No matter where you live you are susceptible to a break-in. However, there are a lot of things you can do around your home and yard that can help you to keep thieves from picking your house as their next target. Try to implement as many of the ideas as you can from this article.

Make it look like someone's home

Whether you are gone for a few minutes or for days, you want your home to look like someone is either in it or may be coming back any minute. A thief would prefer to get in and out of a house undetected and without a confrontation. The following actions will make it look like your home is active:

• If you have a garage, you should always park your car in it and keep the door closed and windows covered. This way, any potential thief looking for patterns won't be able to tell when your car is or isn't home.  
• If you normally park in your driveway, keep a car in your driveway. If you are going to be out of town, see if one of your neighbors wouldn't mind parking their car in your driveway, at least during the nighttime hours.
• Keep your ringers turned down. This way, someone outside of your house won't hear that your phone is ringing for a while without being answered.
• If you have the capabilities, you should even have your home calls sent to your cell phone. This way, if a potential thief calls to see if you are home or not, they will think you are.
• If you are going to be away for an extended period of time, have someone continue to mow your yard and care for your basic landscaping needs, including regular snow removal during snow season.

Create as many barriers as possible

Thieves want to be able to get in and out as quickly as possible. The more barriers you put up, the less chances that they will choose your home to break in to.

Have security screens with deadbolts installed on doors leading to the outside. Have deadbolts on all the doors as well. Breaking in to two doors with deadbolts is extremely difficult to do and many won't be able to accomplish it at all.

Have a deadbolt installed on a door that leads from your garage into your house. Garages can be easier to break into and that makes a middle door very important to the security of your home.

Put secondary locks on your windows and sliding glass doors. You can purchase locks at the local hardware store that screw into place.

Install a security system in your home. A commercial security system will do an excellent job of scaring off possible thieves since they know it will alert you and those around your home to a break-in. Also, local authorities are alerted during a break-in. If that system has cameras, then they also allow you to monitor what's happening at home in real-time. You can get a system you can monitor from your computer and smart phone on the go.

Following the advice here is going to help decrease your chances of falling victim to someone looking to burglarize a house.

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