In the hit movie “Home Alone,” Macaulay Culkin went to great lengths to keep burglars Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern from robbing his home. Culkin’s character rigged the house with numerous booby traps, injuring the thieves many times over.

If we real-life homeowners tried that, and a robber or two was hurt because of the traps we laid, chances are good that we could be sued by the bad guys and maybe end up in jail ourselves.

According to the law, homeowners can use “reasonable force” to defend their properties from theft, violent attack on their person, or other types of unlawful aggression. The doctrine is often used as a defense in criminal trials and lawsuits.

But when someone uses excessive force, they are considered to have forfeited their right to use the law as a defense.

In cases of trespass, the lawful occupant of the property must demand the intruder leave. If they don’t exit, the occupant can then use reasonable force to make the bad guy depart. If they still don’t go, the occupant is permitted to raise the level of force. It is up to the thief to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you used more force than was reasonable and necessary.

The good news is that burglars go out of their way to avoid bumping into occupants. Indeed, many will abandon a robbery attempt because they heard someone in the house or returning home, or hide to avoid discovery.

Fortunately, encounters are rare. Even though some burglars know the law regarding reasonable force, they often make several checks of the property to make sure they don’t meet anyone in the hall or coming down the steps, rifle in hand.

Even though the number of burglaries decreased 4.6 percent from 2015 to 2016, there were still 1.5 million that year, according to the FBI. Burglaries accounted for 19 percent of 2016’s known property crimes, with victims incurring $3.6 billion in losses.

And according to robbery expert Alan Young, thieves have discovered that “better” suburban neighborhoods are theirs for the taking; crime is no longer a problem relegated to “bad areas.”

“It’s pretty simple: Thieves have finally figured out that people in better areas have more things that are worth stealing,” says Young. He experienced repeated break-ins when rehabbing properties in the Nashville area, and went on to make protecting people and their homes his life’s work. With his engineer brother, he formed Armor Concepts to produce economical ways to secure residences.

Many homeowners install expensive alarm systems and keep a gun on the nightstand. But Young isn’t a fan of either option.

He points out that alarms only work once the intruder breaks down a window or door. Most robbers can be in and out in five minutes, he says, while police response time is often four times that long. And guns only work if you are home, and if the gun is handy at the crucial moment.

Young’s advice: Be proactive instead of reactive. “Take steps to keep (burglars) out in the first place,” he says.

Here are some steps you can take to protect yourself and your family:

-- I personally am not a gun fan, so I don’t recommend them. But I do like dogs, especially big ones that bark loudly at the slightest sound outside. They are great deterrents; thieves don’t like running into dogs any more than humans.

Absent a real dog, try running a continuous-loop recording of a dog barking. Not constant barking, but a loud, large woof every minute or two -- enough to keep the burglars away. Or try an outdoor device that triggers the recorded barking.

-- Secure your doors and windows. Make it harder for the bad guys to get in -- hard enough that they’ll decide to move on to a different target.

-- If you are gone for any period of time, consider a house sitter. That way, someone really will be home. At the very least, have a neighbor pick up your newspapers, mail and deliveries, or put them on hold until you return. Nothing says “I’m not here” like packages piling up on the porch. If you do hire a sitter, ask them to park their car in your driveway.

-- Put a timer on a couple of lamps, setting them to come on at dusk and go off at, say, midnight. To guard against power outages, consider solar timers.

-- Leave the light above your kitchen range on at all times. The kitchen is one room that tends to have lights on the most.

-- Exterior lights should be on motion sensors or timers, and mounted high enough so they can’t be reached without a ladder. A thief usually won’t put up a ladder because it is too conspicuous.

-- Put your TV on a timer so it goes on and off in the afternoon and again in the evening. Or at least leave a radio on -- to a talk station, as opposed to music. The broken pattern of human speech is more consistent with someone being at home.

-- If you have a landline, turn down your phone’s ringer so a long series of unanswered rings doesn’t draw attention. Your answering machine’s (or voicemail’s) message should be along the lines of, “We can’t get to the phone right now,” rather than “We’re out of town, but will call you back Tuesday!” And check your machine occasionally from wherever you are, so it doesn’t fill up -- tipping off callers that no one’s been home in a while.

Boosting your credit score before you secure a home loan can pay off big-time -- in some cases, to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars over the life of your mortgage.

The reason: Mortgage borrowers with higher credit scores tend to be offered lower loan rates, and even a small difference in your annual percentage rate, or APR, adds up over time.

LendingTree, an online mortgage marketplace, takes a look each month at what lenders on its site are charging for financing a home. The findings are eye-opening.

Take the average purchase-money mortgage, which, as its name suggests, is a loan taken out to buy a house. The average interest rate for this type of financing in December was 4.42 percent. But the average rate varied widely by credit score, also known as a FICO score after its originator: Fair, Isaac and Co.

For example, if you have a great credit score of 760 or above, the typical interest rate you would have paid in December was 4.26 percent. Drop down a few grades -- say, a score of 680 to 719 -- and the average interest rate is 4.56 percent.

That doesn’t sound like much of a difference. But over the life of your loan, 0.3 percent is considerable. At a 760 FICO, a borrower will pay $180,584 in interest over the life of the average loan, compared with $195,494 for a borrower with a 680 FICO. That’s $15,000 more over the same period.

Says Tendayi Kapfidze, LendingTree’s chief economist: “The benefits of improving your credit score are even greater when interest rates are rising, as lenders often pass on higher costs to borrowers with poorer credit first.”

The average loan amount for the borrower with the higher credit score is $252,000 -- a good bit higher than $217,000 for the borrower with the slightly lower score.

The average mortgage rate has gone up by half a percentage point in the last two years, says Kapfidze. However, borrowers with 760-plus credit scores saw a rate increase of just 0.4 percent, while those from 620 to 639 had their rates increase by twice as much.

Improving your FICO score is good whether rates go up or not. Whether you’re borrowing for a home, car or student loan, it’s worth your while.

Take Tanya Febrillet. A single working mom of two in Massachusetts, Febrillet wanted to step up to owning her own home. To get there, she used a little-known program offered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development called Family Self-Sufficiency, run locally by her public housing authority and Compass Working Capital.

After five years of hard work with a Compass financial coach, “Tanya paid down her debt, increased her annual income by nearly $8,000, improved her credit score by more than 140 points and built over $3,000 in savings,” according to a report on the program by Compass and the Preservation of Affordable Housing. She also bought a house, becoming the first person in her family to do so.

Using the LendingTree model and a credit-score boost similar to Febrillet’s, say, from 620 to 760, a borrower could save nearly $40,000 in interest costs over the life of a loan, going from $218,000 to $180,000.

There are many credit repair outfits to choose from, but it’s entirely possible to improve your score on your own. It’s not difficult to find out what the three main credit repositories -- Equifax, Experian and TransUnion -- look for in determining your score, and act accordingly. Also, many credit cards offer free looks at your credit score, and an analysis.

Some of the factors are obvious, like any overdue payments. Paying your bills on time is probably the most important step you can take to raise your score. But other steps are not so obvious. For example, a score takes into account the length of your credit history. So make sure that American Express account you started way back in college remains active.

The three bureaus also like it if you can demonstrate that your good credit habits extend beyond your credit cards. In fact, your FICO score may be hurt if you don’t have an installment loan, like a mortgage or car loan, that you pay down religiously every month.

Also, if you are shopping for credit, pay attention to how many times companies ask for your credit report. Too many requests in too short a time can be seen as a sign of financial instability, as can opening too many accounts too quickly.

You will get marked down if you use a high percentage of your available credit line, but rewarded for having a relatively large amount of unused credit.

You may not be able to raise your score by 140 points, but every little bit helps.

-- Freelance writer Mark Fogarty contributed to this report.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has made it easier for struggling borrowers to complete an application for mortgage help all by themselves: no outside -- and expensive -- assistance necessary.

The FHFA, in conjunction with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two of the secondary mortgage market entities it supervises, has implemented a new Mortgage Assistance Application, or MAAp, to implement some lessons learned during the housing crisis. One of the most important lessons is “ensuring that the application process is straightforward and as easy to navigate as possible,” the FHFA said in a press release.

The new MAAp form gives equal weight to five principles -- accessibility, affordability, accountability, sustainability and transparency -- and is designed to coincide with the new Flex Modification program implemented last fall by Fannie and Freddie. (Flex Mod itself replaced the Home Affordable Modification Program.) Under Flex Mod, borrowers seeking help can get their payments reduced by as much as 20 percent. They can also have any past-due amount added to their unpaid balance and have their payments recalculated over a new loan term.

Of course, the first rule for financially strapped homeowners is to call your servicer: the company that collects your payments. Even if you’re not yet late with a payment, but think you might miss one soon, call to find out if you are eligible for help under their proprietary programs.

If they can’t or won’t help, the next step is to complete the new MAAp. The earlier you apply, the greater the payment relief you may receive, according to Fannie Mae.

The new, simpler form incorporates feedback from borrowers and the mortgage business, and is more user-friendly than its predecessors. For example, it allows borrowers to determine how they will be contacted, and terms have been revised and clarified. And for the first time, it includes information on housing counseling services, resources for borrowers with limited proficiency in English, and a list of steps that will follow.

It also reduces the amount of support documentation required to show the applicant’s hardship and income. The requirement that borrowers must submit IRS form 4506-T to document their earnings is removed, except in limited circumstances. Applicants must now submit either their two most recent pay stubs or bank statements.

Prior to being 90 days delinquent, a borrower experiencing financial challenges can fill out the MAAp and submit it to their servicer. The servicer will then evaluate the borrower for foreclosure alternatives and explore the options, which can include a repayment plan, forbearance, modification, short-sale or deed-in-lieu of foreclosure.

Unfortunately, there will always be those who try to scam homeowners desperately searching for help to avoid foreclosure. Federal authorities continue to come down hard on these outfits. Just last month, thanks to the Federal Trade Commission, a federal court halted an illegal scheme in which consumers were charged $3,900 in unlawful advance fees and $650 in monthly installments in exchange for the promise of “legal assistance.”

This case, one of many in recent years, contains a couple lessons for consumers:

1. The government will never contact you on this issue by mail, phone, text or email unless you contact an agency yourself. And when Uncle Sam does get back to you, all correspondence will have a case number.

2. Beware of any offers that require you to pay upfront for help. Under the FTC’s Mortgage Assistance Relief Services Rule, it is illegal for a company to collect any fees until you have actually received, and accepted, an offer of relief from your lender. You don’t have to pay until the company gets you the results you want.

Among other things, the FTC went after the entities named below for using doctored government logos, claiming special relationships with particular lenders, and unlawfully telling consumers not to pay their mortgages or communicate with their lenders.

As noted above, you can and should talk to your servicer, the sooner the better. You don’t need an intermediary. Never, ever stop paying whatever you can on your mortgage, and never stop communicating with your lender. Doing so can make the problem worse by getting you further behind on payments, damaging your credit and even causing you to fall into foreclosure.

In many instances, the FTC alleged, consumers paid hundreds or thousands of dollars only to learn that the defendants had not obtained the promised loan modifications, and in some cases, had never even contacted any lenders. Many people incurred substantial interest charges and other penalties for paying the defendants instead of their mortgage payments, and some lost their homes to foreclosure.

Some groups falsely claimed a 98-100 percent success rate, and that they could cut people’s mortgage rates in half. Nobody, but nobody, has a success rate that high, and nobody’s rate will be cut in half. If you encounter anyone who says that, head for the door.

Again, the FTC has shut down many types of mortgage modification scams, but it hasn’t stopped them all -- so homeowner beware.

The latest to come under the agency’s sword include: Preferred Law PLLC; Consumer Defense LLC in Nevada; Consumer Defense LLC in Utah; Consumer Link Inc.; American Home Loan Counselors; American Home Loans LLC; Consumer Defense Group LLC, formerly known as Modification Review Board LLC; Brown Legal Inc.; AM Property Management LLC; FMG Partners LLC; Zinly LLC; Jonathan P. Hanley; Benjamin R. Horton; and Sandra X. Hanley.