What is a House Sitting Business?
House sitting is when you stay at someone’s house while they are on vacation, on a business trip, or are away for an extended period of time for some other reason. As a house sitter, you watch over their house, take care of it, and take care of any pets if they have any.
A house sitting business means you do it with some regularity. This is a great way to make extra money if you do it a few times a year, or you can make it a full blown business getting as many clients as possible.
House sitting can be as much as living in their home for the entire week to checking in on the house once or twice a day to take care of pets, get the mail, etc. It all depends on what the customer wants and needs.
Who Needs House Sitters?
Anyone who is going away for more than a day may want a house sitter to help protect their house. If a person is going on vacation for a week or two, they might not like the idea of keeping their house unattended for that long. As a house sitter, you can stay there overnight to help deter thieves and keep it save, and if they have pets, you can take care of them.
Your clients will have lots of different reasons why they need a house sitter including any of the following:
- Business Trips
- Vacations
- Weekend Getaways
- Visits far away from home
- Temporary work dislocation
Who Can Do House Sitting?
A responsible person with the time and ability to watch the house can be a house sitter. If you have experience as a house sitter and can secure clients, you can make it a business.
How to Get Started
What you Need
- Insurance - Talk with an insurance provider about getting bonded and getting insurance. A surety bond is a three person contract that ensures the job is done in full and payment is made. Learn more about how surety bonds work here. You should also have insurance so that customers feel comfortable leaving their home in your hands and to protect both parties financially.
- References – This business requires a lot of trust, and insurance and bonding might not be enough for a lot of clients’ peace of mind. As your business grows and you start getting customers that you don’t know, they will want to see personal references as well as references from past customers. Have plenty to give them.
- A Plan – You should set up a business plan to help you design your house sitting business. This will help you sort out what kind of services you’ll offer, how you will market your business, how you will do the bookkeeping of your business, etc.
Fortunately, this business doesn’t require a large start up cost besides the insurance and transportation to and from the houses.
How to Get Customers
Start with people you know. Tell friends, family, and neighbors about your new business venture. Sometimes it only takes one or two good house sitting jobs to get jump started. If the friends and family you work with are happy, ask them for a reference and ask them to tell everyone they know.
Make up business cards to hand out to potential clients. Give them a stack so they can hand them out too.
I usually recommend sticking with people you know or people that are referred by people you know. This is beneficial to both parties. The customers can feel safer about working with someone they know or that is well-referred by someone they know, and you get the same courtesy.
This is a good repeat business. You will soon find that you get the same customers calling you back. If you can secure a good base of customers, you won’t have to do a lot of other marketing.
How to Charge
How you charge will depend on:
- How long they will be away
- Whether or not they have pets, and if they do, how many and what kind
- Whether you will be living in their home while they are away or just stopping by
- If there are any other things they want to to do such as cleaning, etc.
The amount you should charge will vary based on where you live as well. Look around for house sitting ads to see what people are charging. Set up a fee schedule to hand out to customers. Leave room for additional requirements that you can charge extra for.
How to Build your Business
Be strategic in how you run your business. There will be times when customers need you for the same week. Find a way to work things out. Does one customer want you to stay overnight while others just want you to stop by? You can probably do both at the same time.
Over time, you will be a more trusted house sitter. That means you can increase your rates over time as demand increases. However, don’t set them so high that you lose customers unless you have too many to manage. You might also want to try partnering up or hiring employees to get more work.
Whether you decide to have a part time house sitting job over the summer for extra cash or you make it a full time career, always treat it like a business and be a professional.