House-sitting 101

So, you’ve heard me talk about my plans to house-sit and you’re curious to know more about it.  Why do it?  How do you get started? Allow me to share what I’ve learned so far.

What is house-sitting?

Homeowners often “hire” someone to stay at their home while they go away on holiday.  They like the house to look lived in, as opposed to vacant, and they often want someone there to take in their mail, water their plants, and if they have pets, care for their pets.  As a pet-owner, I know how expensive it is to pay for boarding kennels. And I know how much more comfortable my pets are staying in their own home. Even if they have to get to know the house-sitter, it’s much less traumatic on the pet if they can stay at home. Homeowners know the value of a good house-sitter.  They “pay” you by not charging you rent while you’re in their home.  So it’s a win-win for both homeowner and house-sitter. 

Why would you want to house-sit?

TRAVEL THE WORLD, AFFORDABLY:  You still have to pay to get to the other location, but once there, you stay for free in a house or condo that is likely bigger and better than any hotel suite. Staying in hotels and hostels can quickly eat through your budget. Vacation apartment rentals can cut costs if you’re staying a bit longer term but even then, you’re still paying an inflated monthly rent to live somewhere with only the bare minimum in terms of comfort and supplies.

LIVE LIKE A LOCAL, IN A REAL HOME: When you housesit, you live in someone’s house, with access to all its facilities, in exchange for keeping the house – and usually their pets – safe and happy while living like a local in a new neighborhood in a different city/country/continent!

Maybe this is the first you’ve heard of house-sitting, but there are thousands of people out there housesitting already. When I talk to most people about my new life of housesitting, I get loads of questions, like, “What is house-sitting, and how do I sign up to do it too?”

My take on house-sitting websites

There are several websites where people sign up to find house-sits and list their house-sit needs. Most cost something to join. A few are free, but not worth your time IMHO. I have used four sites. Here’s my take on those.

The largest of the house-sitter websites is www.trustedhousesitters.com which costs $95 for an annual membership. As a member you can posts as a homeowner and a house-sitter for no extra cost.  $95 a year may seem high, but split that cost across even a week spent house sitting and you’d be spending under $14 per night on accommodation. That’s even less than some of the best budget hostel or airbnb listings. And should you do more house sitting throughout the year, your per-night cost will go down even more.  With anywhere from 100-300 new assignments each month across the world (added to the thousands already posted from the previous month) they have the largest database of assignments. The TrustedHousesitters.com site is the one I recommend to anyone who only wants to sign up on one site.  It is incredibly easy to both navigate and set up a profile, thanks to it’s easy-to-follow forms and guidelines.  They have a daily email alert system which notifies you of all the new assignments from the past 24 hours since you were last logged on.

This is my go-to website for house-sitting.  They have the most current listings, and the site is easy to navigate.  It’s super easy to apply for sits too.

My second website choice is www.mindmyhouse.com.  This is the site from which I found my two-part assignment in Sicily. . . at a beautiful vacation resort where they rent out villas to guest.  My role will be to act as hostess while the homeowners are on holiday in Spain.  Though the MindMyHouse website is not as visually fancy or easy to navigate as TrustedHousesitters might be, it still has lots of good house sitting assignments.  I’ve seen some duplication, where a homeowner might post on several sites, but I’ve also seen posts unique to one site.  So if you’re really looking for a certain kind of sit, it is worth it to sign up with more than one site.  MindMyHouse has only about a third of the number of new sits added each week, compared to TrustedHousesitters, but don’t let that deter you.  In fact, due to the smaller size of MindMyHouse, it’s much easier to climb to the top of the potential prospects pile for each new assignment. The biggest draw for MindMyHouse is the remarkably cheap yearly membership. With an annual membership fee of $20, it’s one of the cheapest. You may want to start on this one, just to try out the process of searching for and applying for sits.

My third favorite website is www.housecarers.com. Their website is a little more “clunky,” but they put their list in a spreadsheet-like format that, once you figure out how it’s organized, might be helpful for quick-scroll type searching. With around 300 active assignments per month they’re still a little behind TrustedHousesitters and their thousands of sits, but they seem to have some unique sits that are not listed on the other sites. HouseCarers annual membership fee is $45.

The other website I have used is HouseSittersAmerica. Their annual membership fee is $30, and as their name implies they limit their sits to the USA. You can search by region, according to the list shown in the image below.  I haven’t spent as much time on this site to have a strong feeling about it, but if you’re only interested in assignments in the US, it might make it nice to not have all the others get in your way. 



Next time, I'll share some tips on how to write a winning profile and proposal, so you can get some assignments lined up and start your own house-sitting adventures.