Moving to a New House? Use Address Lookup and Background Check to Stay Safe
Moving to a new house can be scary. It is completely normal to feel stressed, anxious, or even scared when moving to a new house. People are creatures of habit; like it or not, routine makes us comfortable. This element of predictability makes us feel safe. So what happens when moving to a new house?
When moving to a new house, you not only have to get used to a new environment, but also you often have to learn about a new neighborhood and try to fit in to a new community. This might mean meeting new people or experiencing the stress of treating every stranger with caution.
Here, we address some of the very common fears associated with moving to a new house and how you can not only protect yourself but also provide yourself with peace of mind.
Safety Checklist for Moving to a New House
There are a lot of areas you should check, update, and improve in your new home to ensure safety. It can be difficult to think of every weakness especially as you deal with other move-in items. So just keep a to-do list handy and try to prioritize it to avoid becoming too overwhelmed.
Kid and Pet Proof
First, you’ll want to make sure your space is safe for any children or pets. This might mean checking for lead paint, flammable materials, and asbestos. You’ll also want to check electrical features. Of course you will want to cover outlets and exposed cords and wires, but checking electrical features can also help prevent a house fire if something is faulty.
Test and Add Smoke and CO Detectors
Naturally, you will also want to check detectors and add some if you need to. Test smoke and CO detectors, replace batteries, and make sure you have at least one on every level of the house, including the basement. Ideally, you should have one in every room where people sleep.
You might also think about adding fire extinguishers and creating a fire exit plan or emergency response plan. This might include adding fire escape ladders, depending on the size of your home.
Lock and Secure the Home
If you are moving to a new house that has had previous owners, you will want to replace the locks as soon as possible. You don’t know who will still have copies of keys to old or existing locks. Add deadbolts to doors without them for additional security.
You will also want to look at the windows and make sure that they are closed, locked, and perhaps even reinforced or monitored. Sliding glass doors and windows are common points of ingress for intruders because they are typically easier to breach than regular doors.
You can reinforce these easily by adding window bars or dowels, but there are a ton of high-tech options as well. For example, you can invest in door and glass break sensors.
You can also install a security system. However, video doorbells might be a little more cost effective and as such are becoming quite common. This is a good way to deter break ins, monitor the activity around your home, and provide you with peace of mind.
Finally, don’t forget the garage! Make sure all of the doors, both inside and outside, close and lock. Also try not to keep the garage door opener in your car. If you must, consider moving it out of sight.
Light Up the House
Make sure that all light bulbs on the outside of the house are in place and functional. Keeping lights on at night tells prowlers that someone is home and prevents obscurity.
If you can’t remove potential hiding spots (like heavy landscaping fixtures), at least try to light the areas. If there are dark, shadowy areas around your home, adding more lights is a simple solution.
You can also look into house automation which will allow you to control lights and other security features remotely.
Secure Your Wi-Fi Network
Securing your Wi-Fi network protects your identity as well as your home. With access to your Wi-Fi network, hackers can get their hands on sensitive information, financial accounts, and passwords to your home automation system which would enable a physical break in.
You can secure your Wi-Fi network by securing your wireless router, hiding your network, using a firewall, creating strong passwords, installing antivirus software, and using a VPN.
Research Your Neighborhood
It’s a good idea to do this before moving to a new house, but we aren’t always so prudent. Really, it can be done at any time and should maybe even be done regularly so that you always know your community well.
You will want to know the locations and phone numbers of the nearest police station, hospital, and fire station in case of emergency. But it’s also good to know where you will do your shopping, where you will be able to walk, and where you will go for fun.
And of course, you probably want to know who your neighbors are. You can use address lookup and background check tools to help.
How to Use Address Lookup to Stay Safe When Moving to a New House
Moving to a new house in a new neighborhood where you don’t know anyone can be unnerving. So how can you find out exactly who lives next door?
Making relationships with your neighbors is a good way to keep yourself and your home safe. It’s good to have extra sets of eyes on your property to increase vigilance in your neighborhood. And you will want to be able to call your neighbors if you ever need a helping hand. But how will you go about getting to know your neighbors?
USPS address lookup is a tool that allows you to generate a list of valid addresses on a given street. Just enter the street name of your new address and record the valid addresses nearby your own. Then, you can use those to send a welcome letter or to invite your new neighbors over to meet you!
From this list of addresses, though, you can do so much more. You can enter those addresses into a reverse address lookup tool to get names and numbers of residents! Not only will this help you address your new neighbors properly, but you can also enter your own address into the reverse address lookup to get the names and numbers of previous owners. This might be helpful if you have questions about your new house, neighbors, or neighborhood.
But most importantly, with a name, you can find out who your neighbors are before you even meet them.
How to Use Background Check to Stay Safe When Moving to a New House
You can use the names of your neighbors to conduct background checks. You can get identifying information about each subject, like ethnicity, occupation type, marital status, and gender. But you can also get contact information like a phone number or email address and even links to social media profiles if available.
However, most people conduct background checks for the criminal records report. This report provides case details, dates, charge, probation, conviction, and sentence information when applicable. The more you know about your neighbors, the better conversations you can have and decisions you can make.
Hopefully this research provides you with peace of mind and calms those new neighborhood nerves.
Conclusion
Moving to a new house can be stressful. There are a lot of items you need to take care of in addition to taking the proper security measures. Our advice is to try to prioritize your “moving to a new house” checklist the best that you can. Some things can wait; others shouldn’t. If nothing else, knowing that you have address lookup and background check tools available to you should ease some of those new home fears. In this day and age, there is so much information available to you. It’s a good idea to take advantage of it to help protect yourself and your home.
