Housesitting
Posted: Sun Sep 01, 2019 11:07 pm
Housesitting gets occasionally brought up around here, although it doesn't appear a dedicated thread has ever been made for it.
From a search it seems a fair amount of ERErs have done it, and the comments seem overwhelmingly favorable.
I am looking to reduce my housing cost, don't need to live in a certain place or need a lot of things, and am getting tired of where I am living now. I want to jump around a bit in fact and explore/live in some new places. I'm a cat person but am less compatible with dogs (not completely incompatible tho). You can be out of the house for a whole day or longer with cats, but dogs need to be walked.
Generally if you go through the big websites, the only direct cost is the signup fee. The housesitter is unpaid but does get to use the house's utilities and amenities for free. There may be secondary costs such as driving to the next housesit and buying cat food. Can you "graduate" to paid gigs?
How viable is housesitting as a long-term living strategy? How long have people here done it? As in surfing from one housesit to another over many months or years. What should I know before trying it? I suspect there is an art to minimizing gaps between assignments. I am already adept at sleeping in my car and can do it several days at a time, but don't, like, want to do it for two weeks in January. Were there aspects of it that got tiresome/old and you wanted out?
From a search it seems a fair amount of ERErs have done it, and the comments seem overwhelmingly favorable.
I am looking to reduce my housing cost, don't need to live in a certain place or need a lot of things, and am getting tired of where I am living now. I want to jump around a bit in fact and explore/live in some new places. I'm a cat person but am less compatible with dogs (not completely incompatible tho). You can be out of the house for a whole day or longer with cats, but dogs need to be walked.
Generally if you go through the big websites, the only direct cost is the signup fee. The housesitter is unpaid but does get to use the house's utilities and amenities for free. There may be secondary costs such as driving to the next housesit and buying cat food. Can you "graduate" to paid gigs?
How viable is housesitting as a long-term living strategy? How long have people here done it? As in surfing from one housesit to another over many months or years. What should I know before trying it? I suspect there is an art to minimizing gaps between assignments. I am already adept at sleeping in my car and can do it several days at a time, but don't, like, want to do it for two weeks in January. Were there aspects of it that got tiresome/old and you wanted out?