If you have a vacation home, a second home that has not been rented, or are planning to leave your primary home for an extended vacation, your house is at a serious risk for being damaged. Leaving your home unoccupied can welcome thieves, squatters, vandals, and reckless partying teenagers who may all do serious damage to your home and your belongings. In recent years, it seems that these awful situations have begun to occur more often. News broadcast after news broadcast includes story after story of an unfortunate family losing their valuables or sustaining damage to their home. The current poor state of the economy has only increased the frequency of these problems. Although every homeowner is vulnerable, installing a home alarm system can go a long way to preventing these disasters from occurring.

No one wants to return home from a vacation to find that their possessions have been stolen, but when you leave your house unoccupied, the chances that something will happen to it increase greatly. Even insurance companies are worried about the likelihood that your home will be damaged, which is why securing unoccupied home insurance is so difficult and expensive to do. Of course, none of these things mean you shouldn't leave your home unattended for long-periods of time. With a little bit of investment in a home security system and some proper forethought, you can do a lot to protect your home.

There are some very basic but useful ways to protect your unoccupied home while you are away. For starters, ask a trusted family member, friend or neighbor to pick up your mail and newspapers while you are gone. Overstuffed mailboxes and giant piles of newspapers are big signals that your home is vacant, and it becomes an easy target for those who would do damage to your home. It's vital though, to make sure the person you ask to do this favor for you is someone you can trust. Otherwise, you've just alerted them and tempted them to abuse your house in some way while it is empty. Of course that possibility becomes a little less worrisome if you already have a home alarm installed.

Another step to consider is asking or paying someone trustworthy to stay in your home while you are gone. A home security system can't protect you from dishonest and irresponsible friends, but will keep good friends safe in your home safe while they watch over it. Additionally, you should consider owning a guard dog. Big dogs can scare away even the most motivated of thieves, and owning one will give you another reason to have company over while the house is empty. You will need someone to feed and walk the dog, and having them park in your driveway for an hour or two everyday will help keep unwanted criminal activity away. If you don't have an animal that needs to be looked after or anyone you can ask to come visit your house, consider simply parking a car in your driveway. Occupied driveways often signal that someone is home. Without a doubt though, adding more valuables to your home adds incentive for would-be-thieves, so make sure that the car has an alarm in case someone attempts to vandalize or steal it. By taking these simple steps you'll increase the safety of your vacant home immensely.