Honest Review of Trusted House Sitters I Should You be a House Sitter?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ย. 2024
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We’ll teach you how you can get FREE travel accommodation all over the world by house sitting. You'll learn what it takes to be a house sitter, what a house sitter does, and provide resources to make it easier. Plus, we’ll tell you how you can get started and land your first house sit!
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We hope you found this video useful!
If you have any questions about house sitting or pet sitting internationally or in your home country, please leave a comment.
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In this video:
00:01 - What we'll cover in this video
00:34 - How house sitting works
02:20 - Why house sit when you travel?
02:52 - Who is house sitting for?
03:10 - Pros of Trusted House Sitters
07:23 - Trusted House Sitters Website (backend)
11:20 - Cons of House Sitting
12:53 - Bad experience on Trusted House Sitters
14:03 - How to get reviews if you're a new house sitter
15:25 - Things we don't like
16:09 - New change on Trusted House Sitters
17:09 - Costs associated with House Sitting
18:45 - Do you get paid as a House Sitter?
19:00 - International Pet Sitting
19:54 - Price of Trusted House Sitters Membership
20:35 - Our Overall Review of Trusted House Sitters
20:55 - Save 25% on Trusted House Sitters annual membership
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I am a home owner in a suburb of Perth Australia, and have used trusted house sitters twice. The sitters on both occasions were awesome.
First for 14 weeks and second for 4 weeks. The first couple were simply amazing. We came home to a manicured garden, happy pets and an immaculately clean home. (Better than we keep things ourselves). Both couples were great communicators and guided us on what information, supplies, (re pet and home care), and info re local services , they required to make the house sit mutually successful. It was a great experience. Highly recommend.
Thank you for sharing your experiences with house sitters! We're happy to hear they were so positive :) In our experience, Trusted Housesitters is a community of wonderful people.
Nice video. I've used THS since it started (2014 but we had a gap from Covid up to 2022) as a home owner looking for sitters. We've never had a bad experience but I'd agree that the video interview stage is the crucial bit - I need to connect well with whoever I'm handing over my house and property to. More recently the demographic of sitters has changed a lot - it used to be retired couples from outside UK looking to travel a bit. Now it is mainly younger people (mostly couples) and digital nomads. From my viewpoint, this is all good but it does mean I am looking more carefully to make sure they're not just looking for a place to crash temporarily - so Jen and Stevo's point about taking it seriously and presenting professionally, is a good one. I've had locals apply for whom there is no good reason other than the above!
Myself and wife are planning to travel via THS when our cats and dog are gone so it's all a good learning experience! I expect the platform will change again by then, but anyway, once again - nice video summary.
Thanks so much for your comment, Richard. It's good to hear about your experiences using Trusted Housesitters as a homeowner. It's interesting that you've noticed the house sitter demographics have changed over the years. As digital nomads, we certainly find it a great way to travel and have unique experiences. Wishing you and your wife all the best!
I'm currently house sitting my cousins beautiful home and older cat. The cat and I have quickly become best friends. I thought hmmm, maybe housesitting would be a great way to see interesting places. I have a beautiful condo in my home town, and my best friend stays my spare room. Having a roommate allows me to live very reasonably in a very expensive city. I wouldn't want to leave my condo vacant for more than a week if I were to go away. Having someone in my home that I trust implicitly, would make it easy to travel alone. Here I am, watching your awesome pros and cons of housesitting video. This is the first video I've watched on the topic and I'm very intrigued. The information you've shared is invaluable, thank you. I started my TH-cam journey almost 2 years ago. I quit my career in finance a year ago and have been a full time content creator ever since. I never gave the idea of being a digital nomad much thought. I will really think about it now. Thanks again for the great tips. Liked and subscribed. Best....Corrie😀🌍
If you have a roommate, you don't need a housesitter because someone is already there. Housesitters probably will not apply for a sit if there's a already a person living in the house.
@@thelifestyledigs I wouldn't have a house sitter at my home, I already have one....lol. I often travel alone, I would be the sitter, as I am doing now. I appreciate your kind words and great knowledge, thanks. Best....Corrie
Hey Corrie, we're so glad that you found the idea of house sitting intriguing. We've been living the digital nomad lifestyle since 2018 and started house sitting in 2019, and it's one of the absolute best things we have done! The chance to have a more local experience, spend time with animals, and meet awesome people has been the best part. Not to mention saving lots of money not needing to pay for accommodation. It sounds like it would suit you well as a content creator. Cheers to your next adventures and feel free to reach out if you have any questions about digital nomad life or house sitting. 😀
Awesome feedback
It seems like a barter system, because after you pay transportation costs or first night hotel before you arrive at HO residence you do not make money. I think its a great idea to connect homeowners to sitters
Yes, it's an exchange and a great way to connect homeowners and house sitters. We really enjoy it!
Hi we’re a retired couple and have signed up mainly as we’d like to house/pet sit in Perth Australia for when we’re visiting our son and his wife. Our next visit is Jan 2025
That's a great idea! We hope you find a good sit in Perth. Do you plan to try doing a house it closer to home first? We'd definitely recommend doing that to start getting reviews on your profile.
@@Twocantravel yes we’ve got x5 local sits coming up this summer 👍
@@BoninBrighton Woohoo! That's awesome, congrats!
Enjoyed your video. As house sitters for the last nine years, our main go to site has always been Trusted House Sitters. Had to give up the full time house sitting and now we are settled down in Portugal and only occasionaly do house sitsfor vacations. We use Trusted House Sitters exclusevly now.
Thank you! That's awesome that you've been house sitting for so long. It is an amazing way to find interesting vacation spots. We would love to visit Portugal! How do you like living there?
@@Twocantravel We love it here. We live in Tavira that is in the Algarve. We are leaving here in a few days and doing a month long sit in Porto in the northern part of Portugal.
That's amazing! We hope you enjoy your time in Porto :)
Great video... so much covered and well explained
Thanks, we're glad it was helpful!
Thank you for the discount! I've been toying with the idea of doing this for ages. You pushed me over the edge!
You're so welcome! If you have any questions or need any help, feel free to reach out :)
Me too!
Hi Jen and Stevo, I really enjoyed this video and your other one about housesitting and I wanted to thank you for putting all that information out there in such a clear, balanced and correct way! There is a lot of misunderstanding around the process, and expectations from some sitters are weird - it‘s not meant to be a vacation, as you so clearly say! I have a house in central Finistere in Brittany, and prior to Covid we used to have housesitters for the whole winter, because we used to go to Spain to avoid the rain! We had lovely people, until the last ones, who damaged the house and took drugs and basically gave us a terrible scare. We haven‘t used Trusted Housesitters since then, but now the pandemic has settled down we are thinking of travelling again for part of the year and are going to reactivate our TH account. I just wanted to say to you (from the point of view of someone who started a channel about the same time as you, and now has 136K subscribers) that you would probably have a much larger viewership if you concentrated more on describing your housesits and talking about the pros and cons of the whole thing. Just a thought. Your videos are very interesting but you have a lot of competition on the general travel front. We gained our following by niching down from “How to Learn to Paint in Watercolor“ to “Super Easy Watercolor Fun” basically. Less overt teaching, more enjoyment. I hope you take this comment in the spirit in which it is intended, and I wish you all the best in your digital nomad lifestyle. I would have loved to do the same when I was younger. Best wishes, Diane.
Hi Diane, we're sorry to hear about the terrible experience you had with those house sitters. We appreciate your advice about your channel, and congrats on your growth! We'll check it out :) Definitely agree with you about the competition with general travel. Getting on TH-cam has certainly been an experience!
Nicely done and very informative. Peru is a great travel destination and made me wish I worked harder than a C+ grade in HS Spanish.
Thank you! Haha we totally understand. Our high school Spanish hasn't helped us too much here either. C+ Spanish would probably get you pretty far. You could at least order una cerveza, por favor.
Guatemala has the best prices on Spanish schools and is gorgeous.🇬🇹
great video! this helped me as i was googling for how to find a house and pet sitter here in Colorado. Thanks!
We're so glad it was helpful!
What about Utility bills like Electricity, Water and Internet. does the sitter or owner pay that? What about pool and yard maintenance?
Great questions! The homeowner is typically responsible for the utilities. However, the house sitter should of course be mindful of using a reasonable amount of electricity and water. In some cases during longer house sits (1+ months), we have paid for refills of cooking gas. You should definitely discuss these things with the homeowner before you accept a house sit, but that is typically how it works in our experience. As for pool and yard maintenance, in some cases the homeowner may have pool cleaners and gardeners come on a regular schedule and you may need to coordinate with them, but in other cases the house sitter may need to take care of the yard and pool. Again, it just depends on what the homeowner needs, and they will include this in the "Responsibilities" part of their profile. And of course, you should only apply for and accept a house sit once you have a clear understanding of the expected responsibilities and whether you can/want to do them.
What if the owner accuse you of breaking something or stealing? What protection do you have as a sitter?
That's a good question. We have never had an incident like this. But if something breaks, we will own up and replace it, although I can't think of a time that happened. On top of that, the Standard and Premium Homeowner memberships include a Home and Contents Plan which covers against property damage, theft, and public liability if a sitter has an accident in their home, up to $1 million USD. Ideally, homeowners would never have to use that because house sitters should treat the home like their own, but it's there just in case.
Do you two have a home base somewhere, like in your hometown and/or if you are between house sits?
We don't currently have a home base, so we split our time between house sits, Airbnbs, hotels, hostels, and visiting family/friends. We've been traveling full-time since 2018.
Great video! Thanks for all the information. So can a couple house sit together, or do they need separate accounts? Thanks again!
Thank you, we're so glad it was helpful! This is a great question. Yes, a couple can house sit together. We've even met house sitting families. You only need one account, you just need to make it clear who will be house sitting with you in your profile, profile pictures, and in your messages with the homeowner.
How do you add references before you get your first review from the site without asking them to join trusted housesitters?
Great question! When you're first starting out, we recommend getting External References. Trusted Housesitters makes this easy to do through the click of a button on the website. You can send External Reference requests to friends/family who know you well and can share about your character, experience with animals, etc. They don't need to be a part of Trusted Housesitters. After they write the reference it will automatically be uploaded onto your profile.
How long do you have to wait for a response as a house sitter.
It depends on the homeowners. Usually they get back to us fairly quickly, however some homeowners never respond 🤷♀️ But typically they should get back to you within a week or two.
How do you make a living wage while abroad? We are considering doing this.
We have several streams of income, but the main way we have earned a living for the past 12+ years is as teachers both in person at international schools and online.
Do it for FREE! The app is amazin... wait, whut? You're not getting PAID?!
That's right, no money changes hands between the house sitters and homeowners. A big part of that is the legality of working abroad, which you can't do without a work visa in most countries. However, as house sitting is an exchange it works well for both parties as long as there's good communication and mutual understanding of expectations. We understand it's not for everyone, but we've had incredible experiences we couldn't have otherwise thanks to house sitting in this way. In fact, we're at a house sit right now!
Hi Jen and Steve, we are homeowners in the UK and thinking of doing this for two middle aged dogs while we go away. As we are new to this is there an option to only choose house sitters in the UK to start with? Only to start with until we gain confidence .
Hi Sarah, that's great! You can certainly write in your profile that you prefer sitters who are already in the UK. Let us know if you have any other questions.
Hello! I enjoyed your video. I have a question. I'll be going to the U.S. next month as a pet sitter. Should I mention it's a trip during immigration, or should I say I'm visiting a friend's house? Also, I bought a one-way ticket, and I'm curious if this could be an issue. Can you share what you usually say during immigration when traveling to various countries?
Hi, thank you! We always travel within a country before we start a house sit, so it's usually not necessary to mention the house sit at immigration at all. We're not sure what the rules are for one-way tickets when you travel to the US. Most countries want to see proof of onward travel when you enter, so it may be the same with the US. Since we're US citizens we don't have any experience with that.
@@Twocantravel Certainly! It seems like a good idea to initially mention coming for a trip, stay at an accommodation, and then head to the pet-sitting house. Thanks for the prompt and helpful response!🙂
@@ock-zp7bsThe US immigration are really tough, so you will need an onward ticket leaving the country, I’ve travelled there a lot over 40yrs and they have always been tough.
Always say you’re visiting friends and for tourism, don’t say you’re house sitting.
You're very welcome!
Getting accepted as a house sitter is almost as hard as passing a job interview. There are more applicants than owners so the odds are slim
With the recent update on Trusted Housesitters in 2023, only five sitters can apply for a house sit at a time. While that's not great for older sitters like us who relied on our reviews to land more competitive house sits, it's good for newer sitters who now have less competition! The best thing we can recommend is to set alerts for the house sit locations and dates you want. Then check the website frequently and apply for house sits you're interested in ASAP.
We found it pretty easy to land x7 sits straight off locally this summer/autumn.
Wow, that's amazing! Congrats :)
Have you used other house/pet sitting platforms?
Not yet, but we want to try some out this year.
Do you get paid per day?
You don't get paid at all. Trusted Housesitters works as an exchange, so you get free accommodation while you stay at the home and take care of the pets, plants, and any other responsibilities the homeowner needs.
What if you have your own small dog? Does that limit you a lot?
Great question! Some homeowners are okay with house sitters bringing their own pets to house sits, but it really just depends. Make sure you're upfront about your dog joining you on house sits in your profile and in your initial message to the homeowner when you apply for a house sit.
Do you have to keep track of all the "free" nights for tax income purposes?
No, that hasn't affected our tax situation.
Is there a daily cost for sitters?
No, there is no cost aside from the Trusted Housesitters annual membership. No money changes hands between house sitters and homeowners, it works as an exchange.
the location is not accurate sometimes eg central london is not surrey
You will need to zoom in on the map or click on the listings to see the locations. You can also type in the location you are looking for in the search bar. We hope that helps!
But sometimes being in Surrey makes it far quicker to get to central London by train (35 mins from Woking Surrey) than if you’re staying in North London (45 mins from Southgate).
That's true! We've just finished up our third house sit in London. This one was in a suburb and it was easier to get into the city from here on a fast train (35 mins) than from another sit we did that was technically closer.
What transportation do you have while sitting?
Great question! It depends on the sit and where it's located. We often use public transportation however, some sits allow use of the homeowner's car.
This was really helpful as a potential member looking for a house sitter for my cat Lucy. Thank you!
We're so glad it was helpful! Tell Lucy we say hi :)
Is there an age limit?
No, there is no age limit :)
Yes there is an age limit the sitter must be at least 21 years of age.
Thanks for clarifying that!
How is this an honest review when you have an affiliate link in in the description?
We've been house sitting for over 4 years and in this video, we talk about the pros and cons based on our experiences. We've helped lots of people get started with house sitting over the years. Not sure why having an affiliate link for something we use and love should be an issue, especially since it's disclosed in the description box and saves people 25% on their membership!
@@Twocantravel you can't see how getting paid by the company you are reviewing might sway your opinion?
The company didn't pay us to make this video. Totally your call if you want to start house sitting. Personally, we love it, and if you use our link you can save 25% on your membership :)
@@TwocantravelTo me your video appears to be fair, accurate & unbiased. Good job.
Thank you :)
What's the code? I acceso through my email but sends me to the app with no code
We're not sure what you mean about a code, but this is the link to get the 25% discount if you decide to join: twocantravel.myflodesk.com/trustedhousesitters25off
Hey Jen and Stevo! Thanks so much for sharing this awesome video and the discount code! 😊 I've been considering signing up and your review really helped me make up my mind. Quick question for you both: which annual plan do you recommend? Have you ever had to use the sit cancellation feature, and do you think it's worth upgrading to the premium plan? Also, how often do sit cancellations occur in your experience? Thanks again for all the helpful info!
Hey! Thanks so much for watching and we're glad it was helpful 😊We would recommend either the Standard or Premium plan because they both come with accident & third party liability coverage, free calls with vets (just in case!), and you can save your searches so it's easier to get house sits with the places and dates you want. Right now we have the Premium plan. Luckily we haven't needed to use the sit cancellation insurance yet, but we tend to do longer house sits so we like having that. It was also fun to use the lounge passes you get with the Premium plan since we'd never been in an airport lounge before! I hope that helps. I think the Standard plan is enough if you're not worried about those two things. Feel free to ask any other questions that come up!
Awesome video! Thanks for sharing! I have a quick question for you, what plan do you recommend going with? (Basic, standard or premium) and why?
Thanks, we're glad it was helpful! That's a great question. We'd recommend having at least the Standard plan because you get accident and third party liability protection and free vet calls, which are good to have just in case. We have the Premium plan because we wanted the additional perks of sit cancellation insurance and airport lounge passes.