Almost all of us will know someone or be “that someone” who experiences some sort of home burglary. It might be a neighbor, co-worker, friend or loved one, but almost all of us in our lives will know someone whose home was invaded.

By taking some simple precautions, you can greatly reduce the likelihood of becoming the victim everyone knows and talks about.

Each year, there are over 2 million home burglaries committed nationwide. Today I’ll share a complete guide to making your home more secure and decreasing your chances of becoming a victim of this crime. I’ve included a whole gamut of different options and steps you can take.

The tips range from the cheap and easy, to the more expensive and involved. Only you can decide, based on your personal circumstances and inclinations, how much time and money to invest in buttressing your home against the possibility of invasion and theft.

Understand the Mind of a Criminal: Time, Noise, and Visibility

Most burglars are criminals of opportunity. They’re typically only going to target homes they can access easily without being detected. Sociologists that have interviewed burglars have found three common factors they use to determine whether or not to rob a home: time, noise, and visibility.

Burglars want to get in and out of a house as quickly as possible. The longer it takes to enter a home, the more likely someone will notice and call the police. So the harder you make it to gain entry, the better.

Unfortunately, many people make it way too easy for a criminal to burgle them. Some research suggests that about 30% of all burglaries are through an unlocked door or garage. While it’s easy to pick a lock, it takes much more time than walking through an unlocked door or window. That’s why you should always lock all of your home’s potential entry points; it’s the simplest way to add a buffer of time.

Besides the time factor, burglars look at whether they can do their filching without being noticed.

Barking dogs and home security systems will bring unwanted attention to a burglar due to the noise they create. Consequently, burglars will often skip homes with these features.

On the other hand, homes that are poorly lit at night or have lots of trees blocking the main entrance or windows make for enticing targets because they provide a cloak for thieves.

Time, noise, visibility. Part of a solid home security plan is increasing all three of these factors. Which areas do you need to improve upon the most? To figure that out, you need to:

Case your joint. The first step to improving your home security is to find your home’s weaknesses. And the way you do that is to look at your place as if you were a criminal. Keep in mind the three factors we just discussed and case your joint. Do it during the day and the night and ask yourself questions like:
•    Are there areas around my home that would offer cover for a bad guy to break in without being seen?
•    Is my house well-lit at night?
•    Do I have any unlocked doors or windows?
•    Can I easily see valuables in my home from the street?
•    Do the people in my home have routines that would make it easy for a burglar to figure out when would be the best time to hit my house?

Be ruthless with yourself as you try to think like a burglar would.

General Home Security Measures

Get to know your neighbors. One of the best security measures you can take is to get to know your neighbors and ask them to keep an eye out for strangers around your house. Convicted burglars often report that one thing that would thwart their plans was a nosey neighbor asking what they were up to. Burglars will usually go after a home if they think they can get away with it; if they know they’re being watched, they’re less likely to follow through.

Install a home security system. The research shows that homes without a security system are three times more likely to be broken into than homes with one. Home security systems obviously deter would-be thieves by bringing audible attention to their break-in attempts. They also automatically dispatch the police to your home (though it’s important to note that it could be up to 30 minutes to an hour before they get there). Besides monitoring for breaches, many security companies also offer fire and carbon monoxide detection, as well as features that allow you to control your home’s lighting and appliances while you’re away.

If you can’t afford a home security system, consider installing alarms that, once set, emit a loud noise whenever someone opens a door or breaks a window. These types of alarms are pretty affordable — look to spend between $10 and $50 for each one. If you don’t want to do that, at least put up generic “This home is protected by Acme Home Security” stickers in different windows around your house. It might not deter all burglars, but it may cause some to reconsider making you a target.

Get a dog. While you shouldn’t rely on your dog as your primary means of home security, having a barking (or yelping) dog in the backyard or in your house will make bad guys think twice about breaking into your home. It’s not so much the fear of being attacked (though if your dog is a Rottweiler, that’s likely a factor), but the prospect of the barking drawing attention to their break-in.

Keep the outside of your house in tip-top shape. Regular home maintenance and upkeep serves two purposes. First, it keeps your home looking like it’s occupied. An unmowed yard could be a signal that no one is home. Second, you want to keep shrubs and trees trimmed and pruned to eliminate any possible hiding places for potential bad guys.

Keep the outside of your house well-lit. Bad guys don’t want to be seen, so do what you can to deny them the cover of darkness. You want to have lighting on parts of the outside of your house that would allow your neighbors to see a suspicious person within 100 feet of your home. Turn your front door light on at dusk, as well as any other lights near entry points (better yet, put them on a timer). If you have tall trees around your home, you might also consider installing timed floodlights in their branches that come on at night. Motion-activated floodlights near shadowed areas create extra security as well. They’ll only come on when someone’s activity in the area trips it. Having a bright light suddenly shown on them might scare off a bad guy.

All of these lights not only keep would-be robbers away, but help friends and family safely navigate to your front door at night.

Watch what you’ve thrown out in the trash. One way bad guys will “window shop” your house is to check for any big cardboard boxes for appliances sitting on your curb. If you make any significant purchases, make sure to cut up the cardboard box it came in so it can fit in a trash bag or a recyclables container. Also, before you throw away any bills or bank statements, shred them to stave off identity theft.
Be careful who you let into your home. Anytime you let someone into your home, you give them the opportunity to steal from you right then and there or to scope out your valuables and make preparations to come back later to swipe them.

So be very careful who you let into your home.

When you need to be particularly on guard is when you hire service providers like repairmen, contractors, cleaners, babysitters, etc. Always ask for references and vet them thoroughly. You may consider doing a background check as well.

Bonding domestic employees is another option. A fidelity bond is a type of insurance that covers the policyholder for losses that come about by fraudulent acts by your domestic employee. Another benefit of a fidelity bond is that the insurance company does an additional background check on the potential employee. Talk to your insurance company about this.

When you do have repairmen or contractors come to your house, hide your valuables before they get there. Never give them a key (they could easily make a duplicate), and only provide them access to the parts of the house that they’re working on. And don’t disclose future vacation plans either.
Every time the workers call it quits for the day, go through your home and do a quick inventory. Check to see if your valuables are still there, but more importantly, check to see if your doors and windows are still locked. A common ruse by criminal contractors is to unlock doors and windows so that they can come back later to burgle.

Avoid hiring unsolicited help. A common scam criminals run is called “imposter burglaries.” A pair of hucksters knock on your door offering some service — tree trimming, gutter repair, painting, etc. One of the scam artists will lure you outside to talk to you about your trees or whatever, while the other one enters your home to fleece the easy pickings. Bottom line: If you didn’t call someone to come out to your home, don’t engage with them.

Nothing kicks you in the gut more than having your home invaded and burglarized. Almost all of us will know someone who has items stolen and most of us will know someone whose home is burglarized, stuff stolen and life invaded.

That is just a fact of life.

To ensure you are not that person, that your home remains as safe as possible, you have to take steps to make it hard for a criminal to get access. Criminals are usually lazy so the harder you make it the less likely it is they will persist in trying to break into your home.

For these security tips and more, please visit the team at The Art of Manliness.