What is a home security assessment?

A home security assessment is a structured walk-through of a property that records the condition of its doors, windows, lighting, outbuildings, alarm equipment and everyday habits, and produces a list of what to fix. It can be done by the homeowner with a checklist, or by a security company as part of a sales visit.

Is a free home security assessment from a security company really free?

It costs no money and companies state there is no obligation, but it is a sales appointment. ADT, for example, describes its free in-home consultation as a no-obligation sit-down with a security expert, and the stated outcome of its quote process is a custom quote to compare features and pricing. The visit produces a proposal, not a written report you keep.

How long does a self-assessment take?

About 30 minutes for a typical single-family home: one lap of the outside, then each room, then the habits section at the kitchen table.

Home Security Assessment Checklist You Can Score Yourself

By the Home Security Systems & Alarms editorial team · Research-based - methodology · Last updated August 5, 2026

The short version. Search for a home security assessment and almost everything offered to you is a free in-home visit from a company that sells alarm systems. Those visits are competent and they cost nothing, but the thing they produce is a quote. This page is the same walk, done by you, with a scoring method at the end and nothing to sell. It takes about 30 minutes and every item on it can be fixed without buying a system.

Most burglary deterrence is boring: solid doors, working locks, decent lighting, and habits that don't advertise an empty house. That ordering is not a preference, it follows from how burglaries are actually recorded. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, summarising eighteen years of National Crime Victimization Survey data, reports that from 1994 to 2011 "the largest proportion of burglaries involved completed unlawful entries, in which someone with no legal right to be in the residence entered without use of force." Entry without force is the single largest category. An alarm contract does not close an unlocked window, and that is why this checklist puts the free work first and the equipment last.

How to use it: print this page (your browser's print function will strip the navigation and format it cleanly), grab a pen, and walk the outside of your home first, then each room, then sit down for the habits section. Anything unchecked is your to-do list, and most items cost under $30 to fix. Score it at the end using the method below.

What a company's "free home security assessment" actually is

This is worth understanding before you book one, because the phrase means something specific in the industry and nobody selling one has a reason to spell it out.

ADT's services page describes it plainly: "Sit down for a no-obligation consultation with an ADT security expert and we can help customize a security solution that fits your needs." The same site sets out what happens after you request a quote, in three steps: a call from ADT, product assistance, and "your custom quote", so you can "compare features and pricing to find your best fit". That is an accurate description of the product. The visit is free, the obligation is genuinely zero, and the deliverable is a priced proposal.

Two consequences follow, and neither of them is a reason to avoid the appointment:

You usually do not keep a written assessment. The output is a quote for equipment and monitoring, not a document listing your unlocked basement window and your hollow-core side door. If you want that list, you have to write it down yourself during the visit, or produce it beforehand with a checklist like this one.
The scope is bounded by what the company sells. A representative assessing your home is looking for places their equipment solves a problem. Strike-plate screws, hedge height, ladder storage and mail habits are real vulnerabilities that no product line addresses, so they tend not to appear in the recommendation even when they are the cheapest fix available to you.

How to get real value from one anyway. Do this assessment first, then book theirs, and use the appointment as a second opinion on a list you already hold. Ask what they would do about the items on your sheet that they do not sell anything for. Ask them to identify the entry point they consider weakest and why. Ask for the quote in writing, with the contract length, the monitoring rate after any promotional period, and what happens to the equipment if you cancel. Our costs and contracts section covers what those numbers usually hide, and the five-year cost calculator turns a monthly figure into the number that actually matters.

How to score this assessment

A checklist tells you what is unchecked. An assessment tells you what to do about it. Here is the method, and it is ours rather than any standard, so the reasoning is set out openly enough that you can disagree with it.

Mark each item checked, unchecked, or not applicable. "Not applicable" is for things you genuinely do not have: no garage, no alarm system, no basement windows.
Drop the not-applicable items entirely. Do not count them as failures. A flat with no garage is not less secure for having no garage door to secure, and any score that punishes you for it is measuring the wrong thing.
Score = checked items divided by applicable items, times 100. The six core sections hold 35 items. The apartment and rental addendum is scored separately if it applies to you.
Then look at the sections, not just the total. Two homes can score 70 with completely different problems. One unchecked item in each of five sections is a to-do list. Five unchecked items in one section is a hole.

Every item is weighted equally, deliberately. We have no evidence base that would let us claim a strike plate is worth 1.7 times a motion light, and inventing weights would make the number look more precise than the reasoning behind it. Treat the score as a rough banding, not a measurement.

Score	What it means	What to do next
90 to 100	The free and cheap work is essentially done.	This is the only band where buying equipment is clearly the next marginal improvement rather than a substitute for unfinished basics. Start at find your setup.
70 to 89	A short to-do list, usually spread across sections.	Finish the unchecked items first. Most cost under $30 and none require a contract. Re-score afterwards.
50 to 69	At least one whole category is unaddressed.	Fix the weakest category as a unit rather than picking off single items. A house with good locks and no exterior lighting has a lighting problem, not five separate ones.
Under 50	The physical basics are not in place.	A monitoring contract signed at this point pays monthly for a response to a problem that cheaper work would have prevented. Doors, locks and lighting first.

A low score does not mean your home is unsafe and a high score is not a guarantee of anything. It is a way of deciding what to do next, in what order, with a finite amount of money.

Exterior doors

Every exterior door is solid-core wood, fiberglass, or metal - not hollow-core
Every exterior door has a deadbolt with at least a 1-inch throw
Strike plates are secured with 3-inch screws that reach the wall stud (the single cheapest high-impact fix - most doors fail at the frame, not the lock)
Door hinges are on the inside, or have non-removable pins if exterior-facing
Doors with glass within reach of the lock use a double-cylinder deadbolt or reinforced glass film (check local fire-egress rules before choosing double-cylinder)
You can see who's outside without opening the door (peephole, sidelight view, or doorbell camera)
The door between an attached garage and the house is treated as an exterior door (solid, deadbolted)
Sliding doors have a security bar or dowel in the track and an anti-lift device
No spare key hidden outside (under mats, in fake rocks, above frames - all first places checked)

One extra step worth taking on the deadbolt. "Has a deadbolt" and "has a deadbolt that has been tested" are different claims. Residential deadbolts can be certified to the ANSI/BHMA A156.40 standard, which the Builders Hardware Manufacturers Association says specifies seventeen security tests, including one that loads the door against the bolt with 1,350 pounds of force. BHMA publishes a free, searchable Certified Products Directory, so you can look up whether the lock already on your door is in it before deciding whether to replace it. Note that BHMA is the manufacturers' trade association rather than a neutral body, and certification is voluntary, so absence from the directory means the model was not submitted rather than that it failed.

Windows

All ground-floor windows have working locks - not just the factory latch
Windows you keep cracked for air have vent locks or pin stops limiting opening to a few inches
Basement windows lock and, where appropriate, have interior grilles or well covers
Second-floor windows near climbable features (porch roofs, trellises, fences, trees) lock like ground-floor windows
Window air-conditioner units are bracketed so they can't be pushed in

Lighting and sight lines

Every entry door has working exterior lighting
Dark side- and back-of-house approaches have motion-activated lights
Shrubs under windows are trimmed below sill height; tree canopies don't hide entry points
House number is visible from the street at night (so emergency services can find you)
Ladders, tools, and patio furniture that could help someone climb are stored away

Garage and outbuildings

Garage doors close fully and the opener remote isn't visible in a parked car
The emergency release cord is shielded from coat-hanger fishing (zip-tie method or shield)
Garage windows are covered so contents aren't visible
Sheds and detached garages have real locks, not luggage padlocks

Cameras, alarms, and network basics

If you have an alarm: everyone in the household knows the code and how to cancel a false alarm (see false-alarm fines by city for why this matters)
Alarm or camera batteries checked in the last 6 months; sensors actually trigger when tested in test mode
Your local alarm permit is current if your city requires one
Camera and doorbell accounts use unique passwords and two-factor authentication
Your Wi-Fi router uses WPA2/WPA3 with a non-default password (cameras are only as private as the network they're on)
Cameras cover actual approach paths (doors, driveway) rather than just pointing at the street

While-away habits

Deliveries are paused, picked up by a neighbor, or routed to a locker when you travel
Mail and packages don't accumulate visibly
At least one interior light runs on a timer or smart schedule when you're away
Trip announcements wait until you're home before appearing on social media
A trusted neighbor has your contact info and knows when you're gone
Valuables and documents are in a fixed safe or offsite, and photographed for insurance

Apartment & rental addendum

Building entry actually latches behind you (report propped or broken doors to management)
Your unit door has a deadbolt, and management rekeyed or replaced the lock between tenants - you're entitled to ask
Portable additions in place where drilling isn't allowed: door security bar, portable door lock, adhesive window/door sensors
Renter's insurance inventory is current (photos + serial numbers)

Score this section on its own rather than folding it into the total, because a tenant controls fewer of the items than an owner does. If most of your unchecked items are things your landlord controls, that is a conversation rather than a purchase, and our guide to apartment security without drilling covers what you can add on your own without risking the deposit.

If you only do three things

People rarely complete a 35-item list in one weekend. If you are going to stop early, stop here, and in this order:

Lock what is already there. Because entry without force is the largest recorded category of completed burglary, the highest-return item on this page costs nothing: the doors and windows you leave unlocked because you are only going out for twenty minutes, the garage side door, the sliding patio door with the broken latch nobody has mentioned in two years.
Put 3-inch screws in the strike plates. A box of screws is a few dollars and a screwdriver. It moves the failure point from the door frame's soft trim into the structural stud, and it is the one physical upgrade on this list that costs less than a takeaway meal.
Light the dark approach. Almost every house has one side nobody can see from the street or from a neighbour's window. A motion light there changes the calculation for anyone deciding whether to spend time at that wall.

None of those three requires a contract, an installer, or a monthly fee. That is the point of doing the assessment before the sales visit rather than after it.

What this checklist deliberately does not do

It does not quote crime statistics at you to hurry a decision. The one figure on this page is there to justify the ordering of the list, not to frighten you into buying something.
It does not recommend products inside the checklist. Every item is written so it can be satisfied with hardware you may already own, or with a generic item from any hardware shop. Where we do compare products, we do it on separate pages and we disclose how we are paid.
It does not ask for your details to release the list. There is no form between you and the checklist, and there is no PDF gate. Print it.
It does not claim to be a professional survey. It is a structured way to look at your own home. It is not a substitute for advice from a licensed security professional or your local police crime-prevention unit, several of which run free home surveys of their own.

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Found gaps a checklist can't fix? If your audit points toward an alarm system or cameras, start with how to choose a home security system without getting upsold and the honest tradeoffs in professional vs. self-monitoring. Already have a system that's not earning its keep? See DIY & fixes, or browse the rest of our free resources.

About this checklist

The checklist items are broadly accepted, low-risk physical-security practices of the kind that are useful regardless of which alarm brand you own, or whether you own one at all. The scoring bands are our own construction and have no official standing; they exist to turn a list of unchecked boxes into a decision about what to do next. The description of what a company's free assessment involves is taken from the provider's own published pages, cited below, rather than from anyone's account of a sales visit. We do not perform hands-on testing and we have not surveyed anyone's property; see our methodology and editorial policy. This is general information, not a professional security assessment of your specific home. No product purchase is required to complete any item on this page.

Sources

Note on sourcing: the federal burglary data above ends in 2011, which is the most recent period covered by that particular BJS special report, so it is cited for the relative size of entry categories rather than as a current rate. The description of a provider's free assessment comes from that provider's own marketing pages, which are written to sell the appointment, so we have quoted what they say the visit produces rather than characterising the experience of one. Certification details come from the manufacturers' trade association, which has a commercial interest in certification being valued, and that is stated on the page.

Update log. 2026-08-05: added the section on what a company's free home security assessment is, a scoring method with bands, a prioritised "if you only do three things" section, a section stating what the checklist deliberately does not do, a BHMA certification lookup step for deadbolts, and a Sources section. No checklist item was removed or reworded.