Monday, February 16, 2015

Chapter 4 - House Sitting 101

Charli and I get asked a lot of questions now that we are full time house sitters, such as...
- What is house sitting?
- How do you find houses to sit at?
- Do you get paid?
- Do you pay them?
- Where can you do it?
- Have you lost your minds?

In this post I'll answer these questions and more!

Let's start at the top...

What is house sitting?
In general, house sitting is a way for people to leave their house for an extended period of time while someone else stays there to take care of their pets and provide a "lived in" presence.  There are many aspects to a house sitting arrangement, but in our case it typically involves caring for their pets, keeping their house and property clean and assisting with standard maintenance duties as needed.

How do you find houses to sit at?
There must be a LOT of people doing this because there are a LOT of web sites devoted to it. We have landed on two that have worked well for us:

House Sitters America - http://www.housesittersamerica.com/

Luxury House Sitting - http://www.luxuryhousesitting.com/

The process is kind of like a dating web site (I assume) but without all the lying and exaggerating. On these two sites, the sitters pay a small annual fee ($25-$30) and provide a resume that describes their interests, lifestyle, experience and a general case for why you would want to choose them.  The owners on the other hand do not pay anything. When the owners decide they need a house sitter they post an "assignment" on the site and every house sitter who has signed up gets a notification.

At this point, the owners will immediately start to receive applications for their request and will then have the task of reviewing them for consideration, much like an employer would in a new job listing.  After selecting the desired candidates, the owner will send a private message to the applicants letting them know they are interested in learning more about them.  From there the standard exchange of emails, phone calls, Skypes and Facetimes take place until the owners and applicants are both satisfied they have found a good match in each other.

Do you get paid? Do they get paid?
That depends.  Some house sitters charge for their services, we do not. Some home owners charge rent or utilities, the ones that we have applied for do not.  These criteria are normally spelled out in the assignment posting as well as the house sitter's profile.  It all depends on what the objectives are. In our case we are more interested in living in exciting places around the country and experiencing it at no cost to us, rather than lowering our desirability as a candiate by charging a fee. It's really a win-win for both the home owner and the house sitter when no money is exchanged.

Where can you do it?
Easy... EVERYWHERE!  And there is no better proof of that than us.  In just a few short months we have been lucky enough to find back to back house sitting assignments from coast to coast in beautiful and highly desirable locations for extended periods of time.  For example, we are currently living in amazing western Connecticut for 3 months, nestled in the Berkshire mountains and minutes away from the Appalachian Trail.  Following this we will spend the entire month of May outside of Sacramento, CA in a community surrounded by hiking and bike trails. From there we will spend June at 7500 feet in the Rocky Mountains of Ridgway, CO, in a beautiful house that has snow-peaked mountain views right out the window. After that we plan to spend July back in MN with friends and family only to return right back to Ridgway for round two in August!



Have you lost your minds?
No! Selling everything we own and traveling around the United States living in gorgeous places is the most sane thing we've ever done.  But our minds ARE blown by how amazing this lifestyle is. Not only do we get to experience new communities in intimate detail and make lifelong friendships with great people, but we also have the extreme pleasure of getting to know, and bond with, some very loving animals. Here in CT we can honestly say we have come to love Mickey, Henry and the birds like our own and will miss them dearly when we leave.

So there you have it... the basics of what house sitting is all about.  Please feel free to leave a comment here or on Facebook if you have any questions. We'd LOVE to tell you more!