How to Do a Home Security Audit

Quick steps

1. Look at your home from the street. Sightlines, occupancy cues (mail, lighting), house numbers, visible deterrents, and what's visible through your windows.
2. Walk the exterior perimeter. Every door, window, gate, garage, shed, and outbuilding. Note hollow-core doors, missing deadbolts, weak strike plates, unlocked basement or garage windows.
3. Check interior weak points. Sliding patio doors (track pin/bar), glass near locks, alarm sensor coverage, smoke and CO detectors, locations of valuables.
4. Repeat at night with a flashlight. Lighting gaps, dark corners, motion-light coverage, and how the house reads to a stranger after dark.
5. Rank fixes by impact and cost. ANSI Grade-1 deadbolts and 3-inch strike-plate screws are cheap and high-impact; new windows are expensive. Group by tier.
6. Schedule the top 3 this month, the next 5 this season. Don't try to do everything at once. The audit's value is the prioritized list, not the immediate spend.

1. What you need before you start

A good audit takes 60 to 90 minutes and only needs a few tools. The point is to look at your home the way a stranger would, and to write down what you find so nothing gets forgotten.

• A clipboard or printable checklist: Use the Home Security Audit Checklist to log every door, window, light, and device as you go.
• A flashlight: You will repeat part of the audit at night to find lighting gaps. A phone flashlight is fine.
• A tape measure: Useful for checking screw length on strike plates, shrub height under windows, and glass distance from the deadbolt.
• A phone camera: Photograph each entry point so you can shop for parts later without going back outside.
• The Home Security Score Calculator: Use it before and after the audit to track how many points each upgrade adds.

2. Start from the street

The audit begins before you reach your own front door. Stand on the sidewalk or across the street and look at your property the way a stranger would evaluate it.

• Sightlines: Can someone see all sides of the house without being seen? Dense shrubs under windows and tall fences that hide the front door both create cover for an intruder.
• Occupancy cues: Does the home look lived in? Piled-up mail, unlit porches, parking spots that are always empty, and unswept entries all signal an easy target.
• House numbers: Numbers should be readable from the street at night so emergency responders can find you quickly.
• Visible deterrents: Alarm yard signs, window decals, visible cameras, and a video doorbell all deter opportunistic intruders before they even approach.
• Valuables on display: Look through windows from the street. Visible electronics, firearms, bikes, or delivery boxes turn a random house into a targeted one.

3. Walk the exterior perimeter

Circle the house slowly. Check every door, window, gate, and outbuilding, and mark anything that would fail a reasonable security test.

• Every exterior door: Check for a working ANSI Grade 1 or Grade 2 deadbolt, a reinforced strike plate secured with 3-inch screws into the stud, and a solid-core or metal-clad door slab. Hollow-core doors can be kicked through in seconds.
• Sidelights and glass near locks: If glass is within 36 inches of the deadbolt thumbturn, an intruder can break the glass and reach in. Apply security film or install a double-cylinder deadbolt.
• Sliding patio doors: Add a security bar or pin in the track so the door cannot be forced open or lifted off its rollers.
• Ground-floor windows: Every accessible window should have a working lock. Add window pins or security film where a lock is missing or unreliable.
• Basement and garage windows: Often the weakest point in older homes. Secure with bars, film, or well covers.
• Garage service door and overhead door: Treat the service door like any exterior door. Openers made before 2010 often lack rolling-code security and should be replaced.
• Sheds, outbuildings, and side gates: Lock them. Tools left in an unlocked shed become break-in tools for the main house.
• Hidden keys and lockboxes: If you keep a spare outside, replace it with a smart lock, a keyless entry code, or a trusted neighbor.

4. Run the lighting check at night

Do this second pass after dark, ideally within a week of the daytime walk. Lighting gaps are invisible in daylight.

• Motion-sensor lights at every door: Every exterior door, including side and back entries, should trigger a motion light that illuminates the full approach.
• Perimeter and path lighting: The property should have no unlit sections. Pay special attention to dark corners where a fence meets a wall.
• Approach visibility: Stand in the street and check whether someone approaching your front door would be visible from neighboring houses.
• Timers and smart bulbs: Confirm that interior lights come on at varied times when you are away, not on a rigid 6 to 10 PM schedule that is obviously automated.
• Dead bulbs and dim fixtures: Swap them during the audit. A dark porch cancels out an expensive lock.

5. Move into the interior

Once the exterior is mapped, work room by room. The interior audit focuses on detection, habits, and what happens during an incident.

• Entry and foyer: Verify the alarm panel is reachable and functional. Test the alarm siren and confirm the monitoring contract or self-monitored app is live.
• Living areas: Check interior motion sensors, window sensors, and camera placement. Avoid pointing cameras where they record neighbors.
• Kitchen: Test smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Note whether fire extinguishers are accessible and not expired.
• Bedrooms: Every bedroom should have a working smoke detector, a window that opens fully for egress, and a clear path to an exterior exit.
• Home office and valuables: Store passports, birth certificates, safe-deposit keys, and spare device keys in a bolted-down safe or off-site deposit box.
• Wi-Fi and smart devices: Confirm WPA3 or WPA2 with a strong password, firmware current, camera credentials changed from defaults. A compromised camera is worse than no camera.
• Garage interior: Keep the door between the garage and the house locked like any exterior door. It usually is not.

6. Common weak points almost every home has

• Short strike-plate screws: Factory screws are usually 3/4 inch and barely grip the door frame. Replace with 3-inch screws to anchor into the stud. Costs about $3 per door.
• Unlocked garage door: Many homeowners leave the garage open during the day. It exposes tools, bikes, and a direct path to the house.
• Hollow-core exterior doors: Common on older side and back doors. They can be punched through in seconds.
• Unbraced sliding doors: Without a bar or pin, these can often be lifted off the track entirely.
• Ladders left outside: Store ladders inside the garage or shed so they cannot be used to reach a second-story window.
• Social media oversharing: Posting travel in real time is one of the strongest signals that a home is unoccupied. Wait to post until you are back.

7. Prioritize upgrades by budget

After the walk, you will have a long list. Order it by impact and cost so you spend your first few hundred dollars where they do the most good.

Quick wins under $50

• Reinforced strike plates with 3-inch screws on every exterior door.
• Security bar or pin for every sliding patio door.
• Window pins and security film on accessible ground-floor windows.
• Replacement motion-sensor bulbs for existing exterior fixtures.
• Smoke and carbon monoxide battery replacements.
• Trimming shrubs under windows to less than 3 feet.
• Mail hold, newspaper hold, and a trusted-neighbor arrangement.

Mid-range upgrades $50 to $250

• Video doorbell at the front door.
• Hardwired or solar motion-sensor fixtures at side and rear doors.
• Smart lock or keyless entry on the primary exterior door.
• Contact sensors and interior motion sensors connected to an existing hub.
• Two or three visible exterior cameras covering driveway and back yard.

Larger investments $250 and up

• Monitored alarm system, professionally monitored or a reliable self-monitored setup.
• Replacing hollow-core exterior doors with solid-core or metal-clad slabs.
• Bolted-down safe for documents, valuables, and firearms.
• Full camera system with cloud backup and local recording.
• Electrician-installed exterior perimeter lighting.

8. Score your results and rerun the audit annually

Once the walk is done, open the Home Security Score Calculator and check every item you have already in place. Save the score. Make one upgrade at a time and rescore after each, so you can see the exact point-per-dollar return of the change. Rerun the full audit every year, and always after a renovation, a move, a long vacation, or any incident in the neighborhood.

Simple takeaway

A home security audit is just a disciplined walk through the outside and inside of your home with a checklist. The biggest wins almost always come from inexpensive fixes to what you already own: reinforced strike plates, a patio door bar, motion lights that actually work, smoke detector batteries, and the habit of holding mail when you travel. Score your home, fix the cheapest high-impact items first, and layer in cameras, a monitored alarm, and upgraded doors as the budget allows.

Tools and checklists for your audit

Frequently asked questions