Home Security for Tenants

The essential premise of home security is creating a deterrent to someone breaking into your house. One way to do this is to have an alarm system with signs posted around your property or apartment indicating that you have an alarm system. This tells a would-be thief that your property or apartment is not going to be an easy target and that he should move on to the next unit. Thiefs, after all, are looking for easy targets. Generally, they check for unlocked doors or unlocked windows where they can gain access quickly and can also leave quickly.

The ideal heist for a thief would be an open door leading to valuables in plain view. If a thief can see your new laptop computer sitting on your desk unattended and he also discovers an open door leading to your office, temptation is almost always too great. Why? Because this is too easy. He can be in and out in a few seconds with a very valuable item, a new laptop computer. So the lesson here is that you don't want to be an easy target for a thief and you want to create a deterrent to thieves.

A home security system would be a great investment except most require installation. Most renters live in an apartment where installation may not be an option, depending upon the landlord's rules and regulations. What other options do tenants have to provide for their safety and for the security of their possessions? In this article, I'm going to outline several home security options that vary according to several budgets, a $50 budget, a $250 budget and a $1000 budget. None of these options guarantees your safety or the security of your valuables but they may offer some peace of mind and some deterrent effect.

The $50 budget for home security - In the world of home security and preventing thefts, another deterrent effect is to create the illusion that you are (or someone is) at your apartment when you are really not. My favorite device for creating this illusion is the lamp and appliance timer. For about $6, you can begin to create the illusion of someone in your home. The lamp and appliance timer, especially when used in groups of three or four, is used to turn on lamps or other electrical devices for a specific period of time and then turn them back off. I like to use them in groups of three of four in order to put them in different rooms and have a light turn off in the living room and one turn on a few seconds or minutes later in the bedroom, for example. I do this in order to create the illusion that someone is in the house. With several of these timers, you can create elaborate patterns of lights turning on and off throughout the apartment to simulate the movement of people in the house. This is much more effective than just leaving the kitchen light on when you leave. You can also use the timers to turn radios on and off to further enhance the illusion of people in the house.

Another of my favorite devices for the budget conscious is the motion detecting light switch. When you enter a room, the light switch detects motion in the room and automatically turns on a light. A few minutes after all motion has ceased in the room, the light switch goes off. If you have pets that wander through the apartment while you are gone, they will often set off these switches and turn on the light as they pass by. This is a great and inexpensive way to create the illusion of people in the house. Also, the last thing a thief wants to happen when he enters a house or apartment is to have the lights come on.

One product that saved me last year and the last that I will recommend for the budget conscious is the door entry chime. This is not a doorbell. Businesses often use this to alert people inside the business that someone has entered the main door. It could be as simple as some bells hanging from the door that ring when the door opens or shuts. At its most complex, it is a wireless system that sends a signal to a receiver when the door opens. I had some thieves breaking into my office. When they finally got the door open, the door entry chime rang. It must have scared them off (as they thought it was an alarm) because upon my arrival to work the next day, the door was open but nothing was missing. Not bad for $29.99. I immediately bought a home security system but that door entry chime saved my bacon. The neighbors weren't so lucky.

That concludes my home security recommendations for the budget conscious. Stay tuned as I later evaluate the $250 budget.