How Does House Sitting Work?

As most of you will probably know, we’ve signed a contract to rent a small flat in a stunning London location for the next 10 months. We need time to stop, regroup, refinance and generally get our lives in order while enjoying our favourite western city. We are in London, we’re loving it and life is good. While we’re here, we’re dipping our toes in the water of house sitting. We’ve just experienced our first house sit on the other side of London and we have another lined up for October, also nearby.

Our reason for house sitting at the moment is totally transparent. We need good references to score the great house sitting opportunities that crop up all over the globe. We want to add house sitting to our nomadic travel armory for year 2 of nomadic travel, it could help us out financially.

How Does House Sitting Work?

Basically a house sitter ( it can be a single person, couple or family) moves into your home to look after it while you are away. The homeowner may be away a week, a month or a year. If the homeowner has pets the house sitter will care for them. They will make sure the gardens and plants are kept well, be there as a thief deterrent and insurance requirement and be there should anything disastrous occur.

The house sitter gets free bed, board and utilities and full use of your house.

Occasionally homeowners will even pay for really good house sitters or throw in the use of a car. Sometimes a house sitter will even run a business or small farm for the owner.

Plenty of people house sit their way around the world as way of travelling for free or very cheaply.

Is it Easy to Become a House Sitter?

House sitting is becoming more and more popular and we’ve found it hard to get a toe on the ladder. We think that doing less popular local sits will be a good way for us to get the references we need to even be considered for the great jobs.

You do have to pay to join the big sites and house sits are not very easy to get, particularly not for a family. I think if you just vaguely fancy the idea of a free stay, it’s not for you.

Getting good house sits is a serious business, requiring a lot of effort and total flexibility. If you want to give it a go you’ll need references, ideally from previous sits or from landlords. People also like to see police checks and a funky little video introducing yourself to homeowners. You should have genuine experience of caring for houses, pets and gardens. The cracks can show if you don’t.

The house sitting company we’re registered with sends out emails listing new sits as they appear. Members see these lists before non members and  can get their applications in first. I receive one of these lists almost every day and go through them looking for those that accept families in locations that would suit us. It does take time.

Of the dozen house sits we have applied to so far, only 3 have even replied. Of the hundreds of sits I see advertised, not many will take families. We are, on paper, good candidates, we’re very grown up, we’ve owned and renovated 2 houses, kept cats, dogs and small mammals, we don’t smoke, I’m a gardener and Chef is ultra fit and strong to take on manual jobs. Despite this we’re not doing too well, we hope that with a couple of good references our reply rate will improve.

So, make your own mind up and take your time, have a think about it before you sign up. Is it really for you?

Why is House Sitting So Popular?

But why is house sitting the new black? Why does every nomad, digital or otherwise, suddenly want to clean up after other people’s pets? Here are a few reasons that you should maybe consider signing up to the house sitting agencies.

1. Free Accommodation

Lets not kid ourselves here, I don’t care how much anyone says they love fur babies, they’re doing it for the free accommodation. It saves money to live in somebody else’s house for a week or ten. It’s a sweet gig.

Of course, it’s not really free, you have responsibilities to the owner, their possessions and their pets. Some pets are pretty high maintenance. It’s not unusual for dogs to need constant company and have to go everywhere with the sitter, for instance.

House sits do crop up with no pets. Our London sit was one, we just had to keep the garden tidy and be there, nothing more.

2. Unusual Locations

If living like a local is what you’re after then house sitting is a great insight into locals’ lives. You’ll be staying in residential areas not the main tourist strip. You’ll get a glimpse of people’s homes and ways of living that hotels just can’t provide. Your home owners can give you tips and suggestions on the local area that not even the Lonely Planet will know. Some owners even allow use of their car for the duration of your stay.

 3. Home Comforts

You can enjoy every home comfort, cooking facilities, gardens, TV, plenty of space. It’s just like being at home, only it’s somebody else’s. Our sit had fruit to pick, endless books, toys and a piano, it was a nice change of scene for the kids.

4.Animal Encounters

If your lifestyle stops you from keeping pets, as ours does, it’s a great way to get an animal fix for a few weeks without having to sign up to a life-long commitment. It’s also cool to try caring for different types of animals, we’ve been offered a sit with pygmy goats. I don’t think that would ever happen any other way.

5. Karma and Paying it Back.

I think it’s nice that we have trust in the world, that we can reach out to other human beings and accept them into our homes. We used to take Couch Surfers for the same reason, we had space and a lovely home in Port Douglas, we could give a few backpackers a comfortable night and save them a few dollars. I’m sure their mums would thank me for it.

House Sitting Fail

Our first house sit didn’t work out too well. We didn’t realise that our hosts’ internet allowance was tiny and we killed their monthly allocation of Gigabytes within a day or so. I had to carry on working so I came back home, my husband stayed on to look after the house sit. So check things like that, our assumptions about modern unlimited internet connections were wrong, we should have asked for specific details.

But one fail isn’t going to put me off, I’m still looking, maybe our perfect sit is out there. It’s a great idea for those of us with flexible lives, I think it’s worth persisting with. I’m not sure if we’ll be getting that good reference though. UPDATE: We’ve tried house sitting several times now and still, our conclusion is that it’s not for us. It just doesn’t work with long term family travel. Read why here.