Protecting your home

Security for your second home

Owning a vacation home or a “winter” home down south is a dream more and more people are making a reality. With the rise in the aging baby boomer population, more and more people are reaching the age and financial ability where a second home is both affordable and desirable.

Along with owning a second home comes a great deal of worries about maintaining two homes, security when you’re not there and what do you do when something happens to the property when you’re away from either your primary residence or your second home or vacation property.

The following discusses some basic information about how to gain some
of mind knowing your home is better protected from such unfortunate incidents.

SECURITY:
First, what types of people are you trying to keep out? For cabin owners on remote lakes, the most likely perpetrators are kids looking for a place to party or for some liquor to steal. In many cases, these kids are also looking for things of value that they either want for themselves or that they can easily fence to friends. Most are not professional thieves and they are likely thwarted by simple security measures that deter them from even trying to get in a home.

For the primary residence or in a popular lake community, there is often a group of elevated thieves that are looking for specific items to take. They may be searching for boat motors, firearms, or other items that have a high resale value and are fairly easy to fence. They are not as easily deterred by simple security measures as they have experience on how to identify a home that may or may not have a security system installed.

For either scenario, there are some simple security measures that can be taken to help keep intruders at bay:
• Install heavy-duty dead-bolts on all doors. Put lock-bars on any sliding doors.
• Have ONLY solid core doors for all exterior doors – even the one to an attached garage (if applicable).
• Shut all shades and blinds. Thieves won’t steal what they can’t see.
• Keep shrubbery low so windows can easily be seen from a distance. If someone does happen by your place, they can more easily identify if an intruder is present.
• Install motion sensor lights inside and around the exterior of your house (and boat house if applicable). Even if someone does get inside, they are not expecting a light to turn on once they are inside.
• Put in timed lights inside your home. Many timer lights offer random on/off frequency so lights can turn on at different times of day each day of the week.
• Put up security signs and decals in windows that indicate you have a security system installed. This is “poor man’s” security system.
• Put up a fake security camera. This is the inexpensive route, but it is often all that is necessary to keep the amateurs out of your home. Coupled with a motion sensor light, this is a great deterrent.
• Inform neighbors of your absence and give them numbers where you can easily be reached.
• Don’t leave alcohol at your lake home. It’s the biggest thing kids want when they break in. I’ve even heard of people putting up a sign that says, “No alcohol inside” to help keep the kids out.
• Never leave firearms in a vacation property. This is harder to do at a primary residence. If you do have firearms at a home, it is preferable to trigger lock and hide the firearms than keep them in a locked gun cabinet. Some locked gun cabinets, however are extremely hard to move and can’t be broken into easily. Those are a good solution as well.
• Keep the lawn mowed, the flowers watered, the driveway plowed and sidewalks shoveled. Anything to show that people are here and often will help keep away the most likely of intruders. Having a service or a neighbor kid do this is an excellent way to accomplish this task.

SECURITY SYSTEMS:
Security systems come in primarily three types. They are discussed in detail below:
1. Passive systems that simply turn on lights or a siren when an intruder is detected.
2. Active systems without professional monitoring. These systems call one or more people using your existing telephone lines to alert of an intruder.
3. Active systems with professional monitoring. These systems call a professional monitoring service that then contacts the local authorities about the specific problem. They charge a monthly monitoring fee and often require long term contracts.

Passive Systems:
These are designed to scare off an intruder by using lights and sounds. Door or window alarms that sound a siren when it is opened are good examples of this. There are also motion sensors that can sound an alarm as well.

Active Systems – no monthly fees:
These systems actively monitor security at the home or business and call out to numbers that you choose when an intruder is detected. There is no monthly monitoring fees and no lengthy contracts. You simply purchase the system, install it and hope it doesn’t call you. These systems run the gamut of simple, wireless components that use radio frequencies to transmit alarm data to a base station to wired systems that must be wired to the main control/base unit.

Active Systems – professionally monitored:
These systems are usually offered by security companies that install and monitor the system for you. You either lease or purchase the security system and components and then sign a contract for usually 3 years, although some companies have shorter contracts. Often, the security companies have lots of different security sensors and sensor options to add to your system that can increase the cost dramatically. These systems are best suited for larger homes that have many rooms, exterior doors and usually a lot of expensive stuff that thieves want.