It doesn’t matter what’s been written in our story so far. It’s how you fill up the rest of your pages that count.
Toby Mac
I posted earlier about researching house sitting as a creative and inexpensive option for us as we prepare for the expat lifestyle. After a lot of research, I chose Trustedhousesitters.com as the platform I would try to build up my house sitting profile. There were several other websites that looked great and it was tough to choose, but THS looked like they had more places we would likely visit.
The first thing I did was just sign up. We didn’t have to pay a fee for this. I was able to look around and research a lot of information without needing to commit funds. For the first week, they emailed several times. One of the emails was offering 50% off the fee. So it brought the cost down to under $60. SOLD!
Lesson learned: If the company needs more house sitters, it makes sense that they will offer discounts. Just wait until they send one your way before outlaying cash.
Create a Profile for the House Sitting Website
Creating a profile took me a lot longer than I expected. I wanted to put out a good representation of us. This is a personal resume on why a family would trust their home and pets to us. No pressure, right?
After researching other bios that looked strong, I wrote up our bio of us being retired military family wanting to become traveling expats in a couple years and expressed our love of travel and the outdoors. I located photos that best described who we are and then reached out to a couple friends for character references.
This is not a fast process. Before you can move forward with the site, the references must come back and be processed. I received two references on the same day and the profile was almost complete. Hooray!! I was so excited.
How to Plan for the First House Sitting?
Several sites recommended that newbies, such as myself, reach out to local house sits first. You don’t have any reviews and it is less likely that someone will choose you over more experienced house sitters with a portfolio of previous sits.
The benefit of trying out house sitting locally is that the homeowners will have a chance to meet you ahead of time. It would be a low risk for them (since they met you) and low risk for us (since we didn’t have to pay for any travel). Win-Win!
I found short term house sitting requests in the D.C. area and submitted requests for each. The first two never responded at all. One didn’t even open the request (there is a notification if they opened it and read it) so I knew that wasn’t in the cards for me.
The third one that I reached out to was a complete fluke!! I was looking up sits in Virginia and there was one that popped up in the next town over for a three-day sit. I reached out to offer an interview. My son and I went over to meet the couple and their three dogs. They were so sweet! They were so kind and welcoming! I told them why I wanted to do a short term local house sitting, and they were very open and encouraging. She offered us the sit during the meeting! Woohoo!
She even asked me if I could sit for an additional night later in June. Absolutely! The owner did email about a week later notifying me that one of the dogs will have a cyst removed a couple days before I arrive and asked if I was ok with that. I thought that was incredibly thoughtful to ask!
Now my confidence was up and found another sit about 40 minutes away. I reached out and got that one on the spot, too. The owner loved that I was going to come alone and that I was local in case she had to cancel.
All of these are still pending and my first sit comes in just 2 weeks now!!!
At this point, I have a bad case of the housesitting bug!!!! I want to go everywhere!!! EVERYWHERE, I tell you! Plus I have an incredibly supportive husband that thinks it is great to build our house sitting resume now!! Hooray for awesome marriages!!!
What is the next House Sitting Step?
So, I continue to look at the site everyday and applied for my first overseas sit in Malta. It’s been a dream to visit Malta. I LOVE the prospect of visiting!!!
Unfortunately, I received my first “application declined” notice. Ouch!! That one hurt. It didn’t get me down though. I am still pushing through and tonight I applied to one in Germany over a long weekend. The best part is there is a Christmas market in the town which has been a huge dream of mine! I researched how to create a great entry message and pushed go! Now I wait and see!!
Lessons learned so far!
- Create the most badass profile you can. Put as much relevant information as you can on the site to make them feel comfortable with you.
- Create a message to a potential sit on why you are the best one for their family and pets. Don’t talk about why you want to visit their town. Talk about how much you love playing with labradors or how you enjoy frisky cats that like to play hide and seek. Remember, you are applying for a job and this is your resume/cover letter.
- Apply to several sits at a time if you see more than one that fit your goals. I applied for one at a time at the beginning. Some folks never responded and I was waiting to hear before I reached out to another one during the same period. Just be careful not to get yourself double-booked.
- Apply as early as you can. Some owners take the first applicants. Others allow their ad to stay on the site for weeks before making a decision. I’ve watched one grow up to the 30 applicants and she has had it up for the entire time I have been researching. This is a perfect example of someone who may have forgotten her ad, or her life got busy. Who knows? Move forward with your own goals.
I can’t wait to report back on the local house sits! Stay tuned!
***A week after I put in for the Germany housesit, I received a message offering me the position. The family was sweet as can be apologizing that they were out of town for a long weekend and would love to have us come! Less than 2 months of this and I secured my first overseas housesit!!!! To say that I am over the moon excited is an understatement!!!