As a home owner, you still want the freedom to travel around the world, without any worries about the state of your house. As pet owners, our furry friends cannot always accompany us on our travels. Of course, you can find someone to look after your pet or bring them to an animal hotel. However, in my personal experience, I think it is best when your pets stay at home in their own environment. But who will do the house sitting and pet sitting for you? Where do you find trusted house sitters to look after your most valuable possessions?
This guide is to help you navigate everything to do with finding responsible house sitters and pet sitters. I now have 2 years of experience with finding trusted house sitters to look after my house and my fluffy friends!
This post contains affiliate links. When you use the link, you’ll receive 20% discount on your subscription to the house sitting site I use myself and so will I. Win win for everyone but I wouldn’t promote the services if I didn’t believe in them myself.
Why you need house sitters to look after your house?
Some people leave their house for their vacation and not worry about finding trusted house sitters. I did this for numerous trips when I didn’t have any animals to look after and didn’t have my own house. Since 2 years I’m a home owner and I love my house. But the house is old and has many quirky things. In winter times, I’d like someone to check on the state of the house because I worry about the cold.
When I travelled for a longer period of time, I worried that people would notice I wasn’t home and might try to break into my house. Having someone to open the curtains every day shows the house is occupied and this gave me much peace of mind! Ever since I first put up my house for house sitting, I knew this was the solution for me!
Why reliable house sitters are so important?
House sitting and pet sitting is a relatively new concept. When I told people around me, I put my home up for house sitting, the first reaction were: “I’d never let a stranger into my house!” Questions concerned the safety of house sitting, your privacy and the people who would do the house sitting.
I never worried too much about this. I’m not concerned the house sitter will steal my stuff. Or go through my things. I don’t even care the house sitter will sleep in my bed. Why? Because I know I have found the most trusted house sitters!
Who can be your trusted house sitters?
Anyone can basically do the house sitting and pet sitting for you. You can ask a friend, a neighbour or a colleague. Heck! You can even ask a stranger! Anybody you trust your home to when you are traveling the world. Anyone who you find suitable to look after your animals when you are on a business trip.
How do I know if I can trust my house sitters with my home?
To put it bluntly: you don’t. Trust is a flexible word and trust can have a different meaning for you than it has to me. But here are some pointers to look for when choosing trusted house sitters to house sit your home:
- Does the house sitter provide information freely, without you asking for it? Someone who can easily share information has not much to hide.
- Can the house sitters provide you with any references from previous house sitting jobs?
- Do the pet sitters have any experience with pet sitting? A cat person can have experience cat sitting but is a different person than a dog person.
- Do the house sitters share information about what they plan to do while sitting your house? Will they work from home or will they want to meet up with friends in the area?
- Does the house sitter ask questions about the house and the animals? This shows they are engaged in the job of becoming your house sitter!
Read more: Tips on getting your first house sitting job.
Obviously, too many detailed questions or an insecure attitude might be signals that put you off. As with all trust issues, to find trusted house sitters you need to rely on your own feelings.
So where do I find trusted house sitters to look after my house?
Do you need to travel soon and you don’t want to leave your home unattended? You don’t want to leave your pets alone but you have to go out of town? Than putting your house up for house sitting might be just the right move for you! For me, it allows me to travel more without worries about my home and animals.
But where do you find reliable house sitters, you ask?
If you cannot find any people you know to be your house sitters, you can always go online and search your trusted house sitters on the internet. That is what I did and I’m very pleased with the services my house sitting website offer and how easy it is to find house sitters and pet sitters.
Trusted House Sitters
I went online and made a profile with trustedhousesitters.com. It is all in a name isn’t it? The advantages are it is global, you can ask for references and verification and there are many potential house sitters to choose from. Each house sitter has to provide ID verification and the site does back ground checks for you.
When I first put my house and animals up for house sitting on the website, I got 87 responses in 3 days! I went through all the applications and picked a house sitter that looked trustworthy, sounded engaged and was responsible! Now that is someone I’d trust my house and pet to!
Do you want to find house sitters you can trust to look after your home and pets? Do you want to join the house sitters community? Unfortunately, the service is not free, but I have a 20% discount code for you to use. Check out the rates to sign up to the website and choose from hundreds of trusted house sitters!
I want the 20% discount !!
Have you ever used house sitters to look after your home? Are you a house sitter? Please share your experiences in the comment section below!
I have had good and bad experiences with trustedhousesitters. One thing that rubbed me the wrong way was how they changed the number of stars (increased them) I assigned to one sitter.
that is not cool Caroline. I’m sorry you didn’t have such a good experience with the rating system. I did not have the same experience as you so I can only speak from my own experiences.
I absolutely love Trusted House Sitters. I have two dachshunds that don’t do well when boarded (plus boarding is expensive). I met wonderful people through Trusted House Sitters and they always took wonderful care of my dogs and my home.