Need house sitter advice...

[monsterkitty]

I've heard of retired people doing it who travel in their RV when they aren't house sitting or keeping an eye on someone's property.

A few years ago one of our new teachers did house/pet sitting. There were very few times that she didn't have a place she was house sitting and would need to stay at her sister's house. She did this to save money and finally bought her own townhouse.

 

[easyas123]

I pay my niece the equivalent of what the boarding would cost for our two dogs, plus all the groceries she wants. In addition, if she has to take off of work (she's a part time vet tech, full time student) I pay her the equivalent of what she would be missing out on.
More $$ than boarding but my dogs aren't stressed out, and we don't have to drop off or pick up at boarding facility 45 minutes away - car ride stresses out one of the dogs - which is worth more to us in the long run.

 

[mom to minnie&mickey]

A safe and reliable dog sitter is worth their weight in gold and paying too little or being cheap is a sure way to lose them. My dd (20) at the time was asked by my neighbour to watch 1 dog and 2 cats for four days as she was going on vacation with her family, pre covid. She went over 4 times a day, fed, watered and played with them and walked the dog 3 times/day 20-30 minutes each time. When she couldn't because of school I took over (this was agreed upon with the neighbour ahead of time). The poor dog was so lonely it cried when it saw us from the window approaching the house so we tried to spend even more time with it, even bringing it over to our house for a while. The owner was aware of this as dd kept her up to date. The mistake dd made was not state her fee beforehand because all this neighbour thought her efforts were worth was a total of $50.00 for all four days. This was not even in cash but in some gift card a week after she returned. Needless to say the next time she was asked dd was "busy" as she was not interested in helping her out anymore even by agreeing on an amount of $$ beforehand.
I should add that in the past we had seen other dog sitters at the house when they were away so it was not as if she was clueless with dog sitters.

 

[vicarrieous]

A safe and reliable dog sitter is worth their weight in gold and paying too little or being cheap is a sure way to lose them.

THIS! ^^^^^

We had one dog sitter flake while we were on vacation the VERY first day they were supposed to come. It really ruined our first part of vacation. Thankfully family were able to come and make things work. This past year we got a new one and she is great. I tipped her heavily to ensure she would want to do it again. Her rate was $50 per night for 2 dogs or $27 per 1 hour drop in visit for two dogs.

 

[tcufrog]

Thanks for the advice. My cousin has never been a dog sitter before so I suspect she won't know what to ask for.

 

[vicarrieous]

Thanks for the advice. My cousin has never been a dog sitter before so I suspect she won't know what to ask for.

Another quick suggestion, search Rover for sitters in your area and you will get to see the average going rate. Look for some with reviews and repeat customers which will give you a better idea of what a decent sitter charges/receives. This will give you a better picture of what is charged and paid in your region.

 

[AnnaS]

I can see paying those prices ($100 per night) for one, two or three nights - I thought like babysitting, the more days or the longer the hours, the rate goes down a bit.

Wow - expensive. I have not had a pet in almost 10 years so have no clue what the going rate/s is.

My DD recently had her very good friend stay at her house for the week to watch their dog. Her friend still works from home. My DD asked her friend what she likes to eat/snack on an bought those items. Of course she was welcomed to anything in the house. My DD bought her a small gift from Disney and I believe she gave her $200 or $250. Her friend did not want it but my DD insisted she take it for her time, gas and care. My DD told her "it's not payment but a big thank you/appreciation". They would do anything for each other. I hope it was enough.

This might not be a bad idea for a part time job here and there and pick up a few dollars.

 

[tcufrog]

Thanks for the advice. I offered $75/day and I think she would have been happy to take less.

 

[LSUmiss]

For feeding an animal a few times a day and living in a home? Yes, please...I mean that's just a small part of what most ppl. do on their day off from a more traditional job. I think it could definitely end up being a pretty sweet deal.

Right but most ppl don’t want to live at someone’s house. That’s the hard part, finding someone willing to do that. For one, a lot of ppl who like pets enough to petsit for others, have their own pets.

 

[LSUmiss]

Thanks for the advice. I offered $75/day and I think she would have been happy to take less.

Not sure how many dogs you have, but I have 2 & can’t board my dogs for less than $75/day. Plus like a pp said, the dogs are so much less stressed when you get home!

 

[tcufrog]

Right but most ppl don’t want to live at someone’s house. That’s the hard part, finding someone willing to do that. For one, a lot of ppl who like pets enough to petsit for others, have their own pets.

Not sure how many dogs you have, but I have 2 & can’t board my dogs for less than $75/day. Plus like a pp said, the dogs are so much less stressed when you get home!

It will be cheaper than boarding. My dogs do love the boarding place though. As soon as they figure out where we're going they go nuts. If they could open the doors themselves they'd run in without me.

My cousin is living with her parents and sisters while she's in grad school to save money. While she loves her parents and sisters, I think she's looking forward to some time away from them. We also have a hot tub and a walking trail outside our door. She perked up when I showed them to her.

 

[superme80]

When we did overnight, we paid $50 a night and stocked the fridge and cabinets with her favorite snacks. She now lives in her own place, but still pet sits for us. We pay her usually $40 a day, but upped to $50 a day when she watched the pets last minute.

 

[Kittyblue]

When I had a house sitter I paid him what it would cost to board the dog plus extra because it saved the dog the trauma of going to boarding. I also provided groceries he’d like. He was an older teen that lived at home so he enjoyed having a house to himself and was always happy to housesit when I was away LOL

 

[Bayoumomof3]

I pay my house sitter 100 a night to take care of 3 cats and 2 dogs. We live in the country so dogs do not need to be walked. She also looks after my DH 90 year old grandmother who lives with us. She is a family friend and we do expect her to remain there the whole time. I leave the refrigerator and freezer full of food she likes. I love, love, love this arrangement! So easy!

 

[TheIncredibles!]

We are paying $500 for a house/dog sitter for our vacation in a few weeks.

 

[DisneyHardin]

Since we just have cats, they don't have to be let out several times a day, therefore it isn't necessary for someone to come and stay at our house while we are out of town. I pay our cleaning lady to come feed them when we travel. I usually just give her an even amount for the time (ie: $200, $400, etc depending on the number of days), but it usually works out to about $30/day. She comes by for about an hour a day and feeds them, scoops the litter box and gives our elderly cat her medicine. It's so nice for them to not have the stress of being boarded. We did have to board them for 15 days this past summer because our cleaning lady was out of town the same time as us and it cost $1000 and they were super stressed.