Getting started with housesitting?

July 21, 2010 7:57 AM

What are your experiences with house-sitting placement websites, such as this one? Should I bother with registering at one of these sites?

The fees tend to be about $20-30/year, but I am looking to do this for awhile and am open to investment.

I am relatively unexperienced in housesitting, but have volunteer experience caring for farm animals and have lived with many cats, dogs, rodents and lizards throughout my life. My fears are that I don't have any non-family housesitting references and I'm 22 years old...will setting up with an online sitters agency help with this, or will I just be at the bottom of the barrel of a bunch of more 'profesional' types? Should I just stick with scouring Craigslist every day and post my own ads? Any specifics I should keep in mind while creating an effective resume for this?

I'm not looking to get paid, just free rent. I'm currently located in New England and looking to housesit just about anywhere within 10 hours driving distance.

posted by supernaturelle to Work & Money (1 answer total)

I've heard good things about the caretaker gazette from friends of mine, but I haven't used it yet.

From what I understand, it's worth the fee and you can build your references through the sitting jobs quite quickly. But make sure you have a reputable site.
posted by patheral at 8:46 AM on July 21, 2010