As the home mortgage crisis continues, more and more homes remain empty for several months or longer. Driving around your neighborhood, or indeed any neighborhood across America, you may be surprised at the number of real estate signs you see. So many homes sitting vacant means a huge risk as far as criminal conduct is concerned. Far too many homeowners who have moved out leave the home completely unsecured. Whether the home has been foreclosed by the bank or the owners have moved out while their previous home is still on the market, criminals know there’s no one living inside to catch them if they break in.

Criminals break into a vacant home for a variety of reasons. Perhaps they need a place to stay, or a place to engage in drug dealing or other illegal activities. Though the homeowners isn’t around to see it, these activities can have a substantial impact on those left in the neighborhood. These vacant homes are drawing criminals who use such residences to hide their crimes, whatever they may be, from the prying eyes of the public. Not only that, but criminal conduct attracted to the neighborhood often spreads outward, from vacant homes to everywhere else.

What can you do about this possibility? For one, if you have moved out of a home but still own it, take the necessary steps to protect your investment. This means installing alarms, cameras, and security lighting. If you have left the home vacant, it’s also important to make sure that there’s nothing inside that could be stolen. Don’t use your vacant home as an unmonitored storage facility. Close the blinds so that no one can tell that there are no occupants or see what kind of appliances might be there to steal.

Drive by the home occasionally to check on its condition, or if this proves to be impossible, enlist a friend or former neighbor to do the same. Just because you’re not living there doesn’t mean that you are able to neglect to care for the home. Hire a handyman or landscaper to keep the home and yard in good condition; doing so makes the home looked lived-in, and also maintains the property value and makes it more attractive to potential buyers. Turn off the heat and electricity while there’s no one living there. Not only will this lower upkeep costs, but it also makes it much less likely that the home will become a squatter’s shelter.

If you do not own a vacant home, but live in a neighborhood where this may be an issue, join together with your neighbors to form a Neighborhood Watch. Such a group signifies a commitment to watching activities in the neighborhood and reporting suspicious behaviors to the police. If you see people constantly coming and going from a home you know to be vacant, alert the police to the situation – it may be a drug house, or there may be other criminal activities happening there. We must all be aware of the homes in our neighborhood and the people who live there. You don’t have to become the neighborhood gossip or snoop around to find out what’s going on, but being aware of people coming and going can keep your family and your neighborhood safe from crime.

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Category: Real Estate
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