Complete Guide To Housesitting

I have been housesitting almost full time for the last four months and whenever I mention it I always get a tonne of questions. Trust me, I was exactly the same when I first heard about it. Like, you can stay in someones house while their away for free? Crazy!!

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In the past four months I have spent a week in Chicago, a month in Seattle, two 5-day stays in Portland, a week in Cambridge and so many more all for free through housesitting. The catch? I had to look after a couple cute pets along the way! Not a hardship at all and even though some sits can be harder than others, it’s still so worth it!

It has completely changed the way I see travel and I will definitely be continuing housesitting beyond my gap year.

SO, WHAT IS HOUSESITTING?

Housesitting is where you go and stay in someone’s house and look after the place while they are away. Majority of the time they will have pets, so your purpose for being there is looking after the pets. But you could also have other responsibilities, such as watering plants, bringing in the mail, gardening – the list goes on. Your responsibilities should be made clear to you before the housesit so you’ll know what the owners expect of you.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

There are multiple ways to go about housesitting, whether you decide to housesit for friends and family or join an online site to start sitting for strangers. Sites such as Trusted Housesitters will let you browse housesitting listings and apply directly through the site.

The process on Trusted Housesitters is very simple:

Find a sit you like the look of and can commit to
Apply by sending the pet owner a message
Wait to hear back from them
If they like you, then you’ll often arrange a video call
If you’re both agreed, confirm the sit through the site and you’re good to go

Now whilst that’s a very simplistic breakdown of the process, it really isn’t much harder in reality.

CAN ANYONE DO IT?

Bottomline yes!

But there are a few qualities you need to make a good housesitter. Firstly, most of the time the reason people need a housesitter is because they have pets, so being an animal person is a must in these cases. So is having experience looking after said pets. I can only imagine the disasters that could occur if you agree to housesit for someone with horses when you no experience with them.

Secondly, you need to be responsible and trustworthy. These people are leaving you with their house and pets. This is a massive deal and there are so so many things that could go wrong. They need to be reassured that their home will be safe in your hands.

DECIDE WHY YOU WANT TO HOUSESIT

There are two main reasons most people choose to get into housesitting…

to make money
for cheap travel

And which one you decide to do will influence which sites you can get started on and also where in the world you can housesit. In general, housesitting for cheap travel (where you don’t get paid but do get free accommodation) is easier to get into but it is possible to make money from it.

HOUSESITTING TO MAKE MONEY

You could make some serious cash by charging for your housesitting services. But please make sure you are doing it legally, i.e. in the country you are legally eligible to work in. Sites like Rover allow you to advertise your housesitting services and find potential clients. This type of housesitting is obviously more restrictive but it would be great way to make money and reduce your expenses at the same time.

HOUSESITTING FOR CHEAP TRAVEL

Housesitting for cheap travel means you are free to housesit anywhere in the world without dealing with any visa implications. This is the case for the site I use to find housesits which is Trusted Housesitters. They see housesitting as an exchange of services, so no money changes hands, therefore you are not in violation of any work laws. This is my reason for housesitting as I knew I wanted to take a year off and travel but didn’t want to have to fork out thousands to do so. By housesitting I have seriously reduced the biggest cost of travel, accommodation and sometimes food too! For example, I have just spent 85 days travelling around the USA and I only paid for 9 of those nights because there were a few cities I was dying to visit.

HOW CAN I GET STARTED?

The best way to get started is by housesitting for your friends and family. This way you can gain some much need experience and bonus that you will probably already be familiar with the pets and house. Having experience and people who can write you good references will make landing housesits for strangers so much easier. Plus you might find that you don’t actually like housesitting which is a good thing to know before committing to an international sit for instance.

Once you’ve got a little bit of experience under your belt now the research comes in. There are tonnes of sites in the housesitting world that will help you find people to go and housesit for. My favourite it Trusted Housesitters because it is a members only site, meaning everyone has paid a fee to be on there (around £100 per year) and are ID checked. I liked this because you know the listings are legit and the people are actually real!

Getting started on Trusted Housesitters is very easy! You simply create an account, pay the membership fee (my affiliate link will get you 20% off), create your profile and then you’re good to go! Start applying to all those amazing housesits across the globe!

TOP TIPS TO GETTING BOOKED ON TRUSTED HOUSESITTERS

Let me share some of my top tips for getting housesits, specifically for Trusted Housesitters as this is currently the only site I use to find housesits.

1. Get some experience

If you have never housesat before start by offering to sit for friends and family just to get a little experience before you take on the responsibility of a stranger’s home and pets.

2. References are key

These people are welcoming you into their home and leaving you alone for a period of time so they kinda need to know that you’re a decent person. Trusted Housesitters lets you add external reviews so you new to the site you can show the type of person you are. Get a good mix of character, work and private housesitting reviews to make your chances of getting chosen better.

3. Choose good pictures

“Don’t judge a book by it’s cover” does not apply in this situation. Your pictures and profile is all these people have to go on. Put your best foot forward and choose good ones. Make sure they represent you, your personality and are good quality. Bonus points if an animal is with you!

4. Be yourself

There is absolutely no point in lying in your profile to make yourself into someone you’re not. You if you the sit you will meet these people and be in somewhat constant communication with them! Just be the best version of yourself.

5. There is no point in lying

Never taken care of horses, please don’t lie and say you have! I know I know, some housesits sometimes look too good not to apply for but there is no point applying to the sit if you don’t have the skills to look after their pets properly.

6. Don’t take the rejection personally

So far I’ve applied to over 70 housesits on Trusted Housesitters and would say I’ve not heard back/been immediately declined with no message from over half of them. This could be for a number of different reasons, many of them not to do with me at all. To name a few, they could’ve already confirmed another sitter, they might have someone else in mind, my age/solo status may be a no-no for them, so so many reasons. The first few times this can be a little disheartening but I’ve learnt not to take it personally and move onto the next one.

7. Keep applying

This is key at the beginning as getting that first sit (and in turn your first review) will open up more doors! So just keep apply, remember not to take the rejection personally and you will find your perfect housesit.

Ok so over a thousand words later, I hope you now have a good idea of what housesitting is! And maybe feel a little excited to try it out for yourself? Happy housesitting!

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