The picks, in gifter terms
The SimpliSafe 8-piece system is the housewarming gift we would bring: a base station, a keypad and peel-and-stick sensors for the doors and windows, installed in an afternoon with no drilling and no installer. It self-monitors for free from the app — the new owner gets an alert when a door opens while the system is armed — and if they later want a monitoring center that can dispatch help, that is a month-to-month plan they can add or cancel with no contract. Two gifter notes from our SimpliSafe review: give the sensor kit, not SimpliSafe’s cameras, which need a plan to record; and the 8-piece kit suits a small home, so a bigger house may want extra sensors later.
The eufy Video Doorbell E340 answers the new homeowner’s first question — who is at my door? — without answering it with a subscription. It records to its own built-in storage for free, a second camera watches the doorstep for packages, and it runs on battery or on the doorbell wires the house already has. It works with Alexa and Google, not Apple; the doorbell subscription guide is why we chose it over the household names.
The Yale Assure Lock 2 is the gift for the door itself: a keypad deadbolt with built-in Wi-Fi, so the new owner can stop re-keying and hand out codes instead — one for the dog walker, one for the in-laws — and delete them just as easily. A new homeowner is exactly the person who should change the locks, which makes this a gift with a real reason behind it. It ships in keyed and key-free versions and with different radio modules, so read the Yale review before you pick a box.
The eufy 5-piece Home Alarm Kit is the alternative alarm for a gifter who wants the running cost to be exactly zero, forever. It self-monitors through the eufy HomeBase, never asks for a plan, and pairs with eufy’s cameras that also record for free. The trade-off is that there is no professional monitoring option at all, ever — so it suits the owner who wants alerts on their phone, not a dispatch service. Our eufy alarm review lays out that choice.
The Wyze Cam v4 is the small gift that covers the one spot a doorbell cannot: the driveway, the side gate, the garage. Sharp 2.5K video, free continuous recording to a microSD card, wired power, so it sits near an outlet. Add a card to the gift so it records from day one.
The Kasa EP40M outdoor smart plug is the cheap extra that makes the whole list feel finished: two weather-rated outlets on independent schedules, so the porch light and the holiday lights come on at dusk without anyone remembering. Lights on a schedule is also the oldest security trick there is. It is Matter-certified, so it works with whatever assistant the new house ends up on.
What to check before you buy
Whether they will pay for monitoring
This is the fork in the road, and it is worth asking outright. If the new owner would sleep better knowing a monitoring center can call the police, give the SimpliSafe kit: the plan is optional and month-to-month, but it exists. If they would rather just get alerts on their phone and never pay anyone, give the eufy kit. The self-monitoring vs professional monitoring guide is the five-minute read that settles it.
The ecosystem the house is going to run on
A brand-new home often has no ecosystem yet, which is freeing: the SimpliSafe and eufy systems, the eufy doorbell, the Yale lock and the Wyze camera all work with Alexa and Google Home, and the Kasa plug adds Apple Home through Matter. If the recipient is a committed iPhone household, the Apple guide has the security picks that show up in the Home app instead.
What the house already has
Doorbell wiring makes the eufy doorbell a wired install; no wiring makes it a battery one — either works. The lock replaces a standard deadbolt; an unusual door may need a different lock. And every device here joins 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, which a new house’s router will provide once it exists — a gift given before the internet is connected sits in its box for a week, which is fine, but worth knowing.
The gift wrap: offer to install it
The best version of this gift is the sensor kit plus a Saturday. Sensors stick on in minutes, the doorbell takes a drill and a level, the lock takes twenty minutes with a screwdriver, and the camera takes a shelf and a cable. Our camera placement guide and doorbell wiring guide are the two pages to have open. And when the apps offer a cloud plan during setup, decline it on their behalf — nothing here needs one.
What we left off, and why
No Ring Alarm or Ring doorbell: solid products for a household that has chosen Ring, but recording needs a plan, and a housewarming gift should not come with a monthly bill. No professionally installed system, because that is a contract, not a present. No eufyCam kit, because at its price it is a splurge gift rather than a housewarming one — though if the budget allows, it is the camera system we would give.
