If you have always fancied trying housesitting you need to build the best house sitter profile you possibly can. It’s competitive out here. The first step is join a reputable housesitting and pet sitting platform to ensure you are in the right place to promote your services. Then read on and follow our top tips to build the best possible presentation of you as a housesitter online.
Where to start to present a house sitter profile
Your first challenge is to find a house and pet sitting platform to join so that you are promoting your house sitter profile in the place where people are looking for house and pet sitters.
Choose a house sitting platform to host your profile
Consider where you want to be seen as a house and pet sitter. There are dedicated house sitting platforms online and some are better than others.
The first question you need to ask is do you want to do housesitting more locally in your own country as a paid sitter, or do you want to exchange your time and services for free so you can travel and stay for free? In this article we will focus on what to do for a free exchange housesitting arrangement in order that you can travel without visa issues.
Housesitting Visas for travel
‘A man must travel, and turmoil, or there is no existence’ Lord Byron.
Please note when planning travel — Housesitting visas do not exist. You need to research organise your tourist travel documents according to the requirements for someone carrying your type of passport and your desired destination. Research well ahead of your trip what you need to travel.
There are some that offer a more personalised approach to their members like HousesitMatch.com, with in depth ID checking for all members to ensure security on the site.
You may find other housesitting sites that are long established dedicated to house carers.
Remember the larger sites will be highly competitive for housesitters and you need to be ready for that.
Build the best house sitter profile description
Share your motivation to housesit
Start writing your housesitter profile by describing who you are and why you want to or love house and pet sitting.
The home and pet owners always want to learn about your motivation for being involved in housesitting and pet sitting for free. If you are authentic and clear about your intentions in your profile description it really helps them learn about you from your profile.
Add a little personal background
Describe your professional status and how you earn your living, people like to know you are independent and how you manage that. Tell them where you are from and how you started in housesitting.
Emphasise your love of and experience with pets
Don’t be shy about describing how much you love animals, which types of animals you have cared for. If you are applying for a dogsitting assignment in another country or even in your own it really helps to share how experienced you are, it will help the owners build confidence in your profile description.
Show that you are collaborative by nature, hence the housesitting
“One of the great things about travel is that you find out how many good, kind people there are.” — Edith Wharton
Make sure that you give some examples of how in life you are collaborative by nature e.g. Have you ever volunteered for a charity, have you cared for neighbours pets before.
Most housesitters find that because of the sharing and collaborative nature of housesitting as a means to undertake affordable travel the people you meet along the way are friendly, helpful and kind. And often you make the best of friends.
ID, background checks and verification
Always do the ID checks and verifications offered to you online to prove you are a real person and a person of good standing in your community. These checks are important because they give the host confidence in you before they have met you. And checks for all members means peace of mind to all participants in the housesitting arrangement.
Publish some great photos and videos of you
Get organise so that you have some photos of you looking after pets or involved in housesitting activities like garden maintenance.
Show photos of your work as an indoor and outdoor housesitter if appropriate. Show that you know and understand what it means to care for pets, feeding them, offering them treats and exercising them.
References and reviews
One of the good reasons to join a housesitting platform, apart from the fact that some are equipped to help you get started in your house and petsitting adventure, is that they will publish reviews and references from the owners against your profiles. This feature adds weight and resonance to your profile and helps you secure more housesits, the more reviews you earn.
Prepare a detailed and informative
When you are writing your description, to ensure the best house sitter profile make sure you
- Spell check your text.
- Use active verbs to describe your activities.
- Be discretely informative about your earned experience.
Get housesitter references to share
For new housesitters wanting to build the best house sitter profile you would really benefit by securing good references to share with home and pet owners to whom you are applying.
Some housesitters start by doing a very local housesit first and securing a reference or two in this way. Then they apply on a wider scale and offer to share those house sitter references. It can really help you build the best house sitter profile to have such references to hand.
FURTHER READING
LEARN MORE ABOUT BECOMING A HOUSE SITTER AND PET SITTER
Become a house sitter and pet sitter
