Homeowners’ top concern after leaving the house

Photo by Pavel Danilyuk via Pexels

Many homeowners find it difficult to fully enjoy time away because they remain preoccupied with what is happening back home, according to new research.

A survey of 2,000 homeowners found that the unease begins almost immediately after they leave. Nearly two-thirds of respondents, or 65%, said they start wondering whether they locked the door or shut the garage within 30 minutes of departing.

For 39% of homeowners, the worry begins before they even pull out of the driveway.

The concern does not end once they are gone. On average, respondents said they check on their home four times a day, either mentally or through an app, showing that the habit does not always ease anxiety.

When asked what causes the most concern, 28% said the safety of family members and pets was their biggest home-security worry. Another 25% pointed to break-ins or burglary.

Commissioned by SimpliSafe and conducted by Talker Research, the survey found that 18% of respondents said they had dealt with an attempted or successful break-in in the past year.

Among those who worry about unlocked doors or appliances left on, 59% said the uncertainty has driven them to turn around and go back home to check.

Many homeowners try to manage those concerns with security tools. Of those surveyed, 63% said they have some form of home security system, and 73% of that group monitor it themselves.

Among homeowners without a security system, the biggest barriers were monitoring fees or equipment costs, cited by 36%, while 30% said they felt they did not need one because their neighborhood is safe.

Video doorbells are especially common. Fifty-nine percent of those with a home monitoring system said they have one installed, and 32% said it is the one device they rely on most.

Half of respondents believe a video doorbell alone offers enough protection against a break-in.

Still, that confidence may not match reality. Nearly half of homeowners who experienced a security incident while away, 48%, only learned about it after returning home.

“Video doorbells have changed how people keep an eye on their homes, but visibility isn’t the same as protection,” said Rebecca Zavin, chief product and technology officer at SimpliSafe. “When real trouble arises, whether it’s package theft or an intruder, most traditional video doorbells simply record the event and notify the homeowner, who may miss the alert or be unable to respond. A more proactive approach is to choose a video doorbell backed by professional monitoring, enabling trained agents to intervene through the camera in real time and request police dispatch if necessary.”

Thirty-five percent of homeowners with a doorbell camera agreed, saying the device mainly records events instead of responding to them.

Even among people who monitor their own systems, alerts are easy to miss. Nearly four in 10 respondents with a security system, or 38%, said they have missed an alert because they were unavailable, and another 39% said notifications were lost among too many others.

Most homeowners want a person involved when something serious happens. If a real threat were detected, 52% said they would want a human agent to be part of the response, while only 36% would trust AI to act alone.

When asked what gives them the most peace of mind, 46% chose a system monitored by trained professionals, followed by self-monitored systems at 37%, and AI-monitored systems at 17%.

“AI can be incredibly valuable in security because it can detect and surface activity quickly. But when a potential threat becomes a real emergency, human judgment is irreplaceable,” said Zavin. “The data from this survey reinforces what we hear from customers every day: people are open to AI playing an important role in identifying potential threats, but when something is actually happening at their home, they want a trained professional involved in making the call.”

Research methodology:

Talker Research surveyed 2,000 US respondents aged 18-75 who own a home and who have access to the internet; the survey was commissioned by SimpliSafe and administered and conducted online by Talker Research. A link to the questionnaire can be found [here].

To view the complete methodology as part of AAPOR’s Transparency Initiative, please visit the Talker Research Process and Methodology page.