House sitter while at WDW

[profdsny]

Has anyone had a house-sitter while they are gone on vacation. We are taking an extended trip next month to Florida and WDW. The sitter is someone we know and trust, so that's not an issue. I just wonder how much to pay for it? It will involve generally just picking up mail, watering plants, cleaning the walk, etc. We'll be gone about three weeks.

 

[SandyinMonterey]

I have someone who stays at my house for dog sitting. I've been using her for ten years now. She'll pick up our mail and take out garbage cans but that's about it. She's mainly there for our dog. I pay about $20 to $25/day.

 

[WDWLODGE]

We paid a close friend $300 for 2 weeks last year. He stayed at our house and took care of our dog. We also stocked the "cabinets" for him to eat.

 

[bobbiwoz]

The teen who watches our house when we are gone gets $8 a day. She feeds the birds and brings in the mail, and once a week waters the plants. She lives a few houses down. We just returned from 3 1/2 weeks in FL and she did a great job!

 

[Barbydoll8]

I did this as a kid and for 10 days I got about 180 bucks (20 + years ago). I have cats so even for a 3 day stay, I pay someone to come in, check the place, feed and care for my babies, bring in the mail etc. It's usually around $25 bucks for the weekend.

When I'm gone longer like for 5 days or more, I usually pay about $75 - 100 bucks. This person doesn't sleep at my house but is a trusted friend's son. He varies the times he comes in each day so activity is in the house at all times. Our closest neighbor is also aware of us being gone and the house/pet sitter coming into the house.

 

[mickeygirl14]

I have a couple of friends that will come do it - younger friends (1 is a teenager and the other is a young 20-something). I stock the fridge and cabinets for them and tell them they are welcome to stay at the house or not - up to them and what they'd rather do. They let the dog out in the morning, afternoon and evening and make sure he's fed and taken care of, they take the trash out and get the mail. I usually give them $150 for the week. And they seem happy with it. Hope that helps.

 

[profdsny]

Thanks for the replies so far. We don't have pets, so that's not an issue, but I hadn't thought about stocking the fridge part.
I'm glad to see the responses, because I was thinking about $200 for the time. We could also do the food part as well, and let him decide if he wants to stay or not. We are about equidistant between his apartment and where he works, so it shouldn't be much of a problem. Again, without pets, there is no set time that he'd have to be here to feed and/or walk one.
So, does $200 seem about right to you for getting the mail, cleaning off snow if necessary, and generally making the place seem occupied for about 3 weeks?

 

[genmasjoy]

I pay a neighbor $10 a day to get the mail and check on the house. We don't have a pet, so I think it's reasonable. He doesn't stay at our house, lives right on our street.

 

[MinnieGirl33]

The pets make a difference, IMO.

Our 21 y.o. nephew comes & stays with our 2 doxies. He is a college student & lives 3 blocks away so he goes back & forth a lot. We pay him $25/day.

 

[CMOORE185]

Thanks for the replies so far. We don't have pets, so that's not an issue, but I hadn't thought about stocking the fridge part.
I'm glad to see the responses, because I was thinking about $200 for the time. We could also do the food part as well, and let him decide if he wants to stay or not. We are about equidistant between his apartment and where he works, so it shouldn't be much of a problem. Again, without pets, there is no set time that he'd have to be here to feed and/or walk one.
So, does $200 seem about right to you for getting the mail, cleaning off snow if necessary, and generally making the place seem occupied for about 3 weeks?

I don't know if $200 is fair or not, but with the winter we are having in Chicago the snow removal may be more then he bargained for.

 

[sarahk0204]

I don't know if $200 is fair or not, but with the winter we are having in Chicago the snow removal may be more then he bargained for.

No kidding!

We have pets, so our 20-something pet sitter who stays at our house gets $30 per day, plus I tend to round up a little. For our trip before Christmas we had arrangements with a friend who was supposed to plow our driveway while we were gone. He reneged on us, so the pet sitter shoveled as well. We felt awful because we hadn't even shown her where the snowblower was because our friend was supposed to take care of things. We ended up paying her extra (the $ that we were going to pay our friend for plowing).

We had asked our friend to plow because 3 years ago we were going to have our lawn service company plow while we were gone, and they never showed. My SIL who was coming over to check on the pets couldn't even make it into the driveway. DH has sworn off Christmas trips for a while.