Vacant rental property security monitoring

[Yash Warke]

Team - I own a rental property in Decatur GA. Have had a couple of tenants over the last couple years, but the time between tenants when the property is vacant has been problematic for me. Twice I’ve had squatter situations. One time we had to get an intruder warrant and the second time (easier), we had to go the option of “cash for keys” to get them out.

Sounds like people (or someone) has an eye on the property and knows it is vacant. We live an hour away and so not very easy for us to constantly keep monitoring it. We work with a property management company, but they don’t really do much from a security monitoring perspective. Drilling out and hijacking the lockbox are the main ways of getting in. I put in some fake security camera in the hope that it will serve as a deterrent, but those also were found smashed.

My question to this community is what have you guys used to monitor your vacant properties? Ring/SimpliSafe/ADT - are these options? Has anyone used them? What about WiFi needed for this (as it is a vacant property with no WiFi)? What about deer camera on trees or solar cameras? Any other suggestions? Thanks.

[Drew Sygit]

Sounds like you've got a Class C or D rental.

We also use DAWGS, but makes showings more difficult.

We prefer to:

1) Yank the furnace & hot water tank
2) Turn off water at street
3) Turn off gas
4) Have even had to cut electricity at the pole, due to squatters hot-wiring turned off electric meters.

All this is done to make the property unappealing to thieves & squatters.