House Sitter

A house sitter is someone who stays in other people’s homes while they’re away, and in return, they receive payment or other nonmonetary benefits. However, not all house sitters perform the same tasks. There’s plenty of variety in terms of the types of roles you could fill.

Here are a few typical responsibilities you may have as a house sitter:

• Clean the house
• Bring in mail or packages
• Take care of pets
• Take out the trash and recycling
• Water plants
• Take security measures to deter break-ins
• Maintain external gardens and fixtures
• Do basic yard work

The exact duties you’ll have depend on the position you’re filling. Always square your expectations with the homeowner before offering house watching services to make sure you’re both on the same page.

We spoke to Madolline Gourley, who has experience house sitting and cat sitting in multiple countries and on numerous house sitting platforms. She told us that most of the time, the pet is the priority, although the homeowner may ask you to do some other simple tasks, like collect the mail, sign for a package, or water the plants—things that “most people would do in their own home.”

However, Gourley said that homeowners sometimes have unusual requests. In her experience, she’s done house sits where the homeowner has asked her to not wear any fragrances or scented body care products (due to allergies/sensitivities), refrain from cooking meat (vegan homeowners), or keep pets from entering particular rooms in the house.

Types of house sitting jobs

House watching jobs vary according to a few key factors. Here are the main options you’ll come across:

• Live-in house sitting: Live-in house sitting describes the majority of house-sitting gigs. It involves staying in a home full-time while the owner or tenant is away.
• Live-out house sitting: Unlike live-in sitters, live-out sitters stay someplace else and just drop by on occasion to complete certain house care tasks.
• Live-in pet sitting: A lot of house sits involve some form of pet care, although the type and number of pets can vary. House sits with pets involve more responsibility than regular house sits, but they can also offer greater financial gains.
• Long-term house sitting: Homeowners who are going on long vacations or extended trips may look for house sitters willing to settle in for months on end. The biggest perk of long-term gigs is that you’re basically house sitting for free rent and utilities during your stay.
• Short-term house sitting: If you don’t want a big commitment, you can look for weekend house sitting jobs or gigs that last less than a week. These stays might not offer all the benefits of a long-term property sit, but they’re a good way to test the waters if you’ve never house sat before.
• Local house sitting: You can probably find house sitting gigs in your local area. These may not be the most exciting opportunities, but they can be a good way to earn a quick buck or get a change of scenery with minimal interruption to your daily life.
• Travel house sitting: One of the main draws of house sitting for some people is that it offers a unique opportunity to live like a local in a foreign country. Frequent travelers and digital nomads can cut their accommodation expenses and explore new areas by landing travel house sitter jobs.

Each type of house sit has a unique set of responsibilities and expectations. But according to Gourley, the majority of listings you’ll find on house sitting sites involve some element of pet care. “Most people are on these sites because they want someone to look after their pet.” This doesn’t mean you won’t be able to get a house sitting gig that doesn’t involve pet sitting—it just means you’ll have fewer options.

In terms of duration, whether a short or long sit is best for you depends on your goals and where you’re going. The shortest sit that Gourley ever did was 3 nights, and the longest was nearly 1 month—though you can find house sits that are much longer than that. “When I’m travelling, I don’t really like to take a sit that’s less than five days because it gets exhausting having to pack and unpack all the time,” Gourley said.

Although there are no formal qualifications required to be a house sitter, it’s not an easy job to get. You’ll need to take steps to put yourself out there and come across as an appealing candidate to homeowners.

1. Get house sitting experience

Home owners may be reluctant to hire you if you’ve never worked as a house sitter before. Thankfully, you can still become a house sitter with no experience if you begin establishing a track record right now. Start by volunteering to house sit for people you know. Volunteer work can help you optimize your resume, and it feels good to do at the same time.

If you want home care jobs with live-in pet sitting, you can volunteer at your local animal shelter and help walk dogs and care for the animals, help out at a wildlife sanctuary, or offer to look after a friend’s or neighbor’s pets while they’re away on vacation.

To build property caretaking skills, you could take up some house cleaning gigs to build up your experience. Write down every bit of relevant work you do. You’ll use this list to make your house sitter resume and online profiles.

2. Create a standout profile on house sitter sites

These days, most house sitting jobs are advertised online. If you want to be a house sitter, you’ll have the best luck by choosing at least one house sitting job platform and creating a polished and comprehensive profile to attract homeowners.

Follow these tips to create a memorable profile that tells homeowners who you are at a glance:

• Choose suitable pictures: Select profile pictures that will help homeowners visualize you at work. For example, you could include a picture of you walking a dog, giving a cat snuggles, doing maintenance on a house, or working out in a garden on a sunny day.
• Keep your bio short and sweet: Your bio should be short and informative, highlighting the qualities that make you seem responsible and reliable. Keep your bio professional but casual, including details about your personality and experience.
• Showcase special skills: Think about specific types of experience you have that would make you ideal for certain types of work, and feature those in your profile. Even if these skills aren’t relevant to 99% of jobs, they’ll make you the best candidate for the 1% of jobs that are.
• Mention your own house or rental: If you own a house or rent, adding this info to your profile can make you a more appealing candidate. “Owning a home is a big responsibility in itself when you consider all the maintenance and upkeep involved,” Gourley said. Similarly, rental tenants have to prep their space for realtor inspections, which Gourley says is “not all that different to house sitting.”
• Gather references: Even if you have no experience house sitting, look for references you can use to demonstrate your reliability. For example, you could use references from previous clients you’ve babysat or pet sat for or Airbnb hosts you’ve booked with.

As you complete more house sitting jobs, update your house sitter resume and website profiles to reflect your growing experience.

Where to create your house sitting applicant profile

There are plenty of house sitting job sites online, but some have a larger user base than others. Virtually all house sitting sites require you to pay a membership fee. More popular platforms will give you more options to choose from. Choose one to start with, and then consider expanding later on.

Here are a few of the most widely used websites for finding house sitting jobs:

• TrustedHousesitters
• Nomador
• HouseSit Match
• MindMyHouse
• HouseCarers.com

These are global sites, but you could find many more opportunities by joining a site that’s specific to the country you plan to house sit in.

Gourley has tried several house sitting sites, and her favorites are regional house sitting sites that are all associated with each other to form an international network: Aussie House Sitters, Kiwi House Sitters, House Sitters America, House Sitters UK, and House Sitters Canada. “They have way more country-specific sits available than any of the other sites. They also let you link your reviews between the websites,” she added.

Other places to find house sitting jobs

If you don’t want to sign up for a house sitting site (or you just want to cast a wider net), there are a few alternatives you can explore. Free sites like Indeed, LinkedIn, or Craigslist are one option. You can also find plenty of house sitting opportunities on Facebook groups by searching for house sitting in the area you want to visit.

The drawbacks of these options are that you’ll likely have a harder time finding suitable gigs, and there’s a greater risk of encountering house sitting scams or getting into a sticky situation with no support system. Gourley noted that while things can still go wrong when you’re using a well-known house sitting platform, at least you have records of your communications and the owner’s contact information in case you need to get a hold of them or report them.

3. Apply for new job listings as soon as they’re posted

House sitting postings have a high application rate, especially travel house sits in sought-after destinations. The best gigs are usually snapped up immediately, so it’s crucial to keep your finger on the pulse of the house sitting market to ensure you’re ready to get first dibs as soon as your ideal house sit is advertised.

If you’re among the first few applicants, you’ll have a higher chance of getting the job. Consider checking for new listings at least three times per day—in the morning, after lunch, and in the evening (in the target area’s time zone).

The more you filter your job search to your specific skill set, the more likely you are to land a house sitting job. For example, if you previously worked as a horse groomer or volunteered at a riding camp as a teen, then look for house sitting jobs featuring horse care. If you’re an experienced landscaper or gardener with a living resume to prove it, look for houses with large gardens or plenty of plants.

4. Attend an interview with the homeowner

If you’re selected as a top candidate for a house sitting job you applied for, you can expect to have to interview with the homeowner. Gourley said that while it’s entirely possible to land house sits “the majority of people do want to do a call or Facetime/Skype/Zoom.”

The aim here is to give both you and the homeowner a chance to discuss your respective expectations and assess whether you’re a good fit for each other. While house sits sound like a dream come true, they do sometimes go wrong—and when they do, it’s usually because of mismatched expectations between the house sitter and homeowner.

Even if you’re not asked to undergo an interview, consider requesting one anyway, especially for long-term sits or positions lacking clear job details. By skipping this step, you risk setting yourself up for disappointment or sabotaging yourself by starting off with a black stain on your track record.

Keep the tone conversational

One of Gourley’s top tips for beginner house sitters is to use a conversational tone for both your profile and house sitting application, and avoid sending messages that read like a job application or essay. “Being too formal might turn some people off,” she said. “You want to seem approachable and friendly.”

Ask the right questions

For Gourley, carefully reading the listing is an important part of deciding whether a particular house sit is a good idea. “For the most part, you can tell whether or not it’ll be a good fit just by reading the person’s ad. Language and tone is very important,” she said. These features give you a good sense of how the person behaves in real life and whether or not you’ll like them.

Nevertheless, there’s one topic that Gourley recommends always asking the homeowner about at the interview stage: when their trip actually starts and ends. If you’re coming from out of town, you’ll want to plan your trip so it’s in line with when the homeowner will be away to ensure you arrive well in advance. It may also open the door to opportunities to stay a day before the sit starts or a day after it ends. “Some people have even allowed me to stay a few extra nights,” Gourley added.

5. Prioritize building a good reputation

Every time you do an outstanding job as a house caretaker, you get one more reference to help you get future house sits. While it may not seem important for your first house sitting job, establishing a good reputation right from the start is crucial for a long-term house sitting career.

Here are a few steps you can take to be the best house sitter possible:

• Ask for a document with your tasks and schedule on it
• Take photos of the house the day you get there
• Make sure the house is in the exact same condition before and after you arrive
• Ask lots of questions in the beginning to clarify your duties
• For long-term house sits, send photos of pets or the property every few weeks
• If any problems arise, document them with photos and notify the house owner ASAP
• Be quiet, tidy, and respectful
• Be as self-reliant as possible, replacing any items you use
• Only use what you need in terms of utilities like heat, water, and electricity

House sitting requires a great deal of flexibility, but if you can find ways to adapt to the homeowner’s needs and specifications, then you’ll set yourself up for a rewarding journey as a professional house sitter.

Start off with local house sitting

If you’re starting off with no house sitting experience, it’ll probably be pretty tough to get your first gig. “The references/referrals (from friends/family/employers) help establish credibility, but if you couldn’t have those against your name, it would be challenging for most people to prove they can be trusted to look after someone’s pet(s) and home,” Gourley said.

One key strategy Gourley offered for getting around this issue is to build up house sitting experience through local house and pet sits. This may not seem like an incredibly attractive idea if you want to use house sitting as a way to travel and explore new places, but once you’ve got one or two house sits under your belt, it’ll be easier to compete and land house sitting gigs in high-demand locations like New York City, Sydney, or London.

Pro tips for getting good house sitting reviews

Gourley has dozens of excellent reviews, and these help give homeowners and pet owners confidence in her abilities and reliability. We asked her what her top tips are for getting good reviews on house sitting platforms, and here’s what she told us:

• Send plenty of photo updates: Gourley messages pet owners every single day, sometimes even multiple times each day. However, she also noted that it’s important to remember they might be on a work trip or tending to family matters, so it’s good to know where they’re going and why before spamming them with nonurgent messages.
• Notify owners of issues ASAP: If something breaks or goes wrong, don’t wait until the last minute to tell them. If you flag the problem as soon as it happens, the owner will probably be more positive about the situation and less likely to leave you a bad review.

If you’re unsure about what kind of review you’ll get, Gourley recommends waiting to post your review until the homeowner has reviewed you. “You don’t want to give them a stellar review only to find they didn’t like you,” she added.

House sitting offers the perfect setup for some people, but it’s certainly not worthwhile for everyone. Even though you’re getting free accommodation, there are additional costs to consider, especially if you’re traveling.

A big one is flights. Gourley recommends researching flight prices before you apply for house sits in other cities or states or in foreign countries. “You don’t want to get accepted for a sit only to cancel a few days later because you can’t afford to get there,” she added.

Whether house sitting is worth it also depends on the offer. Before taking on a house sit, compare the value of what you’re receiving with what’s asked of you.

If you’re watering plants once a week in exchange for a rent-free home base during your travels, then that’s a good trade. However, if you have to give medicine to an elderly pet or take dogs on walks multiple walks per day, then a tiny apartment in a less-than-ideal neighborhood is probably not worth it without additional compensation, like a base pay rate, use of a car, or a fully stocked kitchen and pantry.

Pros and cons of house sitting

Before paying to join a house sitting site, weigh up the pros and cons of this side hustle.

Pros:

• Opportunity to travel and see new places
• Free rent and utilities
• Option to spend time with pets
• Potential access to perks like a car and other amenities
• Chance to stay in high-value properties

Cons:

• Not all jobs pay money
• Dates and locations aren’t always ideal
• Changes to your daily routine
• Lots of responsibility and liability
• Limited opportunities in some areas
• Homeowners can cancel at any time

How much do house sitters make?

Not all house sitters make money. Instead, some arrangements are a simple house sitting exchange, where the tenant or property owner gets free house sitting services and the sitter gets free rent, utilities, and access to the property’s amenities. Payment terms vary according to factors like the needs and demands of the house owner, the duration of the job, and the experience or expertise of the sitter.

For house sitters who get paid, estimates typically put their earnings somewhere in the range of $13–$18 per hour. However, house sitters more often get paid by the day, week, or month since their work usually isn’t done on an hourly basis.

For many, house sitting as a side hustle is less about the monetary earnings and more about the savings and perks. Home minding in exchange for free rent saves you money that you can then put toward exploring, creating meaningful experiences in new places, or just enjoying a higher standard of living.

Alternatives to house sitting

If you like some of the benefits of house sitting but you’re put off by some of the drawbacks, or you want to supplement house sitting with another job that you can do from home to earn more money, try out one of these other side gigs:

• Pet sitting
• Nannying
• Babysitting
• Dog walking
• Caregiving

These side hustles all involve a caretaking element, and most involve working at home (either yours or someone else’s). The best part is that you can mix and match to earn even more money.