Every homeowner ought to know how to keep both their homes safe. Sadly, burglaries in people’s homes are becoming increasingly common, and other things like fire or floods can harm your home.Read on to learn how you family is safe from these threats.

Make sure your house look like it’s always occupied. You could purchase timers and have your TVs, TVs, power on or off at varying intervals. This will give your home appear as if someone is there. This is a simple way to keep your home’s safety and make it less attractive to criminals.

Your faithful dog makes a great hiding spot for a spare key. In order to make this work, your dog either needs to stay outside or have access to a pet door. Store a spare key within your dogs collar so you always have access to your home.

Your dog can actually safeguard a spare key for you. This can be done if your dog is outdoors a lot or you have a pet door. You could simply put a key onto your dog’s collar, so when you forget your keys your dog can let you in.

Above doors or under doormats are not smart ideas. One idea is to hide your key inside the collar of a dog that does not take kindly to strangers.

Let a house cleaner have your keys only if they can provide you with references so you can verify their trustworthiness. Make sure they are honest, reputable and hardworking. Read through their references very carefully, and don’t hesitate to follow up on their references to ensure they actually exist. If the person is an employee of a firm, call your local BBB to check their reputation.

Don’t post information about an upcoming vacation anywhere on social media.Although you may want to let others in on your excitement, the info may well fall into the hands of people who’d be interested in burglarizing your home while you’re away.

Local Police Department

A good security system has many more features than sounding the alarm during a break-in. They can be programmed to alert the homeowner if a person enters the home. This is a good way to know if your small child has opened a door or closed it.

See if your local police department has any home protection programs. They may offer neighborhood watch programs, engraving tool loans, engraving tools for marking code numbers onto items so that they will be easily identified if stolen.Contact your local police department to see if they have something similar.

Put motion sensor lights into your house. These are lights will pop right on if someone walks closely to your house. Just remember to change out the light bulbs every so often so the lights remain in working order.

Request information from your local law enforcement agencies about home protection packages. Many have quite a few helpful programs that you take, like on self-defense or other things related to your home. Contact your local police department to find out if they offer this type of program.

Some people feel that rural dwellers have greater risk since their neighbors live farther away. Some think burglaries are less prevalent in rural parts.

Rotten Wood

You should regularly check your home security system, regardless of how reliable you believe it is. Your security company should send a representative to check your system. Many different things can make problems for your security system. You may not be able to tell there is an issue by yourself.

Replace rotten wood near door frame. An intruder can simply pry the rotten wood and enter your home. Replace any wood with fresh wood to improve your home’s security.

Always check references before letting anyone you are considering hiring to do work inside your home. You should do background check as well to find out their criminal history. You might not know that the maid or contractor entering your home is a crook, so do not give them a key to your home.

Put motion-sensor lights into your home. This type of light will come on when they detect motion within a certain distance of your home. This will discourage would be thieves and alert you to any movement on your property. Make sure you keep fresh light bulbs in your motion activated lights so that they will work correctly.

Ask your home security company how long they’ve been running prior to signing up.A company with a long history has proven that their service is reliable. Knowing that you are dealing with a fly by night company gives you calm when making this crucial decision.

Because of the many threats which can harm a home, each homeowner must take matters into his own hands to guarantee the safety of the home. This article has many ways to protect the home from nearly every threat. Apply what you’ve just learned, and keep your home safe.

Avoid leaving spare keys outside of your home. While you may feel that you are keeping yourself safe by allowing a way in for yourself, you are also allowing everyone else to visit whenever they want. Thieves are familiar with these hiding spots. Ask a reliable neighbor or a friend to keep your spare key.