Video Surveillance
Have a camera monitoring your front entrance and your back entrance. If you really don’t want to spend the money on real cameras, you can purchase “dummy” cameras that look exactly like the real thing. What’s more, these fake cameras have a red blinking light so it definitely appears as if they are monitoring the surroundings. In fact, I have a client that has these cameras and all his neighbors comment on how they need to get video cameras, too.

Large Dog Bowl
Put yourself in a criminal’s shoes: If you were going to break into a home, do you want a home with a large dog or a home that shows no signs of having an animal? If you put a large dog bowl in your backyard, it will make a criminal think twice about trying to enter your home.

Motion Sensor Lighting
These days, you can go to almost any hardware store and purchase motion sensor lights. While it’s true that most people know what’s going on when these turn on at night, a criminal still doesn’t want to work under the bright lights where everyone can see him. He’d much rather go to a neighbor’s house who has no lights at all so he can break into a house in darkness.

Universal Home Alarm
For as low as $15 a month, you can get an alarm monitoring service. It’s a small investment to make sure your house is always secure. Don’t forget to have entry sensors on all of the doorways and windows where somebody could get into the house. Also, don’t forget to put the alarm in “home” mode while inside so that if somebody tries to enter the house the alarm instantly goes off. A cheaper option is to invest in fake alarm system signs for your property. If a criminal is casing your neighborhood and you’ve got signs for an alarm and your neighbors don’t, that criminal will likely choose one of your neighbors’ homes.

Ultra-Tough Door Brace
There are several door braces on the market these days that take seconds to install and will prevent somebody from kicking in your front door. One that I like is called the Nightlock Security Lock Door Barricade. Since the front door is the most likely entrance a criminal will use during a home invasion, it just makes sense to put added security on this door.

Child-Proof Gates
I train a lot of single women who want to do everything possible to keep themselves safe in their home. That’s why I recommend they put a baby gate or two on the stairs leading to their bedroom. If you have kids, then you know what a pain baby gates are and how often you end up tripping when trying to go over them. This is a great way to slow criminals down and give yourself plenty of time to grab your home defense gun and lock yourself in your bedroom.

Threat-Resistant Locks
Forget the cheap locks that builders typically install on 75 percent of the houses in this country. You want high-quality, tamper-resistant locks on all of the entrances to your home. This means brands such as Schlage or Medeco to help deter criminals from even attempting to pick your locks.

Quality Ammo
Your home-defense ammunition shouldn’t be the cheap stuff you buy at the local box store or at the latest gun show. You want good hollow-point rounds made by companies such as Speer, DoubleTap and Hornady. Just remember, when you first buy home-defense ammunition, you want to run several rounds through your gun to make sure it feeds properly.

Rapid-Access Firepower
Everyone should have a home-defense plan for when you hear your alarm go off or your front door gets kicked in. My personal plan involves grabbing one of the guns I have throughout the house in rapid-access safes. I can access these guns in a matter of seconds, including a Glock 19, a Springfield 1911 and a Sig Sauer P226, to name a few. What’s more, I believe your primary home-defense gun should be equipped with a laser/light combination like the Viridian unit I have on my gun.

Tactical Flashlights
Just like guns, I believe you should have flashlights all over your home. Obviously, you need flashlights to open your gun safes in the middle of the night and to be able to identify any threats. Don’t forget to have plenty of spare batteries, and check your flashlights often to make sure they work. A few quality flashlight companies are SureFire, Streamlight and Fenix, all of which make solid tactical lights for home defense.

Body Armor
I believe body armor is more for an “end of the world” type of situation. In a regular home invasion, you likely won’t have time to put on your body armor because things happen so fast. But if riots and looting are taking place on your streets, that’s when you’ll have time to strap on your armor. If you do choose to get body armor, just keep it close to your bed and time yourself to see how long it takes you to put it on.

72-Hour Stockpile
Hopefully, if someone ever tries to invade your home, you’ll be able to immediately stop the criminal. But if you end up hunkering down in a bedroom while waiting for the police to arrive, it’s always a good idea to have some type of 72-hour kit or home-defense bag on hand. You can throw extra ammunition in this bag, another handgun, flashlights, radios and any other items to increase your odds of keeping your family safe.