robbing a home.

In this informational video, you will learn that a home burglary occurs every 15 second. It took this burglar less than 15 minutes to rob a home of its valuables. No matter what the race, nationality income or type of neighborhood, he will always find the jewelry in the master bedroom. That is the first place the thief starts. Drugs in the bathroom are valuable to sell on the open market. Burglars use social media sites to identify when families are gone on vacation. Video devises with the charger cords still attached are more valuable than video devises without the cord. Most home robberies occur during the daytime hours.

Take eight minutes to review this wonderful video. Then apply the tips identified in the video to make your home and belongings safer from potential house thieves.

Give us a call so we can help you with implementing these home security tips.

Summer Home Security Tips

Summer Home Security Tips

Everyone loves summer time. Summer time also has its own unique home security challenges. We love to leave windows and doors open to enjoy the fresh air. Children play outside going back and forth into the house. Our garages are left open as we use the tools to make our landscape attractive. We may take a summer’s vacation leaving our home unoccupied for an extended period of time.

Summer has more home burglaries than any other time of year. Without making your home a summer prison, how can you enjoy summer and still keep your home secure? Here are some tips you can use.

Summer Home Security Tips

  • Make sure your doors and windows are locked even if you leave your home for a short period. I know this is a pain. An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure!
  • Make a special effort to secure your sliding glass doors. These doors are often overlooked. Use a Johnson bar to secure the door from outside entries.
  • Keep the bushes and shrubs around your home trim and neat to prevent a hiding place for burglars.
  • If you are going to be gone on vacation, don’t let your house look like it is unoccupied. Stop your mail and paper deliveries. Have someone cut your grass if you are going to be gone longer than a week. Give a trusted neighbor a key so they can regularly check on the inside of your home.
  • Speaking of neighbors, you will see more of them during the summer months. Don’t be afraid of having a neighborhood discussion about reporting suspicious people in the neighborhood.
  • Don’t open your front door to strangers. Make sure your children know this rule.
  • Don’t leave bikes and tools and toys in your yard over night.
  • While there is plenty of sunlight in the summer, having bright lights near your front door and walkways is still a good security measure.

Conclusion
You want to enjoy the benefits of the summer without the additional risks that come with the summer months. Use the above tips to keep your home more secure during the summer months.