Managing Your Home From Afar: Tips for Employees in the Office and on the Road

As a full-time employee, you have a lot on your plate. From work deadlines and business trips to doctor appointments, household chores, and the kids’ after-school activities, your life is anything but calm. The last thing you need is a home security mishap to knock you off course. 

Home intrusions and damages can be emotionally-, financially- and time-consuming. Water damage, for example, is one of the most common and costliest disasters your home can experience. And the clean-up process is a whole other conversation. According to CDC.gov, water-damaged homes must remove standing water and wet materials within the first 24-48 hours in order to avoid further damage. With such a limited timeframe, it’s inevitable that you will need to take time off from work and cancel other activities to take care of the situation at hand. 

Similarly, filing any sort of home insurance claim – whether related to fire, wind or burglary damage – takes a considerable amount of time, time that many of us don’t have to spare. According to Insurance.com, most state laws give insurers between ten and thirty days to acknowledge receipt of a claim and forty days to accept or deny it. That means that any claim you make could take more than two months to be addressed, potentially disrupting your everyday schedule until then!

One of the best (and easiest) ways to protect your home and, transversely, your time and busy schedule is to equip your home with proactive technology that alerts you to any potential hazards. In this blog post, we will explain how you can use a home security system to better protect your home from afar with ease. 

A little goes a long way

When fortifying your home against unwanted intrusion, sometimes the simplest steps are the most effective: putting out a home security yard sign and locking your doors.

While displaying a yard sign doesn’t sound like much of a burglar deterrent, research conducted by the University of North Carolina claims otherwise. When asking burglars about their habits and routines, the UNC research team found that 25% of burglars would walk away from a home that had security system signs on the property with no further investigation. No one wants to take a risk – not even practiced burglars – so be sure to proudly display your yard sign, especially if you often leave your home unoccupied during the work week. 

Another simple burglary deterrent is locking your doors each time you leave your home. According to Apartment Therapy, 30% of all burglaries occur with the intruder entering through an unlocked door. That’s 750,000 homes each year!

If you regularly find yourself forgetting to lock up after you leave or often have nannies, pet sitters or relatives entering your home before you return from work, consider installing a Smart Lock. With a SimpliSafe Smart Lock, you can set your door to automatically lock on a timer and provide other household members or contractors with unique PINs so they can enter without the hassle of a key.  

Use remote app controls to your advantage

When deciding on the best home security system for your home, make sure to opt for one that includes remote app functionality so you can easily manage your home’s security from anywhere, be it in the office or on the road. 

SimpliSafe customers who subscribe to the Fast Protect Monitoring Plan are able to set arming reminders via the SimpliSafe app so they never forget to fortify their homes. With the simple tap of a button, customers can arm their homes remotely after being prompted by a reminder notification. 

Not only can a home security app help automate your security, but it can also save you time when it comes to menial home tasks. From viewing the live stream footage of your video doorbell to monitor for an important delivery to checking the entry sensor alerts to see which door your teenager entered after soccer practice, having remote control of your home and the action that happens within it will save you both time and unnecessary stress. 

Offload monitoring to the professionals

One of the most significant benefits of having a home security system for busy employees is having access to 24/7 professional monitoring. 

Let’s be honest – it’s unrealistic to believe that you have unlimited access to your phone during the workday. You have projects that need to be completed, meetings to attend and phone calls to make. So what happens if you receive an alert that signals imminent danger to your property? 

With a professional monitoring plan, you can stay focused on your work and let monitoring agents and emergency resources take care of the emergency situation. For instance, if you are subscribed to Fast Protect Monitoring and your Smart Alarm Wireless Indoor Camera detects human motion in Away mode, not only will you receive an in-app notification, but a SimpliSafe professional monitoring agent will have the ability to use two-way audio to speak directly to the person in the camera’s view to determine if they are a household member or an intruder. If the agent concludes that the person is, in fact, an intruder, they will dispatch the appropriate authorities to address the situation. 

For busy employees, a home security system with remote control accessibility and professional monitoring is a must. With it, you can check “home security” off your lengthy to-do list and lean back, knowing that you will return to a safe and protected home after a hard day’s work.