How to Find a Great HouseSitter

If you have an easy care property and your main focus is having your pets loved just like you would while you are away, then I'm the housesitter you want.

I'm experienced, I have great references, you can talk to actual people who I've house sat for around the world.  I don't tell you this to boast, I tell you because its not only true, its the result of years of experience.

You want me!

So, it's like anything you want to sell, you have to market it

To get me or any experienced sitter even remotely interested in hitting that all important "reply to owner" button, you've got to get us interested in YOUR sit above all the other alluring listings.

Many new home owners go into the house sitting arrangement thinking that they are doing the house sitter the favour.  In my experience, it's the people who go in thinking "this is a partnership where we both win" that will always get the most experienced and best sitters.

You see the experienced ones have been lured into their fair share of bad sits in the early days and now we can scan and pick up the good listings in a heartbeat.

I've listed with several agencies over the years and now I only list with the agencies that charge the house owner, as well as the house sitter.

Get Some Skin in the Game

Why?  Well, people who pay for anything, like the Americans like to say, "have more skin in the game".  It means that they see the value in investing a small amount to get the right person and know the power of an equally balanced handshake.  Without exception I've always had great sits with Trusted Housesitters.

But even when owners have paid, they frequently miss the first important way to make a good impression.  PHOTOS!  You wouldn't dream of listing your most important asset for sale without photos, so why would you expect someone to respond to you if you haven't even taken the time to click a few happy snaps of the surrounding area.

I understand people don't want to show interior photos on their listing but if there are NO photos on your listing, you can be sure I've skimmed over you.  Like I say, you want me because I'm good, so you have knocked yourself out of the running at the most crucial part of the process.

The Early Bird Gets The Sit

You see the good sites allow members to see the listings 24 hours before they go up to the general public.  The good sitters have nailed that job in under 24 hours because we know the fast responders get the sit.

This week I secured a beautiful sit in an idyllic location in under 24 hours.  The owner said as we closed our call "oh good now I can just tell all those others who replied that I'm set".  This is a fast and furious game and you have to be in it to win-win it!

Each morning we get a list of sits that have come in during the past 24 hours.  

This morning we had a choice of 30 sits, and that would be an average of what we see each day.  So each week it's fair to say we get access to approximately 210 new sits per week.

You have to stand out to catch our interest.

This morning was interesting.  Because of the time zone differences, areas tend to group together.  UK & European sits generally sit higher than the Australia Pacific region.  Grouped together was a list of three great sits in Europe.  Two in Switzerland and one in Belgium.

I don't have time to read every single sit, I just scan looking for city, date and image, so below is how I scan house sit listings.  

I would only open one of these sits

You guessed it, the one with the happy pets and owners showing how I might experience their locality.  The people who haven't even bothered to get rid of the generic avatar wouldn't even get opened unless their dates were a particularly good fit.

The listing must speak volumes

Then once you get the listing open, you are looking for people who get the reciprocity thing.  In the listing about with the photo there is a line of text within their very well written advert that states:

"looking for a trustworthy pet-sitter who will be our guest at our place during that period and take care of our goldies."

That's what I look for, someone who wants to treat me like a guest in their home because that's how I will treat your home, with respect and honour just like any good guest should.  That is why I have such successful sits, because both parties understand we each have "skin in the game".

It's About Getting the Right Person

The other clue in the quote above is "our goldies".  Listings that go into great detail about how the property should be maintained with little mention of pets .... well you can bet they won't be right for me.  They need the outdoorsy people who love to do all that stuff.

The people I like to sit for already have those services in place.  At my current sit I have four people who come and maintain the property.  These owners know they have great staff and are happy to keep them employed while they are away so they don't lose them.

But people who love their pets like children, well they speak differently about them and in the ideal listing, 80% of the text will be about the pet and 90% of the Skype call will be about the needs of the pets.  People who love their pets more than life itself have big hearts and in general, treat everything, including their housesitters just like their pets.

Make It From The Heart!

So folks, if you want the good sitters interested in your properties think carefully about your images and write your text from the heart.