With many houses left either empty or in the care of house sitters during this time of year, it isn't surprising that burglaries tend to peak between November and February. Despite the statistics, there is plenty you can do to minimize the chances of holiday burglaries: Securing an Empty Home: Create the Illusion of Activity Look into Urban Alarm’s Xanboo and Alarm.com services, which allow you to program lighting schedules Consider securing all points of entry--especially basement and second story windows and skylights Think about installing a video intercom system --this device can help identify visitors and allow your house sitter to communicate with visitors before he opens the door

Other Options:

• Consider conducting a background check on first-time house sitters. Many online resources offer background checks for less than $100. Or:
• Use Urban Vacation Watch™; our employees have passed extensive background checks and are bonded and insured
• Provide Urban Alarm with a contact number for your house sitter, in addition to your current contact number
• Ensure that the house sitter has complete understanding of the security system and your passphrase, locations of panic buttons and contact sensors, and false alarm protocol.
• Ask the house sitter to eliminate tell-tale signs of vacancy by picking up mail and newspapers, moving cars and keeping lights on in the house.

As always, we encourage you to call or email us with questions or to let us know how we can better serve you.