If you’re a renter and you haven’t heard about renter’s insurance, you might be wonder what the big deal is. Why is everyone telling you get renter’s insurance? Shouldn’t the owner of the home have homeowners insurance that covers everything in case something bad happens? Why should you have to get another policy, pay another [...]
When you get an insurance quote, remember to subtract out the value of the land from the amount insured. See, when something bad happens to your house, chances are your land will be fine. Fire and your house burns down? The land will probably be fine. Earthquake that tears your house asunder? The land will [...]
It’s one thing to secure your house by way of a monitored security system, it’s another to actually take steps to securing your home such that you don’t become a statistic. There are a lot of simple and inexpensive things you can do to make your home more secure.
1. Lock Your Doors
It sounds stupid but [...]
It’s the summer and that means you’re probably going to a barbecue or two and perhaps hosting a few grilling events at your home. Given the dangers of open flame and the home, I think it’s important to review some grilling safety tips so that you don’t burn your house or apartment down.
Grill outside. Don’t [...]
Did you know that your lender will mandate that your homeowners insurance policy must not have a deductible greater than 1% of the value of the loan? This 1% maximum deductible is ridiculous when you consider the fact that the lender is covering the value of the loss, which is ultimately what the lender cares [...]
With computer security systems, companies often hire computer specialists to come and try to break into the system. It’s a strategy that works because the specialists are often as skilled as potential thieves and they can identify weaknesses that might otherwise go undetected. While you probably don’t want to hire someone to try to break [...]
Two years ago, I spent approximately a month house-hunting and one of those trips, we visited a home that had a radon detector in it. The device looked innocuous enough, sitting in the basement ticking away, but it scared me enough that I had to do some research on it. Radon is a dangerous radioactive [...]
Now that we’ve covered how motion sensors work and how door and window sensors work, we might as move along to the bells and whistles of the home security system: the alarm.
Alarms usually have two parts: in-house notifier and an out-house notifier. Those were terms I made up but they’ll make sense in a minute. [...]
The last article about how door and window sensors worked probably piqued your interest in the other sensor your security system uses, the motion detection sensor. Whereas the door and window sensors monitor ingress and egress, the motion sensor monitors what happens when the bad guys get inside – especially valuable if they defeat the [...]
So the security system you had installed comes with several window and door sensors and you’re curious how they work. Understanding how they work can also pay dividends down the road when you start troubleshooting if your security system ever gives you problems, such as false alarms from a sensor or “zone.”
There are basically two [...]