Vacant Property Protection

[John N.]

Greetings All, I have a property (SFR) that's going to be vacant for a few months. During this vacancy the power and water will both be on in my name. Squatters are not a problem in my area as far as I am aware, but I have read and heard some pretty horrible stories about squatters, the damage they cause and the problems getting rid of them.

The solution I came up with was to purchase myself a Simplsafe brand alarm system with 2 motion detectors and put them in the property.  With the exception of the sensors the entire system can be hidden in a cabinet and doesn't require any drilling or mounting.  This particular brand is all cellular, no contract and once I am done with the work I can just put the entire system in a box and put it on a shelf at home until I need it again.  Being able to leave larger tools there overnight will also reduce my work load.

Anyone else have any other ideas for securing properties that are vacant long term?

[Jason D.]

I've combined simplisafe with a few cameras on the exterior of the property. I combine the two because if there is a break-in, and the alarm goes off, I get a notification on my phone. I can then go to the cameras and I know exactly what time to go back to in order to find out what happened.