How to stop burglars from targeting your home (Proven Methods)

Feeling safe in your own home is one of the most important aspects of being a homeowner. Your home is your castle, where your kids grow, and where your family spends most of the time. Knowing how to stop burglars from targeting your home is crucial in protecting your property.

According to the FBI, in a year there are almost 2 million burglaries all over the United States and over 70% of them are residential crimes. While these numbers seem high, there are plenty of simple and inexpensive ways for you to prevent crime against your property.

Obviously, not all crimes can be stopped, but by following the suggestions listed in this guide, you can reduce the likelihood of experiencing a break-in and increase the overall security of your dwelling.

Proven Ways to Stop Burglars from Targeting Your Home

What discourages burglars from targeting or making a move against your home? In this guide, we’ve collected 10 simple, effective, and affordable ways to deter any burglars or intruders from hitting your house.

1. Install security cameras

The number one thing that you can do to increase the security of your house consists of installing a reliable surveillance camera system. Even the official statistics show that houses with security systems are less likely to be broken into.

Cameras serve as a deterrent factor, the burglars will be caught on camera and they’ll know that the house owner is serious about the security. Moreover, why hit a house with cameras or an alarm system and risk getting caught when you can hit a house that lacks such countermeasures?

Obviously, the burglars may wear masks and gloves. But still, it’s way too risky to hit a house that has cameras all over the place and possibly an alarm system.

All the actions will be recorded. Any disturbance may cause the system to alert the homeowner or even the central monitoring station.

Nowadays, security camera systems offer various smart features that can notify the homeowner right away if there’s any break-in.

The user can get real-time alerts via phone, screenshots, or other notifications that enable the homeowner to call the police and have them dispatched right away toward the locations.

Moreover, the cameras are high definition, have sharp images, and provide good nighttime quality. The times of blurry, choppy, or pixelated surveillance images are long gone. If you have installed a decent surveillance system, rest assured that the footage quality is amazing.

Most of the security camera systems are wired, but you can even install wireless ones if you don’t want to do any drilling.

However, the wired ones are generally more reliable and they’ll record the footage regardless of the wireless coverage. You may check our security camera systems picks and recommendations at this link (and this one as well).

2. Install motion-activated flood lights or other light sources

Another way to prevent a possible break-in is by installing floodlights that get activated when motion is detected. When the light turns on automatically (especially during nighttime), the burglars will get scared. It’s a huge shock for an intruder to be in the spotlight while they’re trying to sneak around the property.

There are a variety of floodlights in the market, you should be looking at ones that cast strong spotlights, although it depends on the location. These lights have sensors and they turn on automatically when motion is detected.

Additionally, you may set them on a timer and they can be turned on in the evening and turned off when it dawns. Moreover, a well-lit area helps the security system to capture clear images. Any burglar will think twice before hitting a house that is well lit and has cameras.

3. Lock up doors and windows

It’s a simple tip, but do you know that according to various statistics, around 60% of the burglars break in through the front or back door and another 20% come through the windows? This makes it important to ensure that your doors and windows are actually properly locked.

To prevent burglars from easily breaking into your home, install solid doors and deadbolt locks. We’d recommend going for smart locks as well which allow you to remotely check if the door is locked or not. If not, it will remind you and simply lock it via the phone app.

Windows are another break-in point that needs attention. Install proper windows that can’t be easily broken into and lock them when away, especially the one on the first floor. All these tips will reduce the chances of getting a burglar’s attention.

4. Put your valuables away

There are a lot of burglars out there who hit randomly without any prior preparation. They may see something valuable outside or inside the house and decide to attack and earn a quick buck.

These types of burglaries involve valuables such as bikes, tools, motorcycles, other machinery, etc. You need to put these valuables away and ensure that they won’t attract any prying eyes. Ensure you don’t have exposed valuables that may lure intruders into your property.

5. Close all the blinds in your home

By keeping your blinds closed, you avoid any curious eyes from checking the inside of your home. Especially in cases where the house is close to the sidewalk or the main street, people may randomly see valuables or notice when no one is home.

If the blinds are shut, burglars won’t be able to see inside and they don’t know for sure if anyone is inside or if there’s anything worthy to grab (especially items such as laptops, phones, consoles, or other things that are easy to grab and sell). So, keep your blinds closed, even at night, and prevent wanna-be burglars from peeking inside.

6. Trim and take care of the shrubs

Sometimes the landscape may help the burglars to hide and enable them to case the house without being detected. That’s one of the reasons why you should maintain and control the growth of the plants around your property.

Make sure that the bushes, shrubs, and other large plants are trimmed sufficiently to avoid such dark spots that can help burglars.

Additionally, you may place extra light sources in these spots and add more security cameras to cover the perimeter of the property.

7. Be friends with your neighbors

It is proven by various studies and stats that close communities have lower crime rates because neighbors tend to look out for each other and immediately spot something out of place.

Making friends with your neighbors doesn’t just improve the quality of your life (well, if the neighbors are decent people) but it’s also a way to increase the protection of your house. When you’re away, the neighbors may look at the house for you and if something is amiss they may call the police.

Once you live in a neighborhood long enough, you’ll get used to the habits of the community and it gets super easy to detect something out of place. Let’s say a stranger roaming in the streets aimlessly, or a car making rounds for no reason.

So, we’d recommend having good relations with your neighbors, having their contact information on your phone, and helping each other if there’s suspicious activity in the neighborhood. Additionally, you may use community apps or other neighborhood watch programs.

8. Be careful when sharing information on social media

Do you know that many people freely share private information on social media that may inform burglars about the whereabouts and future plans of the house owners?

Some people don’t think too much when telling everyone online when and where they are going on vacation when they’ll be away, or even when they make a large purchase.

Keep a low profile on social media and never share information that can be used by intruders.

9. Get a guarding dog

A guarding dog is another security measure that can help keep burglars away from your house. Even the statistics indicate that houses with dogs are almost 30% less likely to be hit by intruders. A barking dog is a nuisance for a burglar and most likely they’ll move to another target.

There are various dog breeds that can enhance the security of your home and it doesn’t necessarily have to be a guarding dog.

All you need is a dog that barks aggressively when unknown people approach the house. Smaller breeds are okay as well, as long as they are good at barking at intruders.

However, getting a dog is a serious decision and you need to be sure about it. Dogs are social creatures, they need companionship and a lot of attention. If you already own, at least teach them to bark when unknown people come to the house, especially when you’re away.

10. Avoid telltales that the house is empty

There are many tell tales that can possibly indicate that a house is unoccupied. For example, burglars can notice the lights inside the house and if all are turned off early in the evening then it’s a tell tale that no one is home.

You may want to leave some lights on, or you can even use timers to randomly turn on the lights. Additionally, you can deploy smart lights and control them through your phone.

Loud music or TV coming from the house may serve as a deterrent and prevent burglars from breaking in. If they are noisy, they can’t be totally sure that no one is at home.

So, you may play some music or some radio channels through the speakers and avoid this scenario. (Even with this kind of feature, you can control it remotely via phone apps).

Another interesting trick used by burglars consists of leaving flyers at random houses and then studying the owners’ habits by seeing how long it takes for the flyers to be removed.

This way they can find which houses are unoccupied during the day and what’s the schedule for owners. This trick is usually done during the summer when people go on vacation. You may need to ask your neighbors to collect the mail and any flyers piled at the front door.