How to Prevent and Protect Against a Home Invasion

The statistics for home invasions are high, with an estimated 3.7 million homes that are broken into each year. While these numbers are astounding, what’s even more shocking is that a household member was present in roughly 1 million of those burglaries. However, despite these staggering statistics, many people still are unsure on how to properly secure their home from a potential invasion. This is especially true because although there are a lot of ways to help protect one’s belongings, not all of them prove to be beneficial and, in fact, some can end up doing one more harm than good. Therefore, it is essential that one knows which security measures are proven to be the most effective at protecting one’s home and belongings. Then, once this is understood, one can take proactive measures to implement these security measures quickly and appropriately to ensure the safety of their home and their family. 

Tips for Protecting Against a Home Invasion 

In order to protect your home against intruders, you will need to know what security measures are proven to be most effective in guarding against burglars. Some of the best ways to protect your home include:

• Thinking like a burglar: One of the best ways to protect yourself against intruders is to walk around your premises and survey what would make your home more inviting for an unwelcome guest. Where are there easy access points, low windows, or high shrubs that make it easy for a burglar to hide or enter your home easily. Can you see expensive electronics or car keys from the outside when peeking in? Do you own expensive outdoor items that are left out a majority of the time? Make sure you take the time to look around and see what could entice someone to invade your property or home. 

• Keep outside lights on: Because intruders thrive off of secretly invading one’s home, especially when it’s dark outside, one of the best ways to deter a burglar is to keep lights on in the inside and outside of your home, particularly at night. Installing motion sensor lighting outside your home is a great way to stop a burglar in their tracks and make them think twice before trying to invade your home.
• Trim outside shrubbery: Any overgrown shrubs or bushes around your home increase your risk that a burglar will hide out in the shrubbery as a protective cover from being spotted. Therefore, try to eliminate these potential hiding spots as much as possible.
• Lock your doors and windows: Obvious enough, but sometimes forgotten about, making sure your doors and windows are locked is an effective way to protect your home. This deems necessary to mention because some people become complacent after living in a certain area for a long period of time with no criminal activity. Therefore, even if you feel that your neighborhood is safe, you still need to ensure your doors and windows are safeguarding you, your home, and your belongings from a possible attack. Installing motion sensors on doors and windows can be particularly helpful as an extra safety measure to ensure your home is well secure.
• Install a home security system: The most effective way to deter burglars and protect your home is to install a home security system that can detect intruders and alert you and emergency personnel immediately. The motion detection noise that resounds from a home intrusion is typically enough to scare the burglar off immediately, however, if by chance the intruder still proceeds with a burglary, the video surveillance from the security system can provide evidence to prosecute the intruder. Furthermore, this type of security measure is extremely useful even when you aren’t at home since smart home technology makes it easy to connect to your home security system from your phone and monitor its surroundings from afar.

• Get to know your neighbors: Befriending your neighbors can prove to be useful so that they can help you monitor your home and alert you if there is suspicious activity going on around or in your home. While a home security system alone is the best security measure to ensure your home is safe, it never hurts to have someone else looking out for your best interests, especially if you are leaving your home for an extended period of time. 
• Do NOT tell people you are leaving your home: This is particularly true if you are going on vacation. While it may be tempting to tell everyone and anyone about your exciting new trip, you may want to think twice about its ramifications. This even means you may want to avoid posting pictures of your trip on social media while you are away. Telling too many people about your whereabouts only increases your chances of someone taking the opportunity to break into your home. Don’t risk it. Wait until you get home to tell everyone about how exciting and fun your adventure was. 

Companies that Help Protect Your Home Against a Home Invasion 

As previously stated, installing a home security system is one of the best and most effective ways to ensure your home is well protected. However, while installing a home security system is your best bet, you will want to guarantee that the alarm company you go with will provide the security you are looking for. Because no two companies are created equal, taking the time to decipher what works best for you and your needs is essential. With that being said, you will want to do your research on how the company provides a secure connection between your device and your network, how long they’ve been in business, their reputation, how they install your system, and how they monitor your home. As many companies skimp out on the quality of network connection they use to connect your device to WiFi, you could end up putting your security at a higher risk than never installing a security camera to begin with. Therefore, you will want to guarantee that the company uses high-level, military-grade encryption as well as 24/7 monitoring from in-house monitoring specialists. They will also need to have been in business for a long time, have professional technicians that can install your system for you, and have a great reputation.

While finding the perfect home security system company may seem overwhelming, it doesn’t have to be. Because there is only one security company that provides all of the just mentioned qualities and more, the look for a high-quality security company has never been easier. Reach out today to take the proactive security measures you, your home, and your family deserve.