I Just Bought a House. Is it Safe? (Part One)
I recently overheard someone say,” I just bought a house. Is it safe?”.
This is also for those you who are planning ahead. You are still in the ‘looking’ stage, and wanting to know what you are going to need after you find your ‘dream’ house.
Usually, the first things new owners do is unpack and get ready for a house-warming party. While these are important things to get done, they should fall a little farther down the list of importance. First, you need to make sure that you, your family, pets, guests, and belongings are safe and secure.
That is what we are going to discuss in this two-part series… is my house safe? The first thing to think about is…
Make My House Secure!
There are different kinds of safety that should be addressed before I spend my first night in my new home. This post will deal with the secure type of safety.
To start on my quest for security (peace of mind), I have to ask…
Who has access to MY home? Do they have any incentive to make my house secure?
Well, the FIRST thing I do is make it my house. I need to change ALL of the locks that are on ‘entry’ doors. An entry door is any door that opens into the house. This includes any door into the garage (other than the overhead garage door. We will discuss this later), as well as any door into the house from the garage. The reason I need to change these is obvious, but I will go into detail with some of the reasons most people may not have thought about.
If this were an existing home, I would have no idea who all has a key. In fact, the previous owners may not even know. If they bought it ‘previously-owned’, they may not have changed the locks. But even if they changed them (or were the original owners), they only had to loan/give a key out ONE time (workman, neighbor, relative), and in 10 minutes (at your neighborhood Lowes, Ace, etc) a duplicate can be made.
If this were a brand new home, the general contractor and heaven only knows how many sub-contractors may have keys. I have no idea who all needed access during construction. I have to imagine that most contractors/sub-contractors are very honest people, but they are people just like in all other walks of life.
BTW, often, a listing Realtor gets a key. This part is a little scary, so you may want to close your eyes. As an employee of a big-box store (hardware/tools), I have personally made 60 (SIXTY!) copies of a key, for a Realtor. They had an expensive home that they wanted to ‘push’ and thought that if every agent, in every office, had a key, the home would sell faster. SIXTY KEYS! Can you vouch for the integrity of every single person who has a key to your house? For that matter, can you be sure that they won’t lose it or have it stolen? I know that I can’t, so I can’t trust the existing locks to make my house secure.
ALL entry doors must have a knob/lever/handleset AND a deadbolt. The deadbolt is very important. The deadbolt is what keeps my door secure… not the lock in the knob/lever/handset.
I said earlier that the door from inside the garage to inside the house must be treated the same as any other entry door. The reason is that my garage is one of the most vulnerable entry points. Did I get ALL of the remotes? Also, thieves use garage door openers. They drive through neighborhoods pressing the button, changing the code, and pressing again. When a door opens, they can write the code and address so they can come back at a more opportune time. The safest way to go is to have a garage door opener that has ‘rolling-code technology’. That means every time I use the remote, it changes the code.
I will cover ‘other’ entry points in a later post, but doors are the first line of security that needs to be fixed. I MUST make my house secure!
The next post in this series is: