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Be Smart – Think Ahead For Redwood City Home Safety

Christmas time is a great time to visit friends and family. Parties seem to be everywhere almost every weekend. Thieves know people in Redwood City are celebrating the good tidings of the season and try to take advantage of absent homeowners. Here are 10 helpful tips on what to do to make sure the safety of your Redwood City home while you are away on vacation. Be smart – think ahead for Redwood City Home Safety.

1. Place decal and yard sign advertising an alarm company even if you don’t have a system installed in your home. Thieves would prefer not to deal with an alarm system and will move on to another home. Avoid sign, which promote guns like fear the owner not the dog as guns are a prime target and easy to sell. Thieves love guns so don’t imply any guns inside your home.
2. Re-enforce your garage doors. Placing an angle iron at the top of the doors prevents would be thieves from using brute force to lift your automatic garage door open.
3. BE SURE TO LOCK DOORS AND WINDOWS! This seems simple and obvious but one of the most overlooked thing a homeowner can do to protect their home.
4. Make you home seem to have a dog on the premise. Be sneaky if you don’t have a dog like putting out empty food dishes and full water bowls for your “fake” dog.
5. If you have a door that leads to the garage from the house, (attached garage), make sure those doors are like the rest of the doors, locked. A dead bolt lock on this door is prudent too.

   

6. If you have sliding glass patio doors or sliding windows cut an old broom stick or a piece of wood that will fit in the track of the doors or windows so they can’t be forced open. As an added measure you can buy thumb screw locks that you can install on the top track so that the door or window can be tipped enough to get an arm or hand in to the house to remove your other protective measures.
7. On all exterior doors it is a great idea to install dead bolt locks. The ones with a 3 inch bolt works best and using 3 inch screws give an added protection. Use these 3 inch screws on the strike plate too.
8. Stop your mail and newspaper if on an extended vacation. If you have a family member or neighbor to collect the mail and newspapers for you would work too. Don’t forget there are those weekly throw away papers you usually can’t stop.
9. When you keep up your landscaping keep your hedges at a height that won’t cover an entry to your home like a window. If the you covered up a window with a hedge no one can see if you have a broken window or if someone is breaking into your home.

10. Finally, use motion sensing lights to guard your home during darkness. Nothing scares a robber more than when they want darkness and on comes the lights. It would be a good idea to have light show off your “fake” doggie dishes too.

I hope these top 10 ways to protect your home while you are away will help you prepare your home against home invasion so you can have a peaceful and enjoyable vacation. Be Smart – Think Ahead For Redwood City Home Safety

Have a great vacation and know you can always contact Cliff Keith and Team through the contact information below when you have a need for an experienced, friendly, knowledgeable, and honest Real Estate Broker.

We are here for you as a resource center about real estate and methods to find your new home or home buyer. Thank you.