When it comes to your home security, you need to make sure to take steps to really protect yourself, your family, and your belongings. And that includes taking the time to really be secure about the biggest thing keeping someone out of your home: the lock and key for your front door.

The first step you should take when moving into a new home is to change the locks. Why? Well, not only does the realtor possibly still have a copy of the keys, but the old owner may too. And you don’t know who else may have gotten their hands on a copy. You don’t want to find that someone can just let himself into your home.

If you should ever lose your keys, you should change your locks immediately. Sure, there’s a chance that no one will pick them up or won’t know where you live. But you always risk the chance of a break in, especially if you lose them in a place where people do know where you live. Sadly, the highest percentage of burglaries are committed by people who knew the home owners.

And if the home security alarm attached to your front door often goes off on its own, make sure to get it fixed as soon as possible and let your neighbors know. Otherwise, they may ignore the alarm if they are used to it going off constantly by accident.