The idea of traveling abroad can be incredibly exciting, but one thing that you might be worried about is the safety and security of your home while you are away. As you may have heard, your home is put at risk of burglary and crime while you are away on vacation, especially if you don’t take the necessary steps in order to keep your home safe. Luckily, however, you can keep your house secure this summer while you travel abroad if you follow these tips.
Install a Security Camera System
Installing a security camera system is important for home security any time of year, and it is especially important if you are going to be traveling. Having a security camera system in place can help you watch out for people who enter your property with bad intentions, and simply having cameras in place can actually deter people from wanting to commit crimes on your property. Along with enjoying these benefits so that you can keep your house secure this summer while you travel abroad, you can also enjoy the security that a home security camera system can bring year-round.
Therefore, you should absolutely consider talking to a security camera system professional about installing a security camera system in your home. It costs a lot less to do so than a lot of people think, and there are security camera systems available for every budget, which means that you shouldn’t have to worry about this purchase imposing on the budget that you have set for while you travel abroad. You might even be able to install the system yourself in order to cut costs, especially if you pick up a security camera system that is wireless and user-friendly, which is something that a security-related professional can help you pick out.
Watch Your Security Camera Footage While You Are Away
The best thing about installing a security camera system for home protection is the fact that you can now watch it from anywhere in the world. This means that you can keep an eye on your surveillance footage from your hotel or anywhere that you might be while you travel abroad as long as you have an Internet connection.
In order to use this feature, however, you have to first make sure that your security camera system is compatible. You will also have to make sure that your system is connected to the Internet. For best results, try checking your system to make sure that you can stream your footage on your laptop or smartphone before you leave. Then, you can get the help that you need from a security-related professional if you have any questions. Once you have the system set up for this type of streaming and monitoring, it should be a cinch to be able to pull up your surveillance camera footage once you leave for your trip, and you can then check on your home any time that you want to while you are abroad. This can help you enjoy your trip even more because you won’t be spending your vacation time worrying about the state of your home, and you can solve issues much more quickly if you catch them by watching your footage instead of waiting to find out about them until after you return from your trip.
Post Security-Related Signs
After you have installed your surveillance camera system, you should definitely consider posting security-related signs around your property. These signs will let people know that they are under video surveillance while they are around your home, and they can also let these individuals know that you have a burglar alarm in place. Although you might not think that these signs will be effective, they can be surprisingly so. Since most criminals truly don’t want to get caught when they are committing their crimes, they will probably decide to leave your home alone if they see that they will be caught on tape if they try anything on your property. These signs only cost a couple of dollars and are easy to install, and you might even get some free when you purchase a security camera system and burglar alarm for your home. Therefore, you should definitely take the time to hang them; you might be surprised by all of the crimes that they will deter while you are away.
Install a Burglar Alarm
Installing a burglar alarm is always a good idea, even if you have a surveillance camera system in place on your property. By using the two at the same time, you can take a double measure of caution against crime.
If you have a burglar alarm in place, you can set it so that your alarm monitoring company will be contacted any time that someone decides to enter your home or cross paths with your motion detectors while you have the alarm set. Your alarm monitoring company will then in turn contact your local police department to let them know that there is a strong possibility that a crime is in progress on your property.
Along with contacting your local police department, your burglar alarm might also work to scare away someone who was thinking about committing a crime. When the person hears your alarm sound, he or she might try to get away as quickly as possible, meaning that he or she will leave your home and belongings alone. There is also still a strong possibility that the individual will get caught by the local police while he or she is running away from your home. Therefore, a burglar alarm can help keep your home safe, and it can also help keep your entire neighborhood safe from crime.
Contact Your Alarm Monitoring Company
Having a burglar alarm in place is important, but it is also important for you to let your alarm monitoring company know that you are planning on going on vacation. Then, they will know how to proceed in the event that your alarm is sounded.
Many alarm monitoring companies will first contact the home owner to let him or her know that their alarm is going off. This is because it can be easy for some people to accidentally activate their alarms, such as people who are just getting used to their alarm systems or those who have children in the home. Although the company will still contact the local authorities, valuable time might be lost if they are trying to get in contact with you. There is also a strong possibility that they won’t be able to get up with you at all if you are traveling abroad.
Therefore, you should contact the company and let them know that you are leaving the country. Let them know the day that you are leaving and the day that you are planning on returning home. If you have an alternate contact number that you can give to them, such as the number of a family member that you are staying with while you are traveling or the phone number to your hotel or resort, you should consider giving them this information as well.
Keeping your alarm monitoring company posted about what you are doing and how long you will be gone will help them keep your home safe while you are traveling abroad.
Ask Your Neighbor for a Favor
It is a good idea to let a neighbor that you trust know that you are heading out of town for a while for a few reasons. Therefore, consider sitting down and talking to someone who lives near you in the weeks prior to your trip.
When doing so, you can ask your neighbor to keep an eye on your home. Make sure that you give him or her a contact number to reach you at while you are traveling abroad, and consider also giving your neighbor the contact number for a friend or family member who lives nearby. Ask your neighbor if he or she will move your car for you periodically while you are gone, and consider asking him or her to turn your lights or television on and off every now and then to give off the impression that you are home. You can also take this time to ask your neighbor to keep an eye out for your pets or plants. Although you might want to give him or her a small token of your appreciation for doing so, you can also offer to return the favor when he or she heads on a vacation later on down the line. By looking out for one another, neighbors can help keep their entire neighborhoods safer from crime.
Keep Your Lawn Up
One thing that you might not have thought of yet is how to take care of your lawn while you are away, but it is essential for you to make some sort of arrangements. Not only do you probably want to prevent yourself from coming home to an overgrown lawn when you get back from your vacation, but you also don’t want to let people who are walking or driving by know that you aren’t home. An overgrown lawn can be a sure-fire sign that a home is empty, so make sure that you make arrangements with a lawn care company or family member to have your grass cut, weed-eated and more. Then, you can return home to a lawn that you can be proud of, and you don’t have to worry about giving off the impression that no one is home or living in your home while you are away.
Stop the Mail
Just as you should keep up your lawn while you are gone so that people don’t know that you are traveling, you should also do so with your mail. A box that is overflowing with mail or a doorstep that is covered in unread newspapers can give away the fact that you haven’t been home in a while, so make sure that you contact your local newspaper delivery company and your postmaster to inform them that you will be gone. Then, they will hold your mail and newspapers until you return. As an alternative, you can also ask a friend or neighbor to pick up your mail and newspapers and to hold on to them for you while you are away.
Don’t Let Everyone Know Where You Are Going
Although you might be tempted to brag about your upcoming trip to everyone you see in the grocery store or to talk about it on your social media profiles, it’s best to save the bragging for after you return from your trip. You never know who you can or can’t trust and who might find out this information, so don’t let everyone know that you are going to be away from your home for a while if you want to be safe.
Set a Timer for Your Lights
Leaving all of your lights off or on can be a good way to let people know that you aren’t home and that you haven’t been home for a while. Therefore, consider setting a few of your lights on a timer. Then, they will come on and turn off at various times throughout the day, which can give off the impression that someone is home.
Enjoy Your Trip
Worrying about whether or not your home is safe while you are away can definitely put a damper on a trip that is supposed to be fun. That’s one reason why it is a good idea to handle all of these things before you leave so that you won’t have to worry about the safety and security of your home and belongings while you are gone.
Therefore, you should consider attending to these things in the weeks and months prior to your trip. Then, you can enjoy your trip without having to worry about anything other than having a good time while you are abroad.