House Sitters

We had talked to someone who had done it a lot of it,
and there was no payment needed. I’m not sure they were from ads or just
contacts.



We used the daughter of a person at work last trip
and was our 1st house sitter. She has 3 sisters and so was happy to
get out on her own for a while.

We stocked a few things in the fridge etc, but she used
nothing much.



We have booked her up for next trip, but are putting
in an automated sprinkler system for the key plants before then.





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Gary Harding

TriSys Engineering/III

Brian, there are professional groups on the internet that organise for housesitters to be introduced to people wanting their house sat. I know of some people that have done that as a way of living cheap whilst waiting for their house to be built and it was pretty successful for them. The main thing is to check references and if possible not rely on written ones but being able to speak to someone and then have a very good contract in place with the person. Some of the professional sites have suggested paperwork that you can model a contract on. It is the usual stuff like the person pays the utilities and for their own telephone calls. Angie

Brian

This is very common in Broome where many people visit the capital cities for a month or so each year. We do this ourselves.

The usual arrangement is to pay for fuel and any out of pocket expenses - but that's it - except that we usually make our HiLux or Troopy available if required.

So far we've always found people locally who just like the idea of a change. There is a professional House-sitters finding service, I don't recollect where I've seen it but probably other members of this Forum will know of it.
Collyn.

Brian, here is a response from Leone Fabre on the Campervanners forum in reply to someone who was asking their members about anyone who had used housesitters. "We have used House Sitters and it really was the best way to go....we had no problems whatsoever.

In fact, when we arrived home after at least one trip, I really wondered had anyone been there at all.....only thing that "hinted" at anyone had been there were the sheets and towels that were on the line!!!

There was fresh milk in the fridge, fruit in the bowl, and mail sitting on the table, in date order!

I realise each "sitter" is different, but we have been more than happy with the ones we have used......our first one was a nurse from the hospital that I work at......she had been house sitting for over 2 years and had saved enough $$$ in that time for a (large) deposit on her own home.

I typed up a full list (on the computer) of things they needed to know, then each time we used a sitter I just updated it again.

eg: garbage day / recycle collection day / where the spare key is kept / neighbours contact numbers / gas emergency numbers / police and other emergency numbers etc .......

good luck, Leone." Looks like some people have had some good experiences. Angie