Common Home Security Mistakes That Could Cost You

Avoid costly home security mistakes with these expert tips to protect your property and keep your home safe from potential threats.

Each year, a million US homes are broken into and burgled. If you have the money, replacing the stolen possessions is not a big deal. However, the sense of vulnerability and fear of it happening again lingers, sometimes for the rest of one’s life.

There’s no 100% foolproof way of protecting your home, but adopting just a few healthy habits will do much to make robbing you not worth the bother. Here are all the too-common mistakes to avoid and what to do instead.

Assuming That Your Home Is Safer During Daytime

At first glance, it makes sense to think your home is more vulnerable at night. It’s much easier to approach it and skulk around in the shadows, especially if owners aren’t taking their security seriously. However, FBI data suggests that more burglaries happen during daytime hours when fewer people are at home and keeping an eye on the neighborhood.

Lock all access points, including windows and the door connecting the garage to your home, during the day. Get to know your neighbors and have them appraise you of any suspicious persons and activities.

Having Inadequate Lighting

There’s lots of room for mistakes regarding lighting’s impact on your home’s security. Keeping the house and yard pitch-black when you go on vacation is a bad idea, but leaving the same lights on to glow continuously isn’t much better.

Replacing a few ordinary interior bulbs with smart ones lets you control them remotely and set up an on/off schedule that will deter burglars. You’ll also want to install motion sensor-activated external lights to scare off anyone who might have gotten inside the yard.

Not Keeping Plants in Check

Bushes, hedges, and trees add character and privacy to any yard. Left unattended, however, they can also become convenient hiding spots for burglars, not to mention grow into a fire hazard. Regularly trim your plants, ensuring they don't obscure the view out of your windows or offer enough room for anyone to hide in.

Keeping Spare Keys Outside

Hiding a spare key under the rug or a fake rock is the oldest trick in the book. Keeping spare unsupervised keys around is not much better than leaving the front door unlocked.

If you’re keen on physical keys, give a spare to a trustworthy neighbor. Smart locks are a good alternative since you can enable them remotely, give temporary access codes to your babysitter, and monitor usage.

Flaunting Your Valuables

Keeping up with the Joneses can be a powerful impulse, but it does more harm than good. Having a yard full of expensive landscaping equipment or displaying your 60" OLED TV through a front-facing window signals a home right for the picking. The same goes for boxes of electronics and other valuable items that you carelessly leave on your porch.

Speaking of, porch pirates have become a real menace. Make their job harder by installing a prominent security camera above your front door and setting up a locked box you can send drivers the code to when they’re making a delivery.

Neglecting Smart Device Security

We've mentioned several smart devices that positively impact your home's security; they may also compromise it. For example, monitoring your smart doorbell camera requires an internet connection. Since these devices aren’t always secure and up to date, a tech-savvy crook could use a compromised connection to eavesdrop on or even take over its video feed, not to mention the passwords and other sensitive information the camera and its app might store.

Buy smart devices from reputable companies with strong security track records. Create a segmented network so compromised smart gadgets don’t automatically enable access to other connected devices. Most importantly, protect the data smart gadgets exchange by setting up a home VPN client. The VPN will encrypt all outgoing and incoming traffic so no one trying to intercept it will be able to do so anymore.

Keep Your Activities Off Social Media

It’s natural to want to announce a well-earned vacation to friends and family on social media—that’s exactly what burglars are hoping for. One in three houses gets burglarized by someone the residents know, so keeping a low profile is crucial.

Start by setting your profile to private so only contacts can see your posts. Even then, be mindful of what you share. Never announce when you’re going on vacation or will otherwise be out of the house for a while. Sharing pics of your adventures is fine—just do it once you get back.

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