Guest post by Jane from Live Rich & Free
Last year, I was stuck. I’d been accepted to the masters of education program at Harvard, but I wasn’t looking forward to more loans. I planned to work part-time while in school, but I wanted to cut my expenses as much as possible.
I realized that my biggest expense would be rent. I knew that rent was cheaper outside of the city, but commuting would eat up precious hours each day and parking alone might offset the savings. And then I thought, “what if there were some way I could cut that expense entirely?”
So I got searching on the internet, and found that there are a number of sites for housesitters. Housesitters are people who live in another’s home for any period of time from one weekend to years, and take care of it as if it were their own.
Usually, housesitters aren’t paid, unless there are pets involved. They often pay utilities and perform upkeep chores like raking leaves and shoveling snow. Just like they would in their own home.
I signed up for two sites (they tend to cost around $50/year) and found that a housesit was available in my area, starting immediately and ending on the day of graduation! I emailed the couple who owned the house, and moved in a week later.
It wasn’t all magical. The utilities were a little higher than I expected. The basement flooded six times during the rainy spring. That would be the finished basement, with white wall-to-wall carpeting. The dishwasher broke. In other words, it was just like having your own home.
But in the end, it was definitely worth it. I had a great place to live for six months, a comfortable house that came to feel like home. Since then, I’ve successfully used my housesitting membership for a free two-week stay in downtown Manhattan and a weekend away at the beach.
Is housesitting for you? Some things to consider:
- Remember that nothing is free. Taking care of a house is a lot of work. For a long-term stay, you should ask the homeowner for some past utility bills so you can have a good understanding of your budget before you decide.
- I believe most people are good, but it doesn’t hurt to have an agreement in writing, if only because it makes both of your expectations clear. My favorite site, HouseCarers.com, has a template agreement that customers can download for free.
- You’ll have an easier time finding a housesit if you have references or ties to the community. Being from the Boston area and having experience as a live-in nanny helped me secure my position.
- Many of the positions available are for a week or weekend, all over the world. This can be a very affordable and family-friendly way to see new places and try the house sitting lifestyle.
Jane is a teacher and tutor in Boston. Her blog about her frugal lifestyle, Live Rich & Free, can be found at Live Rich & Free.
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{ 27 comments }
Wow, I never would have known something like that was an option. Very interesting. Sorry about the hardships here and there, but it does sound like you had the perfect solution!
It has been completely wonderful! I don’t mind the little things that go wrong, but it has to be something people are willing to put up with. I’m back in the house for another 6 months this year, and it’s perfect.
I would never have even thought of doing this. Very interesting.
what a great idea. I’ve heard of house swapmstort1@live.spcollege.eduing, which I don’t think I’d want to do, but doing this for a short vacation somewhere sounds like a fun.
Great guest post!!
We have friends who have done this for houses that are empty and on the market. They have to be willing to keep the house clean and be able to leave for showings (which she said is maybe once a week or so, normally), and be willing to move with 30 days’ notice. They pay a reduced rent rate (about 1/3 to 1/2, here in the Seattle area).
I think it’s a great way to save money, but I think moving that often would be a lot of work!
Our friends have lived in a couple of *very* nice homes for a lot less money than we pay in rent. On the other hand, sometimes getting from one house to the next without being “homeless” in-between could be a challenge!
If we didn’t have 4 kids, I would be a lot more likely to pursue something like this.
I don’t recommend living in someone else’s house that’s on the market if you have children, especially little ones. We did that to get reduced rent and it was so stressful that we had to move out earlier than planned.
I live in Boston too and last year’s rain ruined so many basements!
I’m sitting in that basement now (we came back again this year) and praying that no water comes in anywhere. So far, so good.
Do you have to pay for the damage to the basement?
No. We have to spend time cleaning up things most people would clean up on their own. But for bigger problems (like repairs), we pay someone to do it, and then we get reimbursed (usually they take the amount of our utilities that month).
My husband and I have two children (10 weeks and 20 months) and he is thinking about going back to school in the Philadelphia area. The rent is one of the biggest costs. Have you ever heard of people taking on house sitters with small children?
Usually people post ads looking for a “young professional or older couple”, but that’s usually. Generally, the kind of people who hire housesitters are more easy-going than your average person – they’re letting someone live in their house, after all! It never hurts to ask. As long as you’re upfront about it, I would imagine most people wouldn’t mind; at least they know you’re not throwing wild parties!
So what happened with the need for repairs, then? Did you or the owners have to coordinate that? That sounds like a huge hassle- we’ve had serious home problems ourselves but being the homeowner we dealt with it rather than through a middle man.
That’s a great question. Before they left, we walked through any weird issues in the house, and they left me a list of their trusted vendors (plumber, repair people, etc). Luckily they are very responsive with email, so usually I just tell them what needs to be fixed, I call the repair person, and then I scan and email a copy of the bill and they take it off my utility payments. So I coordinate it, but it’s not really any harder than it would be if it were my own house. In an emergency, I can call those vendors (or someone else if needed) and trust that they will reimburse my expense.
Thank you so much for the info! My daughter is a recent College Grad ( Mt Holyoke) and would like to go to Grad School. I don’t have to tell you about the student loans she is dealing with. Currently she is working to put some money aside to acomplish her goals and cutting her living expenses while obtaining her Masters would be a big help.
Wow, this is such a wonderful idea. Jane, would you mind sharing a couple more of the sites that you’ve tried for housesitting? Thanks!
The only one I’ve kept my membership with is http://www.housecarers.com. As a tip, if you register with them once, they don’t want you to cancel, so they keep sweetening the deal. Since I waited and waited closer to the 1-year deadline, they ended up adding 3 months for free for my second year.
I chose that site mostly because it’s where I found the housesit I have now, so I wanted to keep a longer membership time there because my biggest reference will be from that site. They also have lots of housesits in Australia and Europe, which are interesting summer alternatives for me (since most people don’t want to be in Australia in “summer”, which is their winter, there tend to be more sits available).
The first year I subscribed to caretaker.org, but it wasn’t the perfect fit for me. Lots of farms and more “wild” properties. Some of these offered small stipends, too, and might be a great fit for families or people with more experience than me!
I haven’t personally used any others, but when I was first looking I had a lot of people advise me to use housesittersamerica.com. I initially ruled it out because it didn’t have as many postings as housecarers.com, but there’s no reason you can’t do both.
Great post. We are empty-nesters and thinking about being snow birds for January and February next year. I’ve thought about house sitters for when we’re gone. We are only 10-15 minutes from Yale, so maybe we can find a grad student or relocating faculty. I would be happy to have a family with young children. We have 5 grown kids, so our house is big with a fenced-in yard.
I’d love to hear your recommendations for other reputable sites, too.
You won’t have ANY problem finding a housesitter with all those grad students around. I love the arrangement because it’s mutually beneficial, which is my favorite thing. I’ve had the most luck with housecarers.com, but I will say that it has a lot of posting outside of the US. housesittersamerica.com is probably the most popular, but I haven’t used it myself.
I also wouldn’t rule out craigslist. I know it has a bad reputation, but I think that’s because people aren’t careful. If you meet the people and check their references, it’s really no different than any other person-to-person site, except that it’s free. It would at least be a good way to gauge interest. (one other thing about housecarers is it has a really nice sample contract that you and the housesitter can ammend and sign. it’s pretty complete, so you can be clear about a lot of issues, which has been super-helpful).
Great post! Thanks so much!
We housesat for about 6 months before we got married. It was for a good friend of my husband’s family though. They had to go to Europe for work and we had to take care of their dog too since it was easier than quarentining (sp?) her. We paid half the utilities, but had no rent. They had a yard service, but we did have to trim bushes once. And we had to keep it clean and take care of the dog, who I fell in love with and is why I now have large dogs. Since we had previously been paying for 2 seperate apartments in 2 seperate states, not having those monthly rent checks helped us pay off our credit cards that we had stupidly run up in our young 20/great economy naive ways!
Can you share the two sites that you have used successfully? We are anticipating this type of short term need.
Thanks.
Herb
Sure, I mostly use http://www.housecarers.com, but I also initially used caretaker.org (this one, as I remember, had a lot more properties that were bigger and tended to be looking for people older than me.) I also found a short-term housesit through Craigslist that turned out great. I know craigslist has a reputation for being sketchy, but if you meet the person ahead of time and talk to their references, it’s not really any different than any other person-to-person site.
I’m impressed you were able to use this for a couple vacations (Manhattan and the beach). Would you recommend using a site like this just for finding a home to vacation in? Pros, cons?
I would say MOST (75%?) of the housesits available, at least on housecarers.com, are for short-term stays (1 week or less). Of course, those also usually involve pets. Still, if you don’t mind walking the dog twice a day, it can save a HUGE travel expense, especially if you are traveling with kids. Some housesits also include use of the car.
One of the things I love about housecarers is that you don’t have to buy a membership to see what’s available. You can go to the site and click “find housesits” and see what’s available, when, all over the world. You just can’t contact any of the people without buying a membership, which I think is fair.
So I think if pets aren’t a definite ‘NO’ for you, I would at least check it out. If you see the perfect thing, gambling on a membership may be worth it. You could share one with a friend and it would only be $25 a year. Of course the downside is you have to be a little responsible on your trip, but for me that’s worth not paying for a hotel.
YOU WILL BE SUED FOR DAMAGES WHETHER THEY ARE YOUR
FAULT OR NOT. How much does insurance to cover costs and outcome of being sued costs. See an attorney first. Many homeowners need money and will try anything to get insurance pay offs.
It might be a little extreme to say you “will” be sued, as I don’t know anyone that’s happened to, but you certainly could be. It’s important to check references and talk to other housesitters or employees that the homeowner has had. Housecarers.com offers a nice template of an housesitter-homeowner contract that lays out exactly what your responsibilities will be and what you will be held accountable for. I’m a lawyer, so I was comfortable proceeding based on that, but I can see why someone might want to talk to a lawyer about it.