Why We do House Sitting Jobs for Free
House sitting is an amazing way to travel on a budget! We’ve house sat full time for over four years and have had amazing adventures all around the world. At this point, with so much house sitting experience and over 70 five-star reviews we could likely make a bit of money by charging for our services, but we choose not to. Read on to understand not only why we don’t charge but also how we started house sitting and why we love it. Plus, find a wealth of links to resources with tips and tricks to help you be successful house sitting.
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If you’re wondering how to travel internationally, or simply vacation nearby and not spend a fortune on airfare or hotels, then we’d like to welcome you to the world of ‘travel hacking’. See what credit cards we carry, and how we take full advantage of the points and miles we’ve earned.
House sitting Ronya in Munich, Germany.
A Little About Us
There are a few key features of our lifestyle that standout.
First, we’re digital nomads and can work anywhere in the world as long as we have a computer, electricity (or a good battery!) and internet access.
Second, we’re pursuing financial independence, retire early (FI/RE), which for us simply means having options and freedom.
Third, we travel full time and in the last four-and-a-half years have been fortunate to visit 3 continents, 26 countries, and nearly 100 cities.
And lastly, we house sit full time, which means we care for the pets and homes of others when they travel for work or pleasure.
Generally, as we get to know people and the conversation evolves into questions about our lives, we talk about some or all of this lifestyle information. And, as soon as we mention house sitting, there’s a good chance the follow up question will be something along the lines of ‘how much do you charge?’ or ‘that’s a great way to make money’.
“When others learn that we don’t charge for our services we usually get a surprised reaction...”
So, to explain why we don’t charge for house sitting jobs we need to tell you a bit of how we found house sitting to begin with…
Discovering House Sitting Jobs
Well before we started traveling full time in 2016, we were planning and preparing for only a year of travel abroad. Now nearly five years later we’ve embraced our initial adventure and made it our way of life.
“Sergio has this amazing talent for finding out unique facts, methods, and philosophies by being super curious about many topics.”
On one of Sergio’s dives into travel hacking he found a couple that discussed house sitting full time as a way of getting free accommodation in exchange for caring for a home and pets wherever they traveled. He told Shannon about this very intriguing concept of house sitting, but we both suspected it was ‘too good to be true’. We kept it the back of our mind as something to look into further in the future.
Well, the future came and it was time to seriously start planning for travel. As we neared the point where we got rid of 95% of our belongings and started our travel adventure with a $70 flight to Dublin, Ireland we did some serious research on the possibility of house sitting abroad.
We’d already entered the world of travel hacking via credit cards and knew that we could save a lot of money on hotels by using reward points, but it was very intriguing to consider being able to care for someone’s home and pets while they traveled and we explored the local area. We thought that realistically we would sprinkle house sits here and there during our initial one year adventure… assuming we could find them and be chosen.
Want to learn more about house sitting? After nearly five years of successfully house sitting full time, we wrote the Ultimate A-Z Guide to House Sitting!
The Ultimate Guide to House Sitting Jobs: Part 4 | How to Plan & Have a Great House Sitting Experience
Our First House Sitting Job
We thought we needed to build up a profile with many 5-star reviews before we could get prime location house sitting jobs. So in 2016, our first house sit was just three days in Newton Arlosh…
Newton Arlosh? … Where is that you ask?
Imagine a village in England with a church, a main street, a pub and a few homes. That’s Newton Arlosh. We cared for two dogs, two kittens, fish, and learned a lot about house sitting. For example, as digital nomads, high speed internet is critical and three days isn’t enough time to settle into a home or an area. But it was such a unique and amazing experience that we were excited to undertake our next (and longer) house sitting job in Amsterdam, Netherlands with Bailey the dog.
And that was that. Three days in Newton Arlosh and a couple of weeks in Amsterdam and we were hooked! In our first year traveling abroad we completed 18 house sitting jobs, and in the years following that we’ve house sat over 50 more times in North America. That’s over 70 house sitting jobs to date!
How We Find House Sitting Jobs
The easiest way to find house sitting jobs is to sign up as a sitter on a house sitting website. There are several to choose from, some have a global footprint while others are specific to a country or region. We’ve used a couple different sites and actually ran an experiment of tracking new listings in the United States daily for two weeks across half-a-dozen sites. Both our favorite to use and the one with the most new listings (it had more listings than all of the other sites combined!) is Trusted Housesitters.
Trusted Housesitters and most other house sitting websites run on the same concept. You pay for your profile on the website which matches homeowners to house sitters and when it comes to the house sitting job, there’s no exchange of money for services. There’s the occasional house sit listing where the homeowner will request that the sitter pay for utilities, but that’s rare.
Our tool box is full of resources! From travel hacking to house sitting, digital nomad jobs to privacy and security, financially independent retire early (FI/RE) to entertainment, plus travel hacking (credit cards, miles, points, and rewards), and much much more…
We prefer being on a website where both sitters and homeowners pay a yearly fee. The yearly membership cost is negligible when you consider how much one or two nights at a hotel cost versus the lodging expenses saved while house sitting.
“When both sides pay for their membership you know there’s ‘skin in the game’ and everyone is serious about their listing and their applications.”
So, now after nearly five years house sitting and we find all of our house sitting jobs on Trusted Housesitters.
House sitting Norman (AKA Cat) in California, United States.
Can We Charge for House Sitting?
Honestly, at this point, yes we probably could charge for our house sitting services.
“After 70+ house sits in countries around the world we’ve built a network of people who invite us back and recommend us to their friends.”
We also have glowing reviews and owners that wouldn’t hesitate to be a reference for us.
If a homeowner chooses to board their pets while they travel, that’s hundreds of dollars out of pocket and sadly their pet is away from the comforts of their home. Having someone who comes in and cares for their pets in their home, loves them, makes sure they’re safe and healthy, and sends regular updates with pictures and videos is a dream come true for most pet owners.
We take house sitting very seriously and are professionals with every house sitting job we do. We know we’re coming in to care for someone’s most prized things, their pets and their homes.
Don’t miss our Ultimate Gear and Packing Lists! Whether you’re traveling long-term or going on a short vacation, we'll show you how to travel with a single carry-on. We share our packing lists (his and hers!), packing tips, and our favorite gear. Plus, we discuss what we don’t carry and why!
Have we considered charging for our house sitting services?
We’ve been told on many occasions that we should charge for our services and we’ve considered it as well. When we commit to house sitting, it’s now a job we’ve taken on.
“We do our best to know everything we need to care for the home, the pets, and how to manage emergencies if they should arise.”
It’s not uncommon that between walking, feeding, playing with, and watering plants and general care for the home we end up spending one to two hours a day caring for the house sit. We go out of our way to try and leave a home cleaner than when we arrived and we love the pets like they’re our own.
So, with glowing reviews, a network of homeowners around the world, and a non-trivial amount of time put into every house sit, why not charge?
Sergio with an adorable puppy while volunteering at a shelter event.
Why We Don’t Charge for House Sitting Jobs
To put it succinctly, we’re looking for a mutual conveyance of appreciation and gratitude, not an ‘arm’s length (sterile) transaction’ that often happens when you pay (or are paid) for a service.
We have a deep sense of gratitude for every house sitting job we do. It’s not lost on us for a moment that the homeowners have entrusted us with their home and their pets. Similarly, nearly every homeowner we’ve house sat for appreciates us taking care of their home and pets, because of the money saved, the pet’s anxiety avoided by not boarding them, and the personal touch and genuine care we offer. From the moment we apply to the moment we depart we’re looking to build a true friendship with the homeowners.
During the application and interview process we’re looking for a homeowner that not only values our communication, trust and character but also embodies the same. Typically, when you pay for something you feel entitled to a level of service, rather than grateful for it.
“We go above and beyond on all of our house sits because we want to, not because we’re getting paid to do so. And homeowners appreciate us and what we do, rather than expect it because they’re paying for it. ”
Ultimately, what we’re trying to convey is that the exchange and experience we get by house sitting for free is what we’re looking for. We love making new friends and having a sense of community around the world. We believe we would lose that if we charged.
