we are starting our Grey Nomads life now that we are both retired and would consider house sitting to reduce the cost of accomodation , I would like to hear from people who are house sitters , what organisation are they using ? and the pro and con of house sitting. Is it difficult to find house sitting with Space for caravan ? any tips or advise will be appreciated . Thank you
We are seasoned house/small acreage sitters with 5 years experience come Easter 2019.
Currently sitting in the Northern Rivers of NSW with 3 small dogs. Have recently finished 5 weeks at Little Mountain Qld and will head to a small rural area near Oberon to care for homestead pets on 1000 acre farm.
We have bookings into January 2020 and overall spend 50% of our time looking after property and caring for someones pet/pets.
It is not for everyone and you need to compete for quality sits in both suburban and regional locations. We are nearing 40 sits in a period just short of 5 years and have established a track record for looking after property, caring for the animals and being reliable.
To start you need to prepare a profile and place it on one of the more recognized sites such as Aussie House sitters, you need to have good people skills and above all not have your own pets.
Should you wish to gain a better understanding of the processes and life on the road as "housesitters" you can PM me.
Just to give you and other members on the forum and idea of SAVINGS. We traveled to North West of WA last season down to Perth house sitting and probably came up short of 50% sitting for the year.
Accommodation cost less than 10 per night and fuel roughly $20 per day understanding we do a fair bit of free camping and roughly 25000klm per year give or take.
JohnR
-- Edited by JohnR on Thursday 28th of February 2019 01:22:42 PM
Hello mez, we enjoy housesitting and have 2 coming up. We only do housesits where we stay in our caravan. We plan our trip then keep an eye out for housesits along the way. Makes life more enjoyable. Get to meet and make new friends. Life is great. Will send you pm.
I have done 3 winters house sitting in the same area - one lead on to another. I always stay in the house although would use the van as long as I had access to their shower and toilet etc. I prefer not to have animals. Picked up one sit from the classified ads on this site. A bit stressful as I had a cat to keep alive for very nervous OCD clients!!!! I have not joined a house-sitting site but after working with Blazeaid got to know local farmers - and the work came from there and is still coming!
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Hi John, thank you for all the info, I apologise for the late reply but we have been so caught up by what we see and discover on the road that we have had no time to go on the internet . We think that we are going to enjoy a bit of travelling before starting looking at house sitting , but I will keep in mind your info. Thank you again. Cheers