If you own a vacation home, chances are that you only occupy it for a couple of months out of the year. This can leave the home unsecured and easy to access for potential thieves who look specifically for unoccupied homes. If someone were to break into your vacation home, it could be months before you ever realize a burglary took place. While it would be nice if things like this weren’t something you needed to worry about, it is an unfortunate part of society. Thankfully, there are some easy ways that you can help secure your vacation home and make it less of a target for potential thieves and vandals.
Protecting Your Vacation Home
In the United States, there are over 2.5 million burglaries every year. While this number is on a slight decrease from years past, it is still a very real threat. When it comes to making sure that your vacation home is secure, there are a few steps you can take to help prevent break-ins and accidents.
While you may not think that protecting your vacation home is as important as protecting your primary residence, it can be even more so because you’re often not there.
While away from your vacation home, a number of things can happen, such as burglary, fire, or flooding. These problems could go undetected until it’s too late without the proper measures in place.
To help you better secure your vacation property, here are some essentials that you should consider investing in.
Security Systems
First and foremost, your vacation home needs to have a security system in place to help alert the authorities if someone breaks in. This can help ensure that there is a greater likelihood of the perpetrator either leaving or being caught by the authorities. Studies conducted on the matter have even found that around 60% of burglars casing homes would be deterred by a security system. Even seeing a sign in the yard is often enough for them to back down.
When choosing the best security system for a vacation home, you’ll want to ensure that your system has a few key components.
- Camera monitoring
- Motion detectors
- Window and door sensors
- Lighting control
- Geofencing
- Smoke, water, and carbon monoxide detection
- Smart locks
- 24/7 access via an app
All of these components work together to help make your vacation home as secure as possible from both natural and human threats. Let’s take a closer look at how each of these assets works and how they help protect your home.
1. Camera Monitoring
Camera monitoring is one of the most crucial components of your security system and it can help you monitor your home in real-time both inside and out. If someone breaks into your home, these cameras can also help identify who it was, making it easier for police to track them — and your stolen items — down potentially.
Another great thing about security cameras like this is that they can come equipped with night vision capabilities, making monitoring at all hours clear and easy to see. Interior cameras also often come with a two-way audio function can allow you to warn anyone breaking in that they need to leave.
Along with these cameras, a doorbell camera can also help alert you in real-time if anyone comes to the door that may try to scope out your home. This can enable you to answer the door remotely and show them that your home is being monitored. This can make your home much less of a target for potential thieves.
2. Motion Detectors
In addition to cameras, your security system should also include motion detection sensors that can use infrared technology to sense body heat and movement within 30ft in any room. Many of these sensors are also calibrated to ignore animals, so you won’t have to worry about any pets accidentally setting them off. When coupled with security cameras, this can be a great foundation for your security.
In the same category, we can also include motion-activated outdoor security lights that can be triggered when someone gets too close at night. This can be both effective for scaring away intruders and for giving you some extra light when coming in late.
3. Window and Door Sensors
Along with motion detectors, window and door sensors can be used to trigger an alarm and contact the police if a window or door is breached while the system is active. These sensors can also document the access point and the time that it was opened. This can help you better track everything that is going on in your vacation home while you’re away.
4. Geofencing
Geofencing is a great addition to a security system, and it allows you to automate it for your convenience. By using geofencing, you can automatically disarm your security system when you arrive, set lights to come on, and even adjust your thermostat to a comfortable temperature. This feature can also be used to lock your home automatically when you leave and arm your system. Because of this feature, you won’t have to worry about checking all the doors and arming your system manually before heading out. It will all be taken care of automatically.
5. Smoke, Water, and Carbon Monoxide Monitoring
To help protect your home from these threats, you should include these detectors in your security system as well. An integrated smoke detector can help signal that a fire has broken out on your property and alert the fire department within seconds. This can help keep your home protected from fire even when you’re not using it.
Household fires can cause devastating damage. Check out our guide for fire safety tips you can practice for flame prevention around the home.
Similarly, water sensors can help notify you of rising water in your vacation home so that you can take action quickly and carbon monoxide detectors will notify you if dangerous levels of gas are detected. This can help prevent you from walking into a potentially dangerous situation the next time you vacation there.
6. Smart Locks
You can use smart locks in conjunction with geofencing. You can also control them with an app. This allows you to never have to worry about forgetting to lock your doors, and it can enable you to enter your home easily even if you’ve misplaced your key. Smart locks can also be calibrated with temporary access codes for visitors, allowing you to invite people you trust over, even if you’re not there.
7. 24/7 Remote Monitoring
Lastly, you should make sure that you’re able to access your security system remotely from any location. This can allow you to see in real-time what is going on at your property both day and night. Having this capability can help bring you peace of mind while also giving you more control over your home.
Complete Home Security
These seven things are some of the most essential pieces of the home security puzzle, and all of them work together to provide you with the highest level of security possible. With these key components in place, you can rest easy knowing your vacation home is as secure as possible.
Additional Measures
Along with the features mentioned above, there are a few more steps that you can take to help improve the security of your home even further.
- Smart Plugs. Smart plugs can work with geofencing to enable you to turn on electronics automatically when you arrive home. However, smart plugs can also turn off appliances that you may have accidentally left on or they can enable you to set a schedule of when things turn on and off. When not using your vacation home, this can be handy as you can turn on lights manually or set them to come on every night for a few hours. Seeing lights in a house can signal to burglars that it’s occupied, making it a less likely target. The best part about smart plugs is they can turn regular household items into smart devices.
- Work with Neighbors. If you have neighbors around your vacation home that live there year round, you might ask them to monitor your home when you’re not there. While not always necessary, it can be a nice extra line of security to have someone nearby.
- Hire Landscapers. Hiring landscapers to cut the lawn and tidy up outside can also be beneficial for making your vacation home seem occupied even when you’re not there. Overgrown lawns can be a dead give-away that no one is home, making it a more likely target for wannabe thieves.
Security You Can Trust
If you’re interested in creating your own customized security system for your vacation home, consider contacting ONIT Home for a free quote today. With 24/7 live monitoring, professional installation, and smart financing options, ONIT can help you protect your vacation home and give you valuable peace of mind. Go online today to learn more about how our security options can benefit you and your property. Or call us at 1-833-433-0331 to ask about our $500 vouchers. These vouchers make equipping your home with smart security smooth and simple.