House Sitting
Housesitting can be a great solution for both a homeowner,
particularly one with pets, and for those who wish to visit,
either other areas of their own country or foreign climes, but
are on a limited budget.
The home owner in question provides the housesitter with free
accommodation in return for the peace of mind of having someone
in the house whilst they are away and perhaps having someone to
look after their pets and garden at the same time. Depending on
the amount of work involved there may even be a small
remuneration for housesitting. Another advantage to the home
owner is that if they do have pets then it will save the
considerable expense of kennels or cattery and is also much less
disruptive to the pets if they can be looked after in their own
home.
For the house sitter, housesitting can be a very pleasant way of
visiting different places. Normally the standard of
accommodation will be quite alot higher then they would probably
be able to afford for a straight forward holiday with the added
advantage of having many of the comforts of home not to be found
in run of the mill holiday accommodation. It is also a pleasant
way of meeting new people and making new friends and many house
sitters return to the same places on a regular basis. This is of
an obvious advantage to both the home owner and any pets, as
familiarity is a great comfort to both.
If you intend to undertake the enjoyable pastime of housesitting
then it is important to establish exactly what your tasks are to
be and for the owner to be sure that the person in question is
capable of providing the service required. For instance if you
are housesitting abroad it may be necessary to maintain a pool
and whilst this is not a difficult task it does need to be done
correctly to avoid the owners returning to a green quagmire. In
addition,if gardening work is to be undertaken, particularly
weeding during the summer months, you do need to know what you
are looking for as many owners will be very unhappy to come back
and find some much valued plants missing!
If you either wish to find house sitting positions or are
looking for some one to house sit for you then it may well be
worth your while registering with HouseCarers.com. They offer a free service to
house owners with just a small fee for house sitters to
register. This then gives both parties access to search for
either housesitting jobs or for owners to find suitable sitters.