An Extensive Homebuyer’s Guide to Home Security

Are you thinking about buying a new home? If so, congratulations. Moving into the house of your dreams can be an exciting experience. After years of saving, dreaming, and searching, you can finally have a place to call your own. 

However, before you purchase a house, you'll want to do your homework. Here, we'll review a few vital steps to take before agreeing to buy a new home. 

Next, we’ll discuss some crucial home security tips to help you guard your new home with confidence and peace of mind. 

What to Consider Before Buying a New Home

Before you sign on the dotted line, you'll want to ensure you're making a smart investment. Let's take a look at what to do before buying a new home. 

Get a Home Inspection

Home inspections are crucial. Hire a professional inspector who can competently investigate the home you want to buy. The inspector should be able to identify any serious problems or signs of structural damage. If you find hidden issues the sellers didn't disclose, you may want to back out of the deal or negotiate a lower purchase price. 

When inspecting your home, pay special attention to the following: 

• Foundational damage. If the house’s foundation isn’t structurally sound, you may have to spend thousands of dollars to fix cracking or uneven ground. 

• Flood risk. Is your house close to a body of water that rises seasonally? Is it in a valley or a low-elevation part of a city with poor drainage? Thinking ahead can help save you headaches down the road. 

• Roof condition. Homeowners should replace their roof every couple of decades, which can cost several thousands of dollars. When scoping out potential houses, ask the seller the age of the roof.

• Insulation. An energy-efficient house is much cheaper to maintain. By including insulation in attics and walls and efficient windows, you can heat and cool your new home with less money. 

• Mold and weather damage. Check for mold around pipes and ventilation systems. You may also want to look for rust, peeling paint, and other signs of weather damage. 

If you're buying a newly constructed home, you might not need to worry about some of these issues. For preowned homes, discovering imperfections doesn't have to be a deal breaker. You can always ask the sellers to repair the damage or lower the purchase price. More than anything, knowledge is power, so don't skimp on a quality home inspection. 

Calculate Your Costs 

Before buying a home, make sure to consider all of the fees and expenses. Examples of typical costs include: 

• Real estate agent fees

• Attorney fees 

• Home inspection fees

• Mortgage loan origination fees

• Property taxes

• Homeowners association dues

In many cases, buying a home is a smart investment that will build equity and set you up for financial success. However, you always want to make sure you know what you're getting into before you make a major purchase. 

Does Your New Home Have a Security System? 

Before you buy a home, evaluate the current alarm system. Does the house have entry alarms? What about a gate to protect the driveway? If you’re going to spend a significant portion of your savings on a house, you want to ensure it’s adequately protected. 

How to Help Secure Your Home

Now that you've taken the time to pick out the perfect home, you need to help keep it secure. By prioritizing home safety, you can protect your house, family, and belongings. Let's review some essential home security tips every new homeowner should follow.

Help Guard Your New Home With Security Cameras

Security cameras are one of the most versatile tools to keep your home safe. Today's security cameras have come a long way since the fuzzy black-and-white closed-circuit TVs of the past. 

If you’re looking for reliable security cameras to monitor your home, ADT outdoor security cameras are perfect for the job. Our security cameras have:

• High-quality video. Generate 1080p HD video quality images, even in dark or low-light environments, so you’ll be able to help keep watch over your home, day or night. 

• Motion sensor capability. Make sure your camera is on whenever someone gets close to your house. 

• Weatherproof design. Keep your cameras for years, even through rain, snow, and humidity. 

ADT security cameras send video footage directly to your mobile device, allowing you to check in on your house from the grocery store, the office, or your hotel room. Keeping a constant eye on your home can keep you safe and give you peace of mind.

In addition to alerting you to danger, security cameras are also helpful because they help create a trail of evidence. If someone injures themselves on your property and tries to sue you, you can use video footage to help prove if you shouldn’t be liable. Plus, if someone tries to break into your house, you’ll have an opportunity to catch them on camera. 

Reinforce Your Front Door

Your front door is the first line of defense when keeping your new home safe. By making a few simple upgrades, you can significantly improve your security. These upgrades include:

• Installing a doorbell camera

• Getting a solid-core front door 

• Adding a deadbolt and strike plate

Installing a Doorbell Camera

One of the easiest ways for potential intruders to break into your house is by convincing you to open your front door and then forcing their way inside. To guard against these situations, you might consider installing a peephole to take a look before inviting strangers into your home.

Adding a doorbell camera is an even better way to monitor the front of your house. ADT doorbell cameras produce HD-quality video and enable two-way audio that allows you to determine your guests’ intentions before letting them inside. 

Using motion sensors, our doorbell cameras detect when someone is outside your front door and immediately notify you via your mobile phone. You can even talk to people delivering packages while you're away. Doorbell cameras are the new gold standard in front door security. 

Getting a Solid-Core Front Door

In some instances, an intruder might not care whether you let them in - they may try to break the door down. Exterior doors made of hollow wood are easy for criminals to kick in. If you knock on your door, and it makes an airy, echoey sound, you probably have a hollow front door. 

To help protect a new home, consider installing a solid-core front door with a steel or fiberglass plate. You can find a high-quality steel-core front door for just a couple hundred dollars, which is well worth the investment. 

Adding a Deadbolt and Strike Plate 

While you're at the hardware store picking up your new front door, you might want to get a deadbolt to enhance your door's security. Deadbolts are an extra layer of protection that prevents people from kicking down or otherwise breaking through your door. 

When installing your deadbolt, make sure it extends into the doorjamb. Plus, double-check to make sure the screws drill deep into the wall and aren't exposed to the outside. 

For added safety, add a metal strike plate, which encases the deadbolt when it's in the locked position. Strike plates help keep the door closed and prevent people from forcibly entering your home. 

Help Protect Your Doors and Windows 

Your front door isn't the only place where intruders can break their way into your house. Glass doors and windows are a weak point in your home's security, so anything you can do to increase their safety is a wise investment. Now, let's get into the specifics, including:

• Cover your windows and doors 

• Lock your windows and doors

• Switch to shatterproof glass 

• Install glass break sensors 

Cover Your Windows and Doors

Potential thieves love windows and glass doors because they can tell whether anyone is home. Plus, they can start developing a strategy. However, you can help stop criminals in their tracks by taking measures to prevent them from looking inside your new home. 

One way to secure your new home from unwanted eyes is to cover any glass doors or windows with sliding panels, blinds, or window films. Some of these solutions are more secure than others. While films don't offer much structural support, some sliding panels provide an extra layer of physical security, preventing criminals from breaking through the glass. 

Lock Your Windows and Doors

When it comes to sliding glass doors, one of the best ways to increase your new home's security is to install a sliding glass door lock. Alternatively, you may choose to use a security bar, which prevents the sliding panel from moving. Security bars are high-tech versions of the wooden rods you may have used to secure sliding doors in your childhood. 

For French doors, you may consider getting a brace to prevent criminals from breaking in. While French doors are great for letting in the sunshine and fresh air, they can be easy to force open if you don’t have a brace in place. 

For the utmost safety, purchase window locks for any windows on the ground floor. You don't want to go through all the trouble of securing your doors, only to allow a thief to wiggle open a easily accessible window to gain access to your home. 

Switch to Shatterproof Glass

Shatterproof glass may be a bit more expensive, but it's worth the extra cost. By installing shatterproof sliding glass doors and windows, you prevent thieves from smashing through potential weak points in your new home. Plus, you'll make your house safer for children or pets who might run into the glass, destroying your door in the process. 

Install Glass Break Sensors 

Whether you’ve installed shatterproof glass, a motivated perpetrator may try to break into your home by taking out a window or glass door. By strategically placing glass break sensors around vulnerable windows and glass doors, you can receive an alert the moment someone tries to force their way into your home. 

Our glass break sensors have a radius of 25 feet, so just a few devices can cover a substantial amount of your house. If you're away from home, ADT will send a notification to your mobile device. You'll always be up to date and aware of what's happening when you're gone. 

Monitor Your Driveway

Protecting your driveway increases security in two ways. First, you'll prevent thieves from getting away with your car. Second, monitoring your driveway alerts you if anyone is approaching your house, whether at night, during the day, or when you're away. Let's look at how to secure your home by monitoring your driveway:

• Add a physical barrier 

• Install digital sensors 

Add a Physical Barrier 

One of the most obvious ways to protect a new home is to install a physical barrier between your house and the outside world. 

Automated gates are an effective way to keep out unwanted guests. Most gates attach to a remote device, which you can use to open your gate from afar. Depending on whether you want to keep out pedestrians, you may choose to have a barrier that only blocks the driveway or a fence that encloses your entire living space. 

For a slightly less intrusive option, you might want to install security bollards. These retractable metal cylinders are a viable option for homeowners who want to prevent car theft but don't want to block off their driveway from pedestrians. Many bollards are automatic, allowing you to toggle their up and down position with a remote. 

Install Digital Sensors 

You may want to combine physical barriers with digital devices for the most protection. By setting up sensors at the entrance to your driveway, your home security system will notify you whenever someone is coming toward your home. If your sensors are hooked up to a comprehensive home security system like those ADT offers, you can receive a notification on your smartphone alerting you to approaching vehicles. 

If you frequently leave your house wondering whether you’ve shut your garage door, you might consider installing a garage door monitor. The device allows you to use your mobile device to check if your garage door is closed, giving you peace of mind when you’re away from home. 

Protect Your New Home With a Comprehensive Security Package

If you’re a new homeowner, incorporating these home security tips and staying vigilant will help you keep your home safe and sound. 

One of the best ways to protect a new home is to install a comprehensive security system that communicates through a central hub. When your security cameras, glass break sensors, and driveway monitors communicate with one another, you'll have a crystal-clear picture of what's going on with your home at all times, even when you're away. 

ADT home security systems are perfect for the job. We’re so confident that you’ll love our security systems that we offer a six-month money-back guarantee. If you’re not happy with our service, we’ll refund your installation and monitoring fees. 

Unlike other security companies, we don't outsource our monitoring centers. In fact, we have three times more monitoring centers than the next best security company. We're always there to make sure your home is safe and secure. If you call us to ask a question, we'll pick up within just a couple of rings. 

Prioritizing your home’s security is one of the most important ways to keep your family safe. By choosing one of our comprehensive home security solutions, you’ll be taking an essential step to protect your new home.