Bring your windows and doors to their upright and locked positions for life’s take-offs and landings. Every day.

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Published Date 9/23/2022

When Realtor’s Jennifer Kelly Geddes wonders, “To lock or not to lock—that is the question for many homeowners,” she speaks of how a huge number of them don’t bother locking up – while others always, always secure their homes no matter where they are or how high the crime is in their area. “Some people are staunch door lockers while others are carefree about home security.”

While Geddes lives in the Big Apple, where it’s fairly normal to lock the front door every single time you leave your house or condo or whatever, she takes license to be lazy about it when she goes to their vacation home in upstate NY. “Doors are never locked when we head out for dinner, go swimming in the lake, or tuck in for the night. It’s only when we’re home in the city that we consistently turn the deadbolt.”

Like her, many homeowners are hybrids, however — leaving some or all doors unlocked during the day, while locking them up at night before they retire. What they don’t realize, however, is that most burglaries occur during the day. Nationwide Insurance reports that most burglaries happen between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., right when most of us are at work, out running errands, or picking up the kids from school. Even worse? Nearly 50% of burglars “break in” by simply walking through the front door.

So Geddes offers a bit of advice and a few instances to think about when considering your home lock-up habits, the first of which is securing your garage — the places where a number of doors, both big and small, exist. Whether it’s the door you drive your car through, the door to your side yard, or the one that leads inside your house, it’s wise to make locking every door in your garage a habit.

Geddes goes on to say that about a quarter of robberies are the result of a break-in via a first-floor window. If your windows are accessible in any way (and even if you think they’re not), lock these up every single time you’re not in the room.

Got a security system? Great! Do you use it every day? While it may not prevent crime, it can become a security blanket, prompting thieves to beat a path to a door more quickly, and that can make you feel a little more secure as well. The key to having a security system, however, is to TURN IT ON. 20% of homeowners with security systems don’t turn them on during the day, leaving them open to potential theft.

If you don’t have an alarm system, the report urges folks to at least install exterior lighting wherever they can, as well as lights on motion sensors to deter a would-be thief from trying your front door at night. “With the advancement in tech now, there’s really no excuse for not having at least a basic level of security,” says one security expert Geddes quoted.

Few instances make you feel more exposed and frighteningly vulnerable than having been robbed. While the life inside your own home is the most private of entities, the point here is to KEEP it private by taking common sense precautions. Locking and unlocking doors may sound annoying, but when you think of the alternative, it might motivate you.

Realtor, TBWS

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First Priority Home Loans is a DBA of Anchor Funding, Inc. NMLS #236419 & 1626581. California Bureau of Real Estate, Real Estate Broker Number 01276087. Loans made or arranged pursuant to the California Department of Business Oversight. California Finance Lenders Law license number 603 L293.