Are you going to be moving into a new home soon? There are a bunch of different things that you should do as soon as you close on your new house.
You should call your local utility companies and make sure the gas, water, and electricity for your new home are all turned on. You should also consider replacing the flooring, painting walls, and doing any other home improvement projects that might prove to be difficult to do once you start setting things up in your new home.
But maybe most importantly, you should replace locks on the exterior doors in your new house with help from a residential locksmith. That includes replacing locks on your front door, your back door, and even your garage door.
Here are some of the reasons why it’s so important for you to replace locks after buying a new home.
Makes It Easy to Lock and Unlock the Doors to Your New Home
When you walk up to the front door of your new home and get ready to unlock it for the very first time, you want everything to go smoothly. You don’t want to get stuck standing at the front door jiggling the keys around and trying to get the door to unlock.
But that might be exactly what you’re forced to do if the lock on your new front door isn’t in great shape. You might be forced to do the same thing every time you go to lock the front door before leaving your new home, too.
By taking the time to replace locks on your front and back doors, you’ll make it simple to lock and unlock your doors in just seconds. You won’t have to worry about tinkering with your locks to get them to work the way they should.
This might seem like a small thing in the grand scheme of things. But it won’t seem so small when you’re trying to rush inside to use the bathroom or rush out the door to get to work when you’re running late.
You have enough things to stress out about day in and day out. You don’t need the locks on your new home’s doors to add one more thing to your plate.
Allows You to Maintain Complete Control Over the Keys to Your Home
After you close on a new home, the previous owner of the house will hand you the keys to it. They’ll provide you with keys to the front door, the back door, the garage door, and any other doors that might have locks on them.
But who’s to say that those are the only keys for the various doors throughout your new home? The previous owner very well could have handed out keys to the home to lots of other people while they were living in it.
It’s not uncommon for people to give keys to their homes to their family members, friends, neighbors, coworkers, babysitters, dog walkers, and more. That means that almost anyone out there could have keys to the locks on your new home—and you would have no idea about it.
By replacing the locks on the doors in your new home, you can take back control of your key situation. You won’t have to worry about half your neighborhood potentially having a key to your home when you put new locks in place of the old ones.
Prevents You From Having to Rely on Inferior Locks
All locks are not created equal.
There are some that are manufactured by established companies that have earned a reputation for producing high-quality locks. There are also others that are made by companies that aren’t quite as concerned about creating locks designed to stand the test of time.
You obviously want to make sure that you have locks on your doors that are produced by a company that falls into the first category. If you notice that the locks on your doors don’t appear to be made by one of these companies, make it your mission to change that.
Ensures You’re Not Using Locks That Are Well Beyond Their Expiration Date
There are a lot of people who are under the impression that the locks on the exterior doors in homes are made to last forever. But this couldn’t be any further from the truth.
In reality, the average exterior door lock will last somewhere between seven and 10 years in most cases before it needs to be replaced. If you try to push locks much further than that, you could run into all kinds of problems with them.
If you’re moving into a new home that was just built a few years ago, you’ll have a decent idea of how old the locks in it are. But if the home is on the older side, you aren’t going to have the slightest clue how long locks have been in place.
You’re better off taking steps to replace locks rather than using really old ones. You could inadvertently end up locking yourself out of your home if you push an old lock to the limit and it gives out on you.
Decreases the Chances of Your Locks Being to Blame for a Home Burglary
There are more than 1.5 million home burglaries that take place in the U.S. every year. That works out to over 4,000 home burglaries every single day.
There is no way to completely eliminate the chances of your new home being burglarized once you move into it. But you can make sure that your home’s locks aren’t to blame for a burglar gaining access to your home.
Once you install strong and sturdy locks in the exterior doors in your new home, you’ll make it very difficult for someone to break into your house through these doors. No matter how hard they try to break down your door, your locks should hold steady.
You may need to schedule burglary damage repair services later to fix any damage done to a door or lock during an attempted break-in. But it’ll be a small price to pay when you consider what might happen if you don’t have the best locks in the business installed in your doors.
Helps You Make the Most of a Home Security System
Is there a security system set up in the home that you just bought? Or are you thinking about installing a security system yourself?
Either way, your home’s security system will work wonders when it comes to keeping your new house safe and secure. You’ll feel so much better when you turn on your security system before leaving for work in the morning or going to bed at night.
But you won’t be able to use your home security system to its full potential if you don’t have great locks in your doors. What good is your home security system going to be if you have locks on your doors that are easy to get through?
When you replace locks on your new home’s doors, you’ll ensure that you’ll able to make the most of having a home security system in place. Your locks and doors will serve as your home’s first line of defense and help your security system do its job.
Brings Down Your Homeowners Insurance Costs
The average homeowner pays almost $1,100 every year for homeowners’ insurance. And those who live in a state like Texas often pay a whole lot more than that.
Texans pay nearly $2,000 every year for homeowners’ insurance. It’s an astronomical figure compared to the homeowners’ insurance costs in other parts of the country.
Fortunately, there are some ways that you can decrease the costs associated with homeowner’s insurance. For example, you can:
- Purchase homeowners insurance through the same company that insures your car
- Shop around for homeowners insurance rates from different companies
- Install a home security system
You also might be able to bring your homeowners’ insurance costs way down by replacing the locks on your doors when you move in and installing deadbolts to go along with them.
Don’t be afraid to reach out to your homeowners’ insurance company to see what impact replacing the locks in your new home could have on your specific policy.
Improves the Overall Appearance of Your New Home’s Exterior Doors
The front door of your new home is going to be one of the first things people see when they pull up in front of it. If your front door doesn’t wow people, your home might not make the best first impression on them.
There are tons of things that you can do to improve the overall appearance of your front door. You can clean it, paint it, or even replace it altogether with something that looks nicer than your current door.
Additionally, you can make a big difference by doing something as simple as replacing the locks in your front door. If your locks look cheap and weathered at this point, your front door might look the same way by extension.
Gives You a Chance to Make Your New Home More High-Tech
People are making their homes more high-tech than ever these days. They’re automating their interior lighting, setting up smart speakers all over the place, and doing whatever else they can to take advantage of the smart home craze.
Do you want to get in on the action? You can start by taking a look at your high-tech options when you go to replace locks.
There are lots of homeowners who have started to install keyless entry systems in their houses. As their name would suggest, these systems allow homeowners to enter their houses without the use of a key. Instead, they use:
- Cards
- Key fobs
- PIN codes
There are even some biometric keyless door locks on the market today that allow you to use your fingerprint to open your front door. It’s truly incredible to see the strides that manufacturers have made when taking the high-tech approach to creating products.
If you’re going to make the rest of your house high-tech, you might as well go the extra mile and go with high-tech door locks, too. They’ll increase your home’s security while also making it so much more convenient to walk through your front door.
Provides You With Total Peace of Mind in Your New Home
Buying a new home is one of the most stressful things that you’re ever going to do. There are some people who get so stressed out by it that they break down in tears when they’re working their way through the home-buying process.
And unfortunately, the stress doesn’t stop when they’re done buying a home. The home-buying stress is replaced by the stress that comes along with owning a home before long.
You can take away at least a little bit of the stress that comes with owning a home by replacing the locks on your doors when you move into it. It’ll provide you with some much-needed peace of mind and prevent you from having to worry too much about home security.
You’ll be free to focus on all the other things you need to worry about when owning a home once you’ve had new locks put into place in your doors.
Make Sure You Replace Locks Prior to Moving Into a New Home
If you’re preparing to move into a new home in the coming weeks, your to-do list is likely a mile long at this point. The thought of adding another item to it might be too much for you to take.
But don’t let that stop you from putting “replace locks” right up near the top of the list. It’s easily one of the most important things that you’ll do when you first move into a new home.
Would you like a hand installing new locks in all the exterior doors in a new home? We would be more than happy to help you with this process.
Fill out our service form today and we’ll send a professional locksmith out to your new home right away to set you up with brand-new locks.