House Sitting

m741 · Post by **m741** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 4:36 am

Anyone here have experience house sitting? It seems like an attractive travel option, but I have no idea how to get started (or if it's really as simple as it seems). In particular I'm curious about house-sitting in foreign countries for a few months; I have this fantasy of spending 2-3 months in some tiny hamlet in the Orkney islands. I found this site, which is intriguing:
http://www.mindmyhouse.com/sitters/search_assignments

J_ · Post by J_ » Mon Oct 01, 2012 10:17 am

I did house swap with a couple in Melbourne for a month.

A beautiful situated appartment in centre downtown. I loved it. They stayed in our house near Leiden in the Netherlands (which you know now). No costs only pleasure for both.
The crux is ofcourse that both have to find out if each other is trustworthy, even more by homesitting. The site where I was had a entrance fee of about 25 pound (in 2002) then you got all the adresses of people who wanted to swap or to do or get home-sitting.
It starts with emails, photo's of the house, experiences and then when it seem to clic: just take the plunge. We never met in person!

Laura Ingalls · Post by **Laura Ingalls** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 5:28 pm

Thanks for the link m741. I found several places that Dh and I would like when we get to FI/ get the kiddos to adulthood.

Laura Ingalls · Post by **Laura Ingalls** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 5:28 pm

Thanks for the link m741. I found several places that Dh and I would like when we get to FI/ get the kiddos to adulthood.

Hoplite · Post by **Hoplite** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 6:45 pm

This article by Nora Dunn for Wisebread should be helpful (she's done enough of it):

http://www.wisebread.com/10-tips-for-la ... itting-gig
There is an internal link to a list of house-sitting services:

http://www.wisebread.com/how-to-travel- ... ar-or-less
Also a discount code for some of the sites at the end of the article.

m741 · Post by **m741** » Wed Oct 03, 2012 3:03 am

Those sites are great.
Unfortunately, not owning a house, I can't swap (and probably wouldn't want to). Ideal would be a nice small-town foreign location housesitting gig where I'm watching a bunch of cats or watering plants in exchange for no rent.

theplk · Post by **theplk** » Sat Mar 16, 2013 11:01 pm

I think this is a great option.
I'd love to do it.

rube · Post by **rube** » Sun Mar 17, 2013 8:33 pm

family of me, who are retired the old fashion way, are doing this several months per year.
They do not swap houses, but just take care of houses of others that are going on holiday or whatever, mostly around 2-6 weeks.

since they are doing this for some time now, they have good recomendations from others (holidaylink.com) and house owners approach them.
Simple and cheep option to have a kind of holiday as mostly they only need to take care of the garden and/or small pets.
They decline offers to take care of whole farms, hey, they are retired also