Being on Both Sides of the House Sitting Fence with House Carers

We recently sold our home and started traveling full-time. Many people ask how we can afford to do this. Most of our expenses are paid out of our own pockets so staying in hotels every night can get very costly very fast. We have found a way to mitigate those costs by house sitting. We’ve been using a few different tools to make this possible but the biggest help for us with house sitting has been House Carers.

Everyone goes on vacation (and we fully support that

). When we owned our own homes, we usually had friends or family housesit for us. We always had a love for travel. Kenin and I vacationed often, so it was very expensive to board our doggies while we were away. We also didn’t like the idea of them caged up and unloved while being boarded. We started asking friends and family to housesit for us while we went away. This was great not only for us, but for the dogs as well. They were able to stay in the comfort of their own home with their own beds as opposed to being in a “doggie hotel” where nothing was familiar and they had no familiar faces either. It was less stressful for everyone involved.

What Happens if you need a House sitter?

When you are gone for a long period of time, it is nice to know there is someone there to get your mail and keep your house clean, someone to mow the lawn and water the plants. The biggest reason for needing a house sitter though is typically pet care. We’re not just talking about cats and dogs either, sometimes people have exotic pets or livestock that need caring for as well. If you find yourself needing a house sit, it’s pretty easy to join a site and find a house sitter. All you need to do is create an account, and then you have two choices, you can either browse the existing library of house sitters, or choose the most popular route and place an ad. Once people respond to your ad, you can chat with them, check their references, and set up a house sitting contract. The best part? All of these services are free to the homeowner!!

So what happens if you want to start House Sitting?

If you think house sitting fits your travel style (I’m not sure how free accommodations wouldn’t ) all you need to do is sign up for a house sitting website and get started.  We use HouseCarers.com because we feel they provide the best set of resources for us as travelers. Before you actually apply for any house sits, it’s important to figure out  the answers to a few different questions. First of all, you need to ask yourself how long you are willing to stay in one area. I’ve seen house sits ranging from a week  to 9-months long.  I’ve found that the most common house sits are the medium length ones ranging from 3-6 weeks but those also tend to have the most competition. The second thing you need to decide if how many and what kind of pets you are willing to look after. It’s one thing taking care of two cats and a dog for a few weeks, but sometimes homeowners have small farms worth of animals to take care of. If you’re not an animal lover those might not be the job for you. If you are, you get to take care of great pets like this cutie.

10 points if you can find the kitty in this picture