How to Stay Safe in your Home, Sweet Home
Keeping your home safe and sound (photo courtesy of APM Alex)
When I sell people a home, I want them to be happy and safe there day after day. Of course we can’t control everything, but we can do a lot to secure our homes and to lessen our risks. Below is a short list I made to help you keep safe in your new home.
Don’t be an easy target for burglars.
Every house comes with a lot of standard safety features to protect you and your family. Use them! Make sure your gate, doors and windows (including the basement window) are securely locked. If your newly bought house has a keypad, change the code as soon as you move in and every six months thereafter. (People selling or leasing their home and are listing it with a realtor must use a lockbox and never disclose the keypad code.)
If you don’t have perimeter lights around your home, install them and keep them on at night.
Get an alarm. If your dog’s bark is your alarm, always pay attention. But never get a guard dog as your family’s pet, as its instinct is to attack.
Get a door chain and peephole for your entrance door/s to check out visitors before you open wide the door. It’s not unknown for burglars to ring the doorbell and then attack.
Check out the Home Security and Burglaries section in the City of Calgary website for more tips on securing your home.
Keep your house structurally sound.
You should have had a home inspection before you bought your home. But remember that from then on, your home’s structural safety depends on how well you maintain it.
To protect your home from fire, floods and other natural disasters, check out this site on emergency preparedness.
Insure your home. And make sure you fully understand what risks your insurance plan covers.
Participate in risk mitigation measures in your community. You’ll be surprised how much you can do to minimize disasters if you work together! A great idea is planting more fruit-bearing trees and shrubs especially on hills to prevent soil erosion. (And fruits are yummy too! My wife is raving over a dessert she recently tasted made of seabuckthorn or buffalo berries, that grow on a beautiful shrub with silvery leaves.)
Once you’ve done everything possible to protect your home from natural risks, protect your family. Prepare an emergency kit and put it where anyone in the family can get it easily and quickly. There are available emergency kits from the Red Cross that contain all the supplies you will need for floods, earthquakes and other calamities.
Following these simple tips will let you fully enjoy your new home and give you many happy memories there. Have any more tips to share?
Are you looking to Sell or Buy a home in Calgary and need someone who won’t rest until you’ve found your dream home or until your home is sold? I’ll work hard to earn your trust and to deliver exactly what you need. Contact me at 403-589-0004 or at TheHowardTeam.net.
About Bryon Howard
Bryon Howard and his team of Calgary real estate professionals sell an average of two homes a week. He is a member of the MLS Million Point Club, which ranks him roughly in the top 2% of productive realtors in Calgary. His aim is not just to please clients but to help them buy/sell a home in Calgary at the best price, in the shortest time, and with the least hassle. He is a member of the RE/MAX House of Real Estate that leads in the Canadian market. Learn more about Bryon at TheHowardTeam.net.
