Helpful Tips While Vacationing
Preparing for vacation? Here are a few tips to help keep one’s home secure.
Preparing for vacation? Here are a few tips to help keep one’s home secure.
When preparing for vacation, you should avoid posting on social media about the dates of your absence, countdowns to departure, or photos while away. It’s advisable to wait until returning home to share such information publicly. Sharing this information on social media can inadvertently invite unwanted attention to one’s home and belongings.
You should check with your insurance company to determine how frequently someone must check your premise while you are away. Typically, this involves someone checking the home at least once every 48 to 72 hours. If a house sitter is using the alarm system, it’s essential to keep a record on file as proof, in case the insurance company requests it.
It’s important for you to arrange for someone to pick up your mail and newspapers while you are away, preventing them from piling up or being left on the porch, which could indicate that the home is unoccupied. Additionally, ensuring that the driveway is shoveled or plowed, or the lawn is mowed if necessary, gives the impression that someone is present at the residence. Informing neighbors about the absence and any expected visitors during that time can also help maintain security.
To discourage hidden areas that may be accessed, you should keep shrubs low and illuminate areas around the exterior of your home. It’s important to ensure that all doors, windows, and other access points are locked securely. Additionally, utilizing timers on lights, installing motion sensor lights, or remotely controlling different lights via an app can help create the impression of occupancy while away.
Using video surveillance that alerts your phone when there is activity at your premise, is another option for you. A doorbell camera can also be useful if you are not home. You can still speak to someone at your door, and they won’t know where you’re answering them from.
You will need to provide contact information for the person you want to be notified in case of an alarm while you are away. This helps reduce the time the alarm station operator spends trying to reach a key holder.
It’s advisable to use the alarm system daily rather than waiting until leaving for vacation. This allows any issues to be addressed beforehand, providing peace of mind for both the you and the house sitter. Even if you’re only going to be away for a short period of time, it’s important to activate the alarm. Many break-ins occur while homeowners are briefly away, such as when running errands in town, as thieves monitor neighborhoods for such opportunities.
You should avoid hiding house keys. Utilizing a smart door lock eliminates the need for sharing keys, as each user can have their own code. Additionally, an app can be used to open the garage door or unlock a door for a service repairman without the need to leave work or interrupt the day.
It’s recommended to have a temperature sensor for freezing pipes or a water sensor for detecting burst water lines, hot water tank leaks, or toilet tank leaks. Dealing with these issues promptly is much easier when they have just occurred, rather than returning home after a two-week holiday. It’s important to inform your insurance company that you have a monitored alarm system and specify all the situations being monitored for, such as burglary, smoke/fire, water damage, carbon monoxide, freezing/temperature, panic buttons, etc. Depending on the insurance company, you may be eligible for a larger discount.
Need help? Let Edwards Security answer a few questions that commonly come up.
We do not own the equipment, as the customer pays up front for it. If you were to sell your house, we would hope the new owners would want to be monitored by us and you would want to be monitored in your new home by us.
Because customers own their equipment, they are not paying for it over and over again through higher monitoring fees, as can be the case with another company. You may also choose to remove the equipment and have it re-installed in your new home or business.
We do not finance equipment, so the customer will buy their equipment. The initial investment is equivalent to approximately what the larger companies are charging for a 3 year contract. Our monitoring rates are lower than theirs and after the 3 year contract with the larger companies, the customer continues to pay the higher rates, year after year, and do not ever own the equipment.
We offer more options for the customer to set up the call-out list than larger companies offer. We can tailor the order you would like the list to be called, and only have certain users called when specific zones are in alarm. For example, the water detection zone is tripped. The operator will call the premise, then the call list in the order the customer has requested.
For burglary alarms, some customers do not want the police to be called until an attempt to reach all key holders has been made, rather than only one or two.
We can set up the call-out list to each individual customer’s needs, and are not regulated by a larger company’s policy.
We will send an alarm monitoring certificate to the customer or the customer’s insurance broker, to help the customer take advantage of any discount they may be entitled to. Each insurance company is different, so we are not able to give an exact percentage amount the customer may be eligible for.
We have options available to monitor alarm systems. Cellular communicators, or internet IP based device, are what we use. A cellular communicator is a small unit that is installed and allows the alarm system to communicate with the monitoring station. If no cellular service is available, an internet communicator would be installed, and signals would be sent through it to the alarm station.
We encourage customers to use their alarm systems regularly so this isn’t a fear. We give customers on site training and are always available if there are any questions. Certain alarm systems offer an app to use. Using the app on their phone lets the customer remotely arm or disarm the alarm and verify the alarm status.
We provide complimentary code changes if necessary. We strive to keep the customer updated with verification reports so the customer, the monitoring station, and Edwards Security all have the same information. We also can train users to add/remove codes as needed.
We provide user manuals and training upon installation of equipment. If the manual is lost, we can provide another.
Safety is our top priority! Customers can contact us to discuss their home security needs and find out how we can help protect what matters most to them.