Have you ever heard about Housesitters? Yes, then have you ever considered becoming one. This is one of the jobs that will bring you in contact with new places, meet new people, and most importantly earn money by living in someone else’s home.
Yup, homesitter’s job is to watch the home and perform a set of responsibilities as said by the house owner in their absence. This job usually lasts for a set period of time such as a month or two. Sometimes it can be for longer periods of time too. You will get a chance to stay in beautiful houses and the owners are happy that their house will be occupied and be taken care of.
This job opens when the owner takes a vacation or has to leave their house for a particular period of time. Most of them don’t like to leave their home unoccupied. So they hire house sitters. To stay in their home while they are away.
So if you’re some who works mostly from home, or writing a book, or starting your own online business. This is a perfect option you can make some extra money by becoming a house sitter.
Responsibilities of a house sitter
House sitting is a perfect way to earn extra cash for people who don’t get out of their house more and work from home. All you have to do is stay in the house specified and take care of a few things for them. You can negotiate your terms for the house sitting with the owner. Because you’re different from the owner and if you’re not comfortable then you can put your terms on the table. Some people house sit in exchange for a car, rent, and food. However, some of them charge per day while other charges per month. So simply put, all this depends entirely on the agreement you have with the house owner.
Some of the factors that determine your pay will be the location of the house, the amount of time you will be needed for the job, tasks or chores you’re required to do across the house. There is no doubt that house sitting is the most laid back way of making money. Here are some of the responsibilities that come with house sitting.
- Taking calls and guests on their behalf
- Forwarding or Filing mail
- Watering their plants
- Taking care of pets
- Mowing the garden, lawn
- Taking care of the pool
- Cleaning all the house (dusting, vacuuming, sweeping, etc)
- Contact people if there are issues that need to be fixed such as a broken heater, leaky toilet, etc.
Also, the tasks may vary from owner to owner as they will have different requirements from the house sitter. Sometimes the tasks may appear while you’re house sitting.
Where to find the job?
This brings us to where to find the house sitting job. It is natural to worry where you can find such an easy, interesting job. But you must also be wondering who will trust a stranger to put their house keys in the hands of that person. Yup, your right the house owners will trust you if you come from a trustworthy company so make sure that you register yourself with a trusted reputed company. This way you will not have any issues finding jobs.
Thanks to the ever-evolving technology there are hundreds of online resources that will help you in finding a house to house sit.
Here are a few sources you can check out.
Rover
This is a platform that helps you in finding clients who are looking for house sitters. You will be watching both their houses and pets. They will check your background and once you have passed it you can create a profile on Rover and promote your services. Once you have finished all this you will be able to browse through the requests and accept the ones that interest you.
House Sitters America
House Sitters America allows you to find house sitting jobs in the U.S. But you must pay an annual membership fee of $30. You can post the preferred locations, photos along with your available dates. It also offers you filters such as locale, house type, and features in your ideal gig. Once you find the gig that interests you, sign the sitting agreement and you’re ready to take the job.
Luxury House Sitting
This platform strives in becoming the community of responsible house sitters. All you have to do is pay a yearly membership fee of $25 then create a profile and upload the references. Once your profile is approved you can apply for gigs and message the respective house owners.
TrustedHousesitters
This platform offers a variety of services to the house sitters such as 24/7 pet advice, insurance, and lastly a customer service that is available round the clock to answer your queries. Once you take the annual sitter plan you can come across several, pet and house sitting opportunities. Browse through them and select a plan that matches your requirements.
House carers
House carers have been around for a long time. It was started back in 2000. They have been matching house sitters with house owners for a long time. You can take free membership first and then based on your experience you can decide whether to move further or not. From the platform you will be able to contact homeowners to finalize the agreement, there are sample forms available on the site.
Nomador
With Nomador you can find a house sitting gigs internationally. And the best part is free of charge. First, fill out the profile, upload your photos, and then provide them with your ID proof. If you want to improve your chances of getting the job then add references to your profile. Once you have created a profile you can respond to the posts of house owners.
Conclusion
As you see there are different methods to earn money. But who knew you could earn money by home sitting. This is definitely the most laid-back side hustle. You can live in beautiful houses whilst earning money. Charge the fee based on the chores you have to perform around the house. Interested in other side hustles that can bring you money then check out this.
Read: 10 Easy Side Hustles to Make Money in Your Spare time
