Life of adventure, Want to be a housesitter?

Want to be a housesitter?

Suzanne

When we decided we wanted to do housesitting the next obvious step was taking the plunge with a reputable website.  How did we know we had chosen the one which suited us the most?

It was the one where we found the housesits we wanted to do, our first one was in Cornwall, United Kingdom, and the rest, as they say, is history.

As you can imagine, we do get asked quite often,

“What housesitting website, do you use?”

Here’s a short list of with a few comments about them that you may want to view and chose from:

Trusted Housesitters 

We belong to this one, to be honest, it was the one where I found our first housesit.  I do find it easy to use, so for me, it is user-friendly.

This international site is referred to as the market leader, and I do believe it has more listings than most other websites.  This does not necessarily mean it is the “best” one or the cheapest.

Annual Fee: $119 a year.

  • They have established a name.
  • Being attractive and easy to navigate makes this website the one for us to use.
  • The cost is higher than most if not all housesitting websites.
  • They charge homeowners as well as housesitters.
  • It has more listings than most other housesitting websites.  Its business plan is far more professional than most others.
  • It charges way too much and far more than any other housesitting website.

HouseCarers 

The website won’t grab you like the Trusted Housesitters page.

$50 per year.

  • House Carers is an industry veteran launched when the internet was still in its infancy.
  • They’re honest, fair, and have a significant, established history.
  • Their membership price is fair, they have the second-best sorting function and ad previews, and are friendly to homeowners.
  • I did not find it easy to navigate around this website.

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Mind My House 

This international website doesn’t have quite as many listings, but the price makes it worth a look!

$20 per year

  • Though they have been around longer than Trusted Housesitters, they are not as well established.  Mind my House has excellent pricing, and a modern, user-friendly interface.  They’re home-owner friendly, which improves their listing ratio.
  • Unfortunately, this website has very mixed reviews.  I found the lack of keeping the listings up to date, very frustrating.  While others have found no problems at all.
  • At such a low-cost entry I would think that this website would be worth a visit.

Nomador

This website is very popular throughout the social media, not that I am an expert in such matters.

FREE for three contacts, $35 per quarter, $89 per year.

  • It’s free for the first three contacts
  • Great for those who are not requiring a full years membership
  • For those who are NOT fulltime housesitters
  • Blind review system the same as Airbnb
  • The company is run by a small team – a good thing or not?
  • They do not hide the sits that have been taken
  • They are a reasonable new company
  • More inclined to list housesits in Europe

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  Aussie House Sitters 

A wildly popular site in Australia.  This would be one which we would use if or when we decide to housesit in Australia.

$69 [Australian] a year

  • This site is a goldmine of opportunities for a very fair price.  It is also designed by the team behind House Sitters America.  People who have reviewed it state that it has the same impressive search engine, easy sorting function, time-saving ad previews, fair approach, and homeowner friendliness (so more house sitting jobs!) as it’s American website.
  • This website seems to be very popular though it is one that I have not spent much time viewing for housesits.  One day in the future!

Here are more country specific sites for house sitting:

America: 

House Sitters America – $30 a year. – Fair membership price, best search function, best sorting function, best ad previews, no strong-arming, friendly to homeowners (so more house sits!).

United Kingdom:
House Sitters UK  – run by the awesome folks behind House Sitters America.  $22 a year.

Australia:
Easy House Sitting  – new site, $0 until they have more sits to offer.
Mind a Home – AUD 49 a year
Australian House Sitter – AUD 30 a year

New Zealand:
Kiwi House Sitters – run by the people who own behind House Sitters America.  NZD 65 a year.

N.B.  All costs are approximate and may have changed.

Canada:
House Sitters Canada – run by House Sitters America, albeit with a different look.  The site was new in 2017, so membership is free while they grow their base.

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My other posts that may also be helpful:

The Blogger and the Squire

International Cat Day and an Interview – an interview written by another housesitting couple about us.

Not the average couple

One couple, one globe, no regrets

Want to know more information regarding housesitting?  Then please don’t hesitate to ask. We are in our 3rd year of housesitting fulltime and have completed 34 housesits [August 2018], which makes us reasonably experienced. 

I would love to hear from you.

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Published by Suzanne

Travel and Life Musings from New Zealand and Beyond. . . . . . .

61 thoughts on “Want to be a housesitter?”

  1. Pingback: One couple, one globe, no regrets – Global Housesitter x2
  2. Pingback: Interviews About other Housesitters – Global Housesitter x2

  5. This such an interesting post and a subject that is quite new to me. Your post has been popular on the Blogger’s Pit Stop and it will be featured in the next Pit Stop. Congratulations.
    Kathleen
    The Blogger’s Pit Stop

    Liked by 1 person

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  6. I think this is a fabulous concept and have a friend from school who actually does the houseswap type of travel. I love looking at your posts and the opportunities that we can take, especially if we are retired to travel and see places we may never have even thought of.

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  7. I have just discovered that an old friend of mine has joined the ranks of house-sitters. I have suggested she follow your blog as I am sure she will glean a lot of excellent advice from you – this post proves my point!!!

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  9. This is a great overview of house sitting sites, Suz! Our first experience was with Kiwi House Sitters, but we never actually house sat in New Zealand. Here in the US, we are members of House Sitters America, House Carers, and Mind My House. I agree with all your points for these sites! Our favorite site is probably House Sitters America and all their off-spring. 🙂 Thanks for the mention as well!!

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  10. I didn’t know that house sitting was even a thing before meeting you on BUYB. Since then, you have definitely piqued my interest with all of your travels and beautiful photos. What an interesting and fulfilling lifestyle it must be. The only thing that would get in my way of doing this is my animals. I love them and I think I’ll always have them. So, they need me here to take care of them. Awesome post, Suzanne (as always)!

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  13. Great to read this informative post Suz, so many useful tips! Just one question – do they all include looking after pets? I presume there are people like me who are happy to housesit but not necessarily look after pets. Have I asked this question before?

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    1. That is the whole point of housesitting is to look after animals. Most people can have neighbours keep an eye out. Though having said that we do have one short housesit where they are taking the dog. Makes it more interesting having pets and it is time out from travelling. Not free accommodation like many would like to use housesitting for. If they do want someone in the house it means not spending much of the time away from it. Hence why we do much of our travel/exploring in between housesits. When housesitting we never travel longer than 1 hr by car, so we enjoy the surrounding neighbourhood.

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    2. I think you might have asked that question in a comment to my guest post on Donna’s blog, Debbie. I answered it there, but don’t mind shortly stating here that some house sits come without pets, which gives you more flexibility. Just make sure that they don’t charge you for utilities, or in some cases, rent. Mark and I had a month-long sit in Santa Fe last summer, without animals. And, we are actually returning there for two months at the end of March. As Suz points out, we also usually prefer having dogs. That being said, I am looking forward to less obligations this spring and focus more on my writing.

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      1. Thanks Liesbet, I knew I’d asked that question somewhere recently and actually just reread the post and your reply to my question on Donna’s blog. It sounds like a great way of doing things and I love reading your posts and Sue’s adventures. I appreciate you answering it here again for me. Thanks 😊

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  14. All great sites but I agree that TrustedHouseSitters seems to be the biggest and best with the most available sits and widest coverage. We only belong to that and there are far too many sits to need any other sites in our opinion.

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  15. I’ve often wondered how ‘house sitting’ actually works. Like you said in a comment, I can imagine it can be harder work than people think, but you seem to enjoy it & I bet you’re clients can go away knowing everything is in safe hands. Really interesting great info 😊

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