Security at home base?

Yeah I X2 on the neighbor keeping a car in the driveway. I'm sure it helps that it has emergency lights on it. I forgot to add that part.
They were nice enough to send us a picture this winter with their vehicle in the driveway with about 6 inches of snow.

Thanks, everyone. Great ideas. Going to start a list from this input. Keep the ideas coming.

BillyandKris wrote:
Would like to hear ideas and discussion regarding what people do regarding security at their home base if you are away from home traveling many months of the year. I realize you can get an alarm system, but not sure how expensive those are, get a neighbor to go check on house, etc. Looking for ideas....do you pay someone to watch house..how much?, etc. etc.

bro-in-law lives in our house part-time and we put on a 'vacation watch' with the local police department. they come by the house on a regular basis. neighbors on both sides are made aware of our absence.

if interested in an alarm check out SimpliSafe.

Check your insurance policy. There are some that do not cover anything if you are away and do not have somebody check the house every few days.

Sadly we lost our good friend and the couple beside us, who are like parents moved into town. They had/have keys to the place. We have someone do the garden when we are gone and the people down the road put a vehicle in our driveway.

Should have added neighbor has a key. Last year a wind storm blew the roof off car port. Neighbors called. Son came on weekend and secured debris. I called insurance they came out did an estimate. Had a check before I got home and had roof installed when I got home. I was in Nova Scotia having a ball. Wasn't coming home because of a bit of wind.

chris3403 wrote:
X2 on the previous post plus a good neighbor I trust with a key.

X3 on above post and a big X2 on good neighbors that you trust.

And if you can't trust your neighbors then you have bigger issues.

1. I have an alarm. Monitoring is about $30 per month. They will call the police or fire department if there is a detected emergency, then they will call me.

2. I purchased a very heavy duty gun safe to keep valuables in. Jewelry, cameras, and other small valuables. Most of these safes are very difficult to break into, and have high fire penetration ratings.

3. I have an unemployed neighbor I pay $20.00 per week. He picks up any trash, papers or advertisements that might wind up in the yard. He also calls us and my son if there is an issue. Secondly, he collects our mail daily and keeps it in a large bin for later sorting.

4. My son and his family stay at the house once or twice a month and use the pool. He also gathers up the accumulated mail and sorts it for us. If it's important, he scans it and e-mails it to us. All bulk rate and non-vital mail goes in the trash. We pay all of our bills on-line, so we don't depend on the mail.

5. We put timers on lights.

6. Pool service comes once a week and takes care of the Pool. If we had a yard that needed to be maintained, we'd hire a yard service too.

7. We set the heat pump to it's maximum cooling, and minimum heating range.

8. We turn off water valves to sinks, toilets, dishwasher, and the washing machine. We had a bathroom sink line fail once, and it did $20,000 in flooding damage in just a few hours. I'd hate to think what would happen if it failed and wasn't detected for a few days.

9. You can't predict all serious events that can happen to your property, so we carry a good insurance policy just in case.

X2 on the previous post plus a good neighbor I trust with a key.

Pretty much have good insurance, turn off unnecessary utilities, protect out side stuff from elements and go.