As Retirees Enjoying Travel, we have ventured into the world of house and pet sitting. We have enjoyed house sitting so much we are now on a mission to go global – to become International House Sitters.
We did our very first house sit in 2017. Since then we have successfully completed five house sits. Completing a repeat house sit is part of our plan to combine house and pet sitting with international travel. Ok, you may say, what’s the big deal about completing a very first repeat house sit? Well, lets start at the beginning, so I can explain.
How Did We Become Interested In House Sitting?
As we began our big lap of Australia in 2017 we kept bumping into other travellers talking about house sitting. We’d pull into a free camp or caravan park and talk with other travellers at happy hour. We found lots of people saying they were travelling to their next house sit at… Or, they’d tell us about the great house sit they had just completed at … And, they would ask us about our house sits? The funny thing was, we knew nothing at all about house sitting.
The fact that so many people were house sitting as they travelled Australia was news to us. After all the talk about house sitting, and from so many people, we began thinking maybe we should give it a try.
We Became Members of Aussie House Sitters And Haven’t Looked Back
After some research we applied to become members of Aussie House Sitters. We were in Broome, Western Australia at the time. We were delighted and surprised by how many home owners offered us house sits, despite the fact we had no house sitting experience.
We completed our first house and pet sit in Perth,. This house and pet sit was for 3 weeks and 2 days. We cared for shy two cats and enjoyed a fantastic time. And, equally importantly, we learnt a lot about house and pet sitting.
Since then we have completed five house sits in total. We have decided we love house sitting. And a couple of our house sits have been nearby some of our children. Another great reason why we enjoy house sitting.
These Aussie House Sitters Have Decided To Spread Their Wings
Following our retirement in 2016 we lived a nomadic lifestyle in our caravan for 2 years. We travelled extensively throughout Australia and also enjoyed a couple of overseas trips.
In the beginning, house and pet sitting was a novel extra, to combine with travel in Australia. It certainly was not a focus in our travel planning.
What changed you may ask? I joined an Instagram chat group about travel. In this group I chatted with two couples who are international house sitters. These two couples opened up a whole new way of combining international travel and House Sitting.
Sue and Dave Pearse, an Australian couple, have been travelling the world since leaving their jobs in 2015. They have house sat in New Zealand, UK, Europe, SE Asia, South America, Canada, USA, Mexico and Australia.
We were so lucky to meet Sue & Dave from Wherever Are We, when we were both House Sitting in the Newcastle area of NSW. They shared heaps of tips and encouraged us with our International House Sitting dream.
The other inspirational couple are New Zealander’s Linda and Scotty from Kiwis Fly The Coop. This couple travelled the world for 2 years, and enjoyed 23 house sits in multiple countries.
I was in awe of the places these two couples were visiting and the adventures they were enjoying. I then began reading their blogs and chatting online with them about international house sitting… and I was sold.
Greg & I began discussing and researching the possibility of us becoming international house sitters. We have joined several house sitting Facebook group pages, and are generally gaining as much information as we can from any source possible. With all this additional information our plans have began to firm for 2020.
We Became Members of Trusted House Sitters
House sitting in our own country is one thing. To house sit in a foreign country is another. This is because we KNOW how easy it is for us to get a house sit in Australia.
We are keen to house sit in the UK and Europe. We’ve joined Trusted House Sitters, a world wide house sitting site. We have been reassured it should be easy to get house sits, particularly if we have a really good house sitting profile on Trusted House Sitters.
So, we put a lot of time and effort into creating the best possible house sitter’s profile we could. We also try to be active on the house sitting Facebook sites, plus Instagram (to become known as international house sitters), and now we have a House Sitting page on this website. This is all in an effort to get our name out there as experienced house sitters.
Why It’s Important For Us To Be Considered Trusted House Sitters?
To enhance our chance of getting house sits in the UK and Europe we decided to build our house sitting profile by doing more house sits. With more house sits, we gain more experience as house sitters, and more house and pet sitting references. This obviously leads to a reputation of being an experienced and trusted house sitter. The hope is we will be offered as many house sits as we want when we visit the UK and Europe.
The Importance of a repeat house sit?
We are really striving to tick all the boxes, to be recognised as experienced and trusted house sitters. We thought another way to achieve this was to do a repeat house sit for a home owner.
In our opinion, a repeat house sit surely demonstrates that a home owner is happy to have you return to their home and care for their pets. Being offered a return house sit speaks about trust. So, we were delighted when we were offered a return house sit in Newcastle, and we jumped at it.
A repeat house sit works for us too. We know the home, the pets, and the area. Obviously, we choose to do repeat house sits in homes we have really enjoyed house and pet sitting in.
In Conclusion
We believe, to be successful at house and pet sitting, you have to put a bit of work in… and of course like pets. Part of this work is about building your house and pet sitting experience and reputation. With a good reputation our hope is we will be offered good house and pet sitting opportunities.
Home owners will check house sitters profiles, experience, and reviews when seeking someone to house sit for them. Our goal is to be considered experienced and trusted house sitters by the time we are ready to apply for house sits in the UK and Europe for 2020.
So, currently, we are being proactive in doing all we can to tick all the boxes. A return house sit is merely one of many steps we have taken. Fingers crossed, we will enjoy many house and pet sitting opportunities in the UK and Europe. Watch this space.
What about you?
Are you a house and pet sitter? What tips and insights can you share?
Are you interested in house sitting? Are there any questions you have about house sitting? Ask away. Hopefully we can help.
Please leave a comment. We’d love to hear from you.
Perhaps you might like to follow us on Facebook where more fun stuff happens.
Until next time.
Cheers from Estelle & Greg – Retirees Enjoying Travel
Great article Estelle! That is so cool we all connected on Instagram and it led to this! People always say Instagram is negative .. but not at all
Hi Donna and thanks so much for dropping by and leaving a comment. Yes, Instagram is fabulous; as is all online forums. It is just so wonderful to connect with people like you and Mike, from all over the world. Nothing negative about that I’d say. And now we can follow each other in the blogging world. 🙂
Good blog Estelle , you guys would’ve excellent overseas house sitters . Good luck .
Hi Erica. Wow! Thank you for taking the time to read my blog when I know you are enjoying a wonderful holiday with your family. Thank you for having faith in us as overseas house sitters and your good luck wishes. 🙂
Great post Estelle. Sounds like you’re building up a great reputation as very trusted house and pet sitters. And clearly you’ve done your homework plus so much more. All the best to you both as you continue to build your reputation and ultimately crack the international market. I’ve absolutely no doubt you’ll be a success. Enjoy!
Hi Miriam & thanks for your comment. Cracking the international market is our hope and plan. Thanks for you well wishes and encouragement. No doubt we plan to give it all a very good shake 👍
This is great information Estelle, and very helpful for those who are keen to go into this side of things. It does interest me too and maybe one day I’ll need to talk to you about it! It sounds like a great plan and I wish you both well in this new endeavour 🙂 . It’s been lovely to follow you and see how you’re going about this new project.
Thanks again Debbie for your comment. Yes most definitely contact me if you ever want to discuss anything about house and pet sitting. I have been so lucky to learn from others, and I sure would be delighted to be able to share what I do know and pet and house sitting. And thanks so much for your well wishes as we venture into this exciting new adventure.
Excellent blog post Estelle! You gave great information for anyone thinking about house sitting and about how you became interested! I would certainly feel extremely comfortable taking care of my fur babies.
Hi Christy and thank you for your comment. I so appreciate hearing you found the post informative, and useful to anyone considering house sitting. Oh, and thanks for the vote of confidence, saying you would be extremely comfortable with us taking care of your fur babies. Who knows, maybe one day …
I really enjoyed your post, Estelle. I thought I had left a comment but can’t see it. It is most informative and I would be glad to trust you with my house!
Hi Roz and thank you for your comment – it arrived! I’m so pleased you found the blog informative and that you would trust me in your house. What a lovely compliment. Thanks heaps 🙂
A most interesting and informative blog on house sitting. After thoroughly enjoying a 6 week house and dog sit a while ago, it is something that we are also interested in doing, a little further down the track, so it is good to read-out your experiences and your advice.
Hi Elizabeth and thanks for your comment. Thanks for letting me know you found this blog post both interesting and informative . So many people have house sat, or are considering house sitting. For us it is all fairly new. It’s interesting to read that you too have house sat once, and considering doing more down the track. 😀
Estelle, what a wonderful blog post! Like you, I had no clue about house-sitting adventures until recently and you have great tips here. Your blog is extremely encouraging but I am not sure if it is something I would do but definitely something to consider. Look forward to more house-sitting adventures.
Hi Georgina and thanks for your comment. And thanks for saying you found the post wonderful. I never know exactly how these posts will be received. It’s funny how we both didn’t know about house Sitting. I love how I’m learning about different options through travelling, and through the internet and social media. It’s wonderful to open our eyes to all opportunities. Then we can decide if the option is for us or not. Like everything, House Sitting is not for everyone. But it’s worth considering 👍😃
Many Congratulations, Estelle! I have nominated you for the Mystery Blogger Award. Please visit my website and have a look.
Thank you ever so much Georgina. What a lovely surprise!!! I’ve never been nominated for a bloggers award before! Thank you so much for your kind nomination. I will check out your website immediately. 🙂
Hi Estelle, what a terrific article and thanks so much for the shout out! Like you, we love house sitting as part of our travel lifestyle, and feel very lucky to have stayed in many wonderful parts of the world to look after homes and pets. One of the surprise bonuses of this life is having made many new friends like you both, as we get to follow each other around hoping for chance catchups. Good luck with your overseas endeavours. Cheers, Sue & Dave.
Hi Sue & Dave. It’s us that should be thanking you two. We so appreciate the inspiration from someone who has a wealth of international house and pet sitting experience. This has been so inspiring for us. I thought if one Aussie couple can do this than likely we can. And yes it has been fantastic to actually meet you both. This meeting like minded travellers has been a wonderful bonus. And hopefully we will catch up again soon. We keep our fingers crossed that we too can have many happy travel adventures 😀
Hi guys! Well done on collecting successful house sits in Australia and snatching a repeat one, which – as you point out – is the perfect way of showing you are in demand. Mark and I house and pet sat full-time throughout the US for three years, collecting raving 5-star reviews and references. This is what potential home owners look at. And, an appealing profile. Since we’ve lived in our camper van, we sporadically house sit to take a break from the road and get some doggy love. It’s also easier to work from a home, as we are far from retired. We never did a lot of effort to secure sits, but managed to do just fine.
House sitting internationally sounds fantastic (and we’ve played with the idea as well), but I doubt anyone is able to create a string of sits without having to spend money on accommodation elsewhere. Or, be flexible. There is strong competition out there for attractive sits, especially on THS. Also, we have found that when we are offered sits (as opposed to the ones we are interested in and apply for), they are never where and when it fits our plans, so we have never jumped on any of these. If you are open to a lot and willing to travel far and wide, I think this will be perfect for you guys. Good luck with the new lifestyle!
Hi Liesbet and thank you for dropping by and leaving such a very thoughtful comment. I truely appreciate hearing of your 3 year experience house sitting in the US – and from where I’m sitting you obviously know what you are talking about. When we travel to the UK and Europe next year we do not expect to have house sits back to back. Rather we hope to mix Airbnb with house sitting. And we are OK getting off the beaten track for a few weeks. But I truely appreciate you pointing out there is a lot of competition these days, particularly on THS. I have heard some similar comments. So, I think I will join other HS platforms as well – eg HSUK. No doubt it will be an adventure. Thanks again for your invaluable comments 🙂
Hi Estelle – first read your blog on Jugiong as we only live 30 minutes away – then noticed your blog on house sitting – we have used Aussie House Sitters over the past 2 years & have had one couple come back 3 times, they have become great friends & love our animals.
If you are interested in doing a house sit close to Jugiong would love to hear from you 😃
Hi Jennifer. Thanks for checking out two of my posts. I very much appreciate you leaving this comment and your kind offer to house sit. Yes, we would love a house sit near Jugiong. Please contact me in the future whenever you are planning to go away. Just send an email or direct message me via FB or Insta. We will be happy to check if a house sit down your way fits in with our travel plans at the time.:)