Other than settling into a more comfortable environment and improving your own happiness over the long run, there are also security benefits that you can reap by simply befriending your neighbors and getting to know them as people. In fact, one might even say that having alert neighbors is one of the best protection methods that can be had with or without money being involved in the process.

Security Benefits From Knowing Your Neighbors

Here are some of the benefits to your home's security that can come from you getting to know your neighbors:

* First, it is a truism that having more eyes keeping watch on your home and your neighborhood is better than having fewer eyes doing the same. You simply cannot keep an eye out on your home for all hours of the day and for all seven days of the week. You need to go to work, head out for other purposes, take care of your children if you have any, and even if you are independently wealthy, you'll still need to take some time out of each day to sleep and take care of other basic necessities. As a result, any individual attempt to keep an eye out is going to end up with spotty coverage due to your absence. In contrast, if you enlist your neighbors to help out and get along with them well enough so that they are actually willing to help, many of those security gaps will close up and your coverage will improve dramatically.

* Getting to know your neighbors and having them get to know you can help improve the effectiveness of the security measures taken to protect your home. Most burglaries and other crimes are detected based on abnormalities that are incongruent with the normal routines of the household and neighborhood. For example, if you see a car parked in the driveway of your neighbor's home at two in the afternoon, you'll find it difficult to tell if anything is going on or all is as it should be if you know little to nothing about your neighbor. In fact, you won't even be able to tell if that car belongs to your neighbor or someone who is unfamiliar to you. Similarly, if your neighbors know nothing about you and your routines, they won't be able to tell if something is wrong or everything is as it should be. Having better relationships with your neighbors also means being able to share cell phone numbers so that you and your neighbors can exchange information at an instant if either one of you notices something unusual going on at the home of the other.

* Befriending your neighbor also means that you can entrust them with helping to protect your home if you are ever on a prolonged absence. Maintaining the illusion of someone being in residence is important in deterring criminals, something that can be hard to do if you are far away either occupied with business or simply on vacation. If you trust your neighbors, then you can simply ask them to pick up your mail, pick up your newspaper, and make a pass-by every so often to check for problems.

Guest post contributed by Christian Westerberg on behalf of HomeInsurance.com. Christian is a freelance writer with a penchant for insurance policies. He enjoys sharing his tips and insights on various insurance related blogs.