It might be to save some bucks, or it might simply be because you are too lazy or careless, but there are simply some mistakes that invite burglars to your home. The most important concept to understand, when it comes to home security, is that burglars will avoid a well-secured home (unless they somehow want to infiltrate a particular residence for a specific reason) in favour of easier targets; therefore, as long as you do not make basic mistakes, your home is secure for most practical reasons. Below are some of these basic mistakes and why you should avoid them:

• Hiding keys outside – the usual idea is to hide the extra keys in the mailbox or under the doormat. This is the most basic mistake you can make, because you can and should expect anyone wanting to break into your house to check these two locations for any spare keys. And if you think that as long as you avoid being so obvious (such as by hiding your spare keys under a rock or statue in your garden) you can avoid the burglar finding your keys, think again – burglars are smart, and they can guess where you would hide your keys. The best idea is to give spare keys to a neighbour, but in case you cannot do this, you might want to bury your keys under the ground (but be sure to not forget where!) in a plastic bag or box.
• Using fake security – in the early years of surveillance systems, there was a demand for fake cameras and security devices to basically fool any suspicious individual into thinking the residence was well protected. The problem is that whilst this might have worked in the past, it certainly will not work nowadays. The reason is once again because burglars are smart, and it is not too hard to know whether a diy CCTV camera is fake or not. The investment is significant but stick to buying real security equipment.
• Not doing maintenance – and another rookie mistake you can make is passing up on maintenance. You might have a Hikvision intercom that works like a charm, but you should not skip on maintenance just because it seems to work fine at the moment. Security systems – just like your fire alarms – should be checked at least once a year by professionals. You will usually find that the company who installed your system will be doing this for you (at least free or at a discount for the first few years).
• Not having enough outdoor lighting – if your garden and neighbourhood is generally dark at night and lacks enough lighting, then you are basically allowing potential burglars to easily hide in the shadows. Invest in motion sensor lights that have infrared sensors and light up whenever someone enters their range. This will scare most burglars from a break-in attempt. For more information, please click here.