5 Home Security Tips for your Summer Vacation

Before you pack your bags for summer vacation, let’s take a good look around and think about your home security. 

Many neighborhoods these days have been blighted by foreclosures and homes are sitting on the real estate market for too long. If your home is in one of these neighborhoods, it’s important to note that empty houses are a risk for squatters, vandals, and more. It’s unfortunate, but it’s also very true. 

Even if the neighborhood where you live is fully occupied and vibrant, there is no place that’s 100% safe from thieves who want to break in and steal your stuff – especially in a bad economy when it’s hard to find jobs. Plus, lots of people take advantage of the break in school, the longer days, and the cost-savings and travel in the summer. That’s one reason that home break-ins typically rise during the summer months. Not only are you traveling, but your neighbors are also traveling and that leaves a lot of unattended homes ripe for burglary.

Before you head out this summer, consider these home securitytips:

1. Use multiple and random light timers

If a thief is watching your neighborhood or your home for hints that you’re on vacation, this technique will throw them off. Lights turning on always at 6 p.m. and then turning off at 10 p.m. right on the dot is a dead giveaway. Set random timers around the home to make things look like there are people in the home and moving about instead.

2. Glass-break detectors for all first-floor windows

Glass-break detection is primarily critical on first-floor windows – where someone is more likely to walk up, smash a side entry door window and let themselves into your home. All ground floor windows and doors should have sensors to let you know when they’ve been opened or smashed. Even if you’re in Bora-Bora, you’ll know something’s amiss and you can get someone over there to handle it.

3. Fire safety improves when you unplug

The day you leave on vacation, roam through your home and unplug everything that doesn’t need to remain plugged in as part of your vacation security plan. The kitchen is a good place to start. Everything you unplug reduces the risk of fire in your home and it also means less power usage while you’re gone, so it’s a double win.

4. Check the delivery options for expected packages

Leaving packages on the front porch is a dead giveaway that you’re not home. If you did a little online shopping and haven’t received all your packages, set the delivery options so you can pick it up at a local store or use your smartphone to track it and when it’s delivered have a neighbor drop by and pick it up.

5. Be cautious with social media

Sure, it’s fun to share your vacation plans with friends and family, but you’re not the only one keeping an eye on those social media sites. You don’t have 100% control over who sees that information and with whom that information is being shared.

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