Looking after a house or flat whilst the owner is away is a good way of taking a break from your own home and routine. More and more people own more than one property or spend time away on business, as well as having a summer holiday, so take advantage.

• Look after people’s houses while they’re away.
• Get free accommodation.
• Join Homesitters or Mrs Hunt’s Agency to get work.
• Also, it’s free to put yourself on Jobsgrapevine as a house-minder or house-sitter

Some agencies will also specialise in short-term sitting, where they provide people who will stay in your home all day waiting for the plumber or an elusive furniture delivery. House-minding is keeping an eye on an empty home with a regular, often daily, visit to water the plants and pick up the post and have a quick tidy.

Working with an agency

It is easiest to present an agency with a police check and you will need references from professional people. The agency will interview you in your own home to make sure you are suitable for the job.

Some agencies like Homesitters take on sitters as their employees and therefore they are responsible, not you. They will have insurance to protect you throughout the job and even your partner if they are joining you for the sit.

You won’t be expected to work all day, usually your duties will require a couple of hours and the rest of your time is yours. However clearly the whole point of house-sitting is that you’re there to protect it so usually an agency like Homesitters will expect you to leave the property for no longer that three hours at a time in the day and one hour at night.

Another benefit to using an agency is that you will be given support throughout the process. They will arrange a meeting between you and the client so that you know exactly what the client expects of you as a house-sitter and a checklist will be drawn up to ensure that both you and the client know exactly where you stand. You will be able to contact the agency at any point during the house-sit and they will help you if anything goes wrong.

You’ll probably find you get more work through an agency. Their clients will want to know that house-minders have been vetted thoroughly and matched to suit their particular needs so will be more inclined to use an agency that does both these things.

A good agency will interview you thoroughly to determine your interests, skills and preferences. This will then help them to match you to appropriate clients so that the sit is more fun for you and beneficial to the client. For example, a client with a cat can be matched to a house-sitter who has had experience looking after cats and would enjoy it.

Generally, an agency will match you to a client that lives near your own home, usually within the same county. However, if you want to travel they may be able to help to you find a house-sit further away as long as you agree to pay towards the travel costs, or use the opportunity to stay with a family member or friend and travel to the house-sit from there instead.

A good house-sitting agency will give you health and safety training, personal safety training, animal welfare guidance and details of their own regulations and rules. The only experience you need is of running your own home. Clients just want to be sure that you can do all the domestic tasks and keep their home running smoothly.

Who would it suit?

• Homesitters – 01296 630 730
• Mrs Hunt’s Agency (within the M25 area only) -020 7824 8209
• Or put yourself on Jobsgrapevine as a house-sitter or house-minder


Want to know more?

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