Your just moved into a brand-new house or apartment, the last thing you need to worry about are the locks, right? Wrong. Most home builders are using construction type locks. These are locks that have two combinations. The first combination is used when the house is under construction, keys are given to all the sub-contractors so they can get into the house. At closing, someone will insert the user key into the locks. This is supposed to render the first combination inoperable and make the second combination, your combination, operable.
In a perfect world with perfect locks this may work. Any lock with more than one combination is by design less secure. So, my recommendation is to have the locks rekeyed by a locksmith professional or replace them. If you choose to replace them you can go to a Bog Box store for medium security locks or call someone such as Locking Systems International for high security locks.
Electronic locks have come down in price and have additional features; such as being able to integrate with your home automation system, alarm system or both. Electronic locks have come a long way in the past year. They can communicate by Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and cell. Their best feature is access control. You control who has access to your house. It saves exit and entry information with date and time, this tells you the exact time your daughter return from a date.
Make sure that all doors to the outside, including the door to your garage have a deadbolt lock installed. Some builders make this an option, if it is get it. Once your locks are taken care of it’s time to consider an alarm system. These are available from full service alarm dealers, big box stores and do it yourself alarm companies (found on-line).
Some new homes have Wi-Fi systems and repeater pods already installed. If so, make sure that you secure them with the newest security protocols and don’t forget to change the default password. Use a strong one. While on the Wi-Fi subject, make sure that all your Wi-Fi devices are secured with new passwords. Did you know that refrigerators, washers and dryers, air conditioner units and baby monitors all have Wi-Fi installed? If yours has Wi-Fi and you are not going to use it, it would be wise to disable it.
As with all security it is better to be proactive and think about these things before you move in.