Best advice I've ever gotten was from an ex-con.

He told me the following:

1) Make your place look as poor as possible, no super-well cut lawns, wait with trimming the bushes, don't worry about cosmetics, just make sure your house is in good condition, you can leave the paint flaking on metal terraces etc, the poorer you look the less you'll be a target.

2) Lights, lights and even more lights. People don't realize how cheap of an insurance having lights on at night is, yes it cost a few $ extra, but not much, especially today with led lights, but people STILL turn off all the lights, bless those - we'd not be able to score without those.

3) Make it uncomfortable to penetrate. For example, rose bushes under windows, people who like to sneak in hate those, there's nothing quite as annoying as getting bleeding scratchmarks all over your body while trying to enter a window.

4) Don't put up survelliance signs, fake alarm signs. This only signals that you have stuff worth taking.

5) Look for signs on your walls, mailbox, door. Anything unusual, we like to memorize our targets, see some unusual scratchmarks, mess those up or remove them.

6) Spread rumors about your badass levels. Even if fake, rumors spreads like wildfire amongst us, we don't like to be a victim either, so if we know there might be a potential maniac behind those walls, we'll choose the house next door.

7) Don't ever advertise how much stuff you got, even to your best friend, they blabber, and we're nice face-to-face, and we're awesome listeners, and we have a good memory too. We might smile to your friends face, but rest assure - we're taking notes!

8) Everyone knows you're prepared, so do we! The less we know, the better it is - for you!

9) We're easily spooked. Show up outside when you see someone who's a stranger, don't be talkative, we are so we know if your'e an easy target. If you just stare, we spook easily too, and you probably won't see us again.

Etc.

My entire neighborhood had been burglarized during one point, most of my next door neighbors too, except my place (knock on wood). Because I followed his advice.