#TuesdayTips: 10 tips to help protect your home while on vacation

1. Invest in a home monitoring system.
Home security systems are one of the best ways to give you peace of mind when travelling. Nowadays, there are many different options when it comes to protecting your home. Do your research and find the best system that fits you and your needs. Some of these systems have the capabilities to show you live video from your phone. This gives you instant access to your home and any visitor in real-time. This small investment will definitely help you sleep better at night

2. Keep up on regular home maintenance.
If you have regularly scheduled visitors like lawn, landscaping, or pool guy maintenance be sure to Keep these schedules. Criminals have been known to stake out potential homes and look for changes in these visits.

3. Leave a spare key with family or a trusted friend.
You never know when you may need someone to swing by your house. Whether to check on something or pick up a delivered package having a trusted friend or family member help you can be very helpful. They can also help with watering plants, mail, or bringing trash cans to and from the curb. Just don’t forget to bring them a little something back from your trip for their help!

4. Use Timers
Using timers for your lawn or lights in your home are great while away. Not only will your lawn still get the water it desperately needs in the summer heat, but it keeps you home active. Having lights on and off can give off the appearance that someone is home.

5. Keep a low profile on social media.
It’s well-known that you shouldn’t advertise and promote that fact that you and your family are not around. This level of access to your family and their schedule is just what a thief would want to know when scouting potential homes.

6. Lock up valuables in a safe.
This is a good time to get all of your important documents (birth certificates, social security cards, and any stored pictures or data) and place it in a safe. This will protect your most important valuables from any threat including a fire while you are away. They are very affordable and can be stored nearly anywhere in your home.

7. Don’t leave a hide-a-key.
Most thieves are aware that families tend to leave spare keys around their home for emergencies. Instead of hiding a loose key give it to a trusted friend, neighbour, or family member instead. Under a rock, mat, or flower pot are not as secure as you may believe.

8. Install an outdoor sensor light.
Not only are these inexpensive but they are really easy to install. For less than 30 dollars you can instantly increase your home’s security at night time. This is a quick and easy way to repel people from approaching your home at night

9. Disconnect your garage door.
Criminals are looking to defeat the technology we all use to make our lives easier. Did you know that some garage door openers can sometimes be opened by universal remotes? You can protect against this by! Disengaging your garage door opener and opt for a manual lock. It is also important that you lock your inside garage door. Many people leave it unlocked since their garage door is down.

10. Advertise your security
Reformed Home burglars have all said they used to be deterred by home security signs and stickers. When you sign up most agencies want you to advertise and give you signs and stickers. Don’t just throw those away but put them up. You can have them up whether you have the system or not. Visitors don’t know if you have one or if the one in your house is even activated.
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