House sitting

vanman · Senior Member

House sitting

villatranquilla · Guru

we signed up with an agency for house/pet sitting when we were in Perth

Bushpie · Guru

Following with interest..........our daughter needs someone for a few weeks in August ......at caravan show last month in Perth there was a stall with business cards for such ........but they charge $500 to register..........
We mite just advertise on Grey Nomads site.....

Word of mouth is aleays the best though.....

JohnR · Senior Member

Chris

I have sent you a PM that should help you out.

Cheers

JohnR

vanman · Senior Member

Thanks for all the replies.

I will be heading to Bowen Qld. next month to look after a friends property for around 2 months.

From there I will be going North to Townsville and at this stage will be staying in a caravan park.

Will be going to see the Cowboys play whilst in the area.

Chris

Gaylehere · Guru

Hi there. Have you had a look through the Grey Nomads classifieds? There's the House Sitters Wanted and the Help Wanted section and you can put your name down as being available. Cheers.

vanman · Senior Member

Thanks for the info. I have looked in the classifieds on the GN website and will certainly keep it in mind for when I get closer to the time.

Chris

Bru · Senior Member

We use a site called Aussie House Sitters and it cost us $60 per year, for people with a house for sitters it is free. We have done several sits using it and all have been fantastic. Just finished one near Mackay and the owner there is looking for one or a couple to sit for 6 months in the near future. I would recomend

Paul · Veteran Member

I have been using Aussie House Sitters for the last couple of years and have been mainly small farm sitting since then with hardly any long breaks in between, there are quite a lot of sitters on this site though most are looking for city areas, once I have found a sit it is amazing how many I have picked up from friends and neighbours in that area. A great way to see the country and spend little money on accommodation, the smaller farms have enough to do to keep me busy without turning into work. Cheers

Dunmowin · Guru

WE use the grey nomads classified, but not currently advertising with them. We get a majority of our house sits through housecarers.com Cost is about $55.00 per year which is approximately the cost of two nights in a caravan park. We have defaults set to only send us emails for sits that are in the current state/area we are in or travelling through. This year, using this site, we picked up at Christmas in western suburbs, then as we headed north, a sit in Mackay, followed two weeks later by a sit in Townsville, now on our way to Cairns for another.

Word of advice, only accept sits that are in the area you wish to travel. We don't travel out of our way for a house sit, as this eats into any savings you might experience while doing a sit. we have been sitting since 2013, using both the above sites. If you want any further questions don't hesitate to PM me.

banjo · Senior Member

We've done quite a few house/ small acreage sits and it's a great way to pass a few weeks or months and sit back and smell the roses, but be aware, there are some downright a*rsehol*s out there.

Some don't want sitters they want "beck and call" slaves !

Our last sit which was supposedly for a year, turned sour after 3 months, the guy was a nutcase of the highest order, the house was a pigstye, and he told you one thing then moved the goal posts later and blatantly lied.

The add was actually on here in the house sitters wanted, and on face value sounded wonderful.

It actually soured our feelings regarding doing anymore sits, and we ceased full time travel and bought a home base unit to sit back and re assess our traveling future because of this.
We could not believe how someone who seemed so genuine turned out to be such an idiot.

Having said all that there are some really good people out there and some of our ex sits are now good friends. Just make sure you do the homework and word of mouth is a far better way to find decent sits (and people).

catmad · Newbie

If you are talking about non paid house sitting gigs (that is, when you look after someone's home and/or pets in exchange for accommodation and no money exchanges hands), then I would recommend using a dedicated platform rather than trusted ads found on places like gumtree etc. Some platforms allow 2 way reviews now and if someone has been a bad host you would be able to hear alarm bells ringing from past sitters' comments.

You could try checking Housesitsearch.com, this is a just a search engine that allows you to search many housesitting platforms at once. If you're only interested in Australia then you can just choose Australia as a location filter. Then you can see which platforms might be worth joining, based on what results you get. We use it to find housesitting opportunities all over the world.

We belong to a few platforms as we find the investment worthwhile. Even the most expensive site, trustedhousesitters, only costs you for a year's membership what you would pay for a hotel room for a night or two in a major city... so the joining fees will soon pay for themselves. I can share a 20% discount code if anyone is interested.

As for avoiding uncomfortable situations (good point raised by banjo), it's all about setting boundaries from the beginning. Do a skype call, get a feel for the other person, discuss everything, and then... put it in writing. Understand your own limits and boundaries and don't accept a sit if something doesn't feel right.

Hope this helps!

vanman · Senior Member

Thanks for all the replies.
I certainly have a lot to take in and do searches.

Thanks.

Chris