What First Time Buyers Should Consider About Their Home Security

What First Time Buyers Should Consider About Their Home Security

You’ve attended to everything and now you can enjoy your new home. Congratulations.

You’ll be glad to be finished with all those details of survey costs, solicitor’s fees, insurance policies, mortgage selection and stamp duty. Just one more thing though – have you secured your precious new asset?

The fact is that many people simply overlook the importance of securing their new, perfect home.

With all those costs mentioned above, you might just think – do we really need to install an alarm system at this stage? The simple answer is yes.

Yes, You Should Secure Your New Home ASAP

“It is widely accepted that intruder alarms are an effective deterrent against burglars, thereby helping to reduce the likelihood of your home being targeted.” This is a quote from the Garda website that has really useful information here: https://www.garda.ie/en/crime-prevention/securing-your-home/.

In our line of business, we come across people who have suffered a home intrusion. They approach us to help futureproof against a repeat of this ordeal. Unfortunately, this is a hard lesson to learn.

So, let’s assume that you have decided to have a security system installed, if for nothing else but for peace of mind. For the rest of this blog post we would like to delve a little further into the considerations when securing your home.

Making Your Home More Secure Needn’t be a Hassle.

First of all, ask yourself a few questions before you start searching online.

1. What am I protecting?
2. How do I want to install it?
3. How big is my home?
4. When do I work from home?
5. What is my budget?

The answers to these questions can tell you what kind of features you want, along with the best way to install, and how big of a system you need. Contact us here if you would like to discuss these questions in more detail.

In fact, there are quite a few handy things you can do to help improve your home security without much fuss. You might have some of these in your house already. However, we will also list other security elements that you might consider, that we can help and advise you with.

• Home security cameras
• Burglar deterrents
• Door chains
• Spy holes
• Security bars
• Neighbourhood watch
• Dog security

Other Security Elements You Might Consider

• If your budget is tight, perhaps you could secure your new home with a monitored perimeter alarm system that has the capacity to expand and upgrade at a later stage.

• Subsequently, you can futureproof with a smart home alarm automation system that can include CCTV, video doorbell, intercom and control of lights and other electrical devices.

• Contacts on external doors and a motion detector alone, are not sufficient. An intruder could potentially enter through an unsecured window. Only when the motion detector activates from within your home will you know that someone is there. A perimeter alarm will help with that by securing the external aspect of your new home.

• A monitored alarm is essential for home security otherwise it’s just an alarm bell. A monitored alarm offers 24-hour x 7-day x 365 protection with immediate response.

• Consider getting an alarm maintenance contract which will be serviced by a qualified engineer to ensure your alarm is operational and provides the protection you need on an ongoing basis.

• Illuminating your new home with external lighting is an excellent deterrent, dress your ground floor windows and any glass doors asap to prevent an opportunist intruder checking to see if anyone is home.

We’ll finish these elements by highlighting an important point. You should always ensure that your intruder alarm is installed by a fully certified Company which complies with European quality standards and licenced by the PSA.

An NSAI certificate of compliance with industry standards cannot be issued without a licence. Also, certification is required for any house insurance discount.

It is for this main reason that we don’t recommend people go into DIY mode when considering security systems installation.

Why Not DIY?

Other reasons to avoid DIY would be 1) you have to do the work yourself, 2) there is no professional expertise, 3) there are higher up-front equipment costs and 4) it usually takes a lot longer. If you use us, for instance, you won’t need a toolbelt, a security assessment is provided together with a tutorial and usually the up-front costs are lower.

Of course, locking all doors and windows and turning on your alarm system, even when you are home, is the best way to secure and protect your lovely new home. We’ll finish on this note – The main and most essential reason to invest in a security system is to deter crime in your home.

We can help you decide what is the best security package for your home. Call us on 01 205 0985 or request a quote here.