fee for housesitter?
 

What do you pay your housesitter?
Do they sleep at your house or just check it once or twice a day? Do you have a job description you use? Maybe an outline of expectations?

I pay $150 a week for a college student known to me to actually sleep here. I leave some sodas and treats for him and let him eat what he wants from the pantry and fridge. No housekeeping required other than picking up after himself. No parties, no visitors, no long distance calls, no pay-per-view movies. Water plants, turn on heat or AC as needed. No grounds work (we have a lawn service that mows)expected. He is there to make the place look lived in. We have a security company. If I had a pet, I would expect him to feed and water it.

It's cash, no taxes. How does this compare to what you pay?

I spend the most on a great hotel.....no special guides, no taxis, no gifts, no souvenirs, simple meals, picnics, no house sitters nor pet sitters, no finance charges on credit cards. It is amazing what you can save on non essentials.

I only had one once when I was gone for about a month and the idea was for security reasons -- supposedly to discourage theft. No work was involved as I had no pets, except taking the mail in. I didn't pay anything as I was doing that person a favor by giving them a rent-free apt. in a very upscale beach area for a month, which saved them from looking for a vacation sublet as they needed a place for the summer. I didn't even charge for utilities. I certainly didn't give this grown adult food or drinks, they were earning more money than I and there was a supermarket a couple blocks away. As I said in another post, I regreted it as I don't think they helped discourage theft and did some things I didn't like and showed little appreciation for getting this rent-free apt. near the beach in Santa Monica.

I've only known one person who kind of did this as a second job, sort of, and they were doing it because they couldn't stand their housemates, and little space where they lived, and liked being in other people's places which were a lot nicer. I don't think they got paid anything as they were gaining free rent in a nice place, nor did they expect someone to give them food/drinks.

I suppose others will disagree, but I can't imagine why you are paying this kid anything or giving them sodas and treats. I'll bet anything this college student is getting a much nicer place to stay than they normally live, or it is even saving them rent, and all they have to do is water your plants. Getting a place rent free is more than enough compensation.

I did pay a neighbor high school kid one summer about $25 a week to stop by my house and pick up the mail and just sort of check everything was okay (just look around for anything unusual), but he did not even have a key to my house. I paid because that was a job and involved about 15 min. of his time each day, but he lived only a couple houses away.

We have four dogs. Three Boston Terriers that we have raised from pups, and a mixed breed stray that no one has claimed and we don't have the heart to turn over to a shelter.

When we got our third dog, it became financially advantageous to use a house sitter rather than kennel all of the dogs. Most professional house/pet sitters set their prices so that the crossover point between them and a kennel is between two and three dogs.

Anyway, to get to your question, you are getting a fairly good deal, because we pay $40/night. Our neighbor's daughter (who is in her early thirties) has offered to house sit for $25/night, but we feel that our house sitter is worth the extra money. She is very responsible and, most importantly, she is detailed oriented, which is necessary when one person is keeping track of four dogs. Also, she doesn't mind the fact that two of the Bostons expect to sleep in the bed. Our greatest concern is that they are beginning to like her more than us.

I simply can 't understand why you're paying someone to sleep in your house and eat your food. Get yourself a thermostat and a couple of timers, and save a bundle.

We have 2 cats and always use a house sitter, but if we had no animals I don't think we would bother.

The going rate in the SF Bay Area seems to be $20-30 per night, for someone to live in, but there is usually a price break for longer periods. We have been paying $100/week because our cats are pretty low maintenance and we live in a great place where people enjoy staying.

In the good old days we used to get people to stay at no charge. Since we live in the woods in a beautiful area, our house sitter(s) used to consider it a vacation.

I don't mind if the house sitter eats the sort of food and drink that is left around (e.g., cereal, soft drinks). I wouldn't expect to find our best wine gone, however. I leave the house clean and expect to find it that way on our return. Have never discussed long distance calls or parties, but have never had a problem.

Quicktips==

I paid a housesitter to stay in my home for 2 weeks while on a vacation- I have a dog and needed her to walk the dog ( or let her out in the back yard) 3 x a day and feed her once a day.

She had a day job ( waitressing- she was a college student and did this to pick up extra spending money)...

I did leave her some snacks but the rest of the food was up to her....

PS- NEVER again- as she did NOT take the dog out at the pre-arranged times==in fact, I don't think she ever took the dog out except in the am and very late pm==and the dog did her business in the house --and she never does that ever! SO we knew she wasn't walk as discussed with the housesitter.
After paying the student $150,we then had to pay a carpet cleaner $250 to fix the mess...So as hubs says, NEVER again!!

And yes, she did sleep at the house- in the guest bedroom- she did have her boyfriend over ( we knew about it ahead of time and ok'd it) and yes, she did have a job description--but she turned out to be horribly unsuited for the job....ALL I can say is thank god she did not agree to watch a child!

I don't feel price has a thing to do with letting someone house sit..we did it to make sure the home looked lived in ( even tho there is a security system) and we wanted to keep the dog out of a kennel cage.....

Now we take the dog to a couple who watch dogs in their home-- and they are TERRIFIC...we love it, dog loves it and everyone is a happy camper!

We board our dog and the most we've ever paid a housesitter is $5 a day.
We're not trying to be cheap but there are so many people who love to stay in our house in the redwoods on the NorCal coast (with hot tub and other amenities) that we've never really needed to pay more than that.
We do it for security reasons and peace of mind. We've never had a housesitter take advantage by running up the phone bill or watching a lot of pay-for-view. I guess we're lucky!

We paid our nephew $200 for a month (although he wasn't there the whole time) to keep the dog company, and mow the lawn twice. We paid neighborhood kids $3 each time they took the dog out and fed the dog when it wasn't convenient for my nephew (usually they did it once a day). But,I think while we were gone the dog got more food than usually because she went through a bucket of food that usually takes a month in a little over two weeks.

I can very much appreciate the question living in our two Portuguese Water Dogs' house as we do...and buying the timers is an absure answer as far as I am concerned since the times only tell potential thieves that the lights come on EVERY night at the exact same moment!
Anyway, I think one "problem" with a question such as this is your location...I wish I could FIND someone in this area (No. Virginia) would would accept $150/week for such a responsibility...so what you'll have to pay may very well depend on the economics of the area that YOU live in..but wish you success nonetheless.

"buying the timers is an absure answer as far as I am concerned since the times only tell potential thieves that the lights come on EVERY night at the exact same moment!"

Oh, please. Do you really imagine that potential thieves are sitting outside your house for hours every night, checking whether the lights come on at the exact same time in order to determine whether someone is home? People who ARE home turn on lights at about the same time every night -- when it starts to get dark out! And they often go to bed according to a routine and turn them off at the same time, too. A potential thief would have to be dedicated to watching YOUR house in order for your paranoid concept to matter; unless you're suspicious of the neighbors, this just isn't significant.

We've hired graduate students from a local univeristy to live in our house while we're gone. The major responsibility is caring for the dog who doesn't do well with long stays in a kennel. Other than that, they water plants, bring in mail and newspaper, and clean up after themselves. I suspect they'd do it for free because they really like getting out of graduate student apartments for awhile, but we pay $100 per week. That's comparable to what we'd spend to board our dog.

Yes, Anonymous, they DO watch your house - it's called "casing the joint" or some other Hollywood expression. Expert burglars don't just break in - they know what they are doing, so they wouldn't get caught. I live in one of the highest burglary areas in my part of California - police are also warning people not to leave windows and doors opened just a sliver "to let in air" and to engage in other preventative measures. Getting a housesitter is one preventative method. One of the best preventatives is good neighbors. We engage in a sort of informal neighborhood watch.

If someone would just invent a timer that turns on and off at random times, that might help solve part of the problem.

As for being a housesitter, I'd offer to sit your house, except that I don't do dogs and birds, cats and fish maybe, horses definitely not and snakes, mice, tarantulas absolutely not! (Just kidding!)

Have a safe day! :)

Timers are available that have a random element. The times that they go on and off are not entirely random, but they have a randomness of about 30 minutes about a specific time. We also have a timer that allows a different set of times for each day of the week. These are not hard to find, try Home Depot.

Incidentally, don't assume that the greatest risk of burglary comes from a complete stranger that doesn't live in your neighborhood. Some friends of ours were burglarized and it turned out the culprits were their next door neighbors. These people had only lived in the area for a short while and were not well known by anyone in the neighborhood. They probably qualify as some of the stupidest criminals on the planet. They were caught because they couldn't lift the big screen TV and decided to drag it across the two yards. It didn't take the Lone Ranger and Tonto to follow that trail.

Also, someone else we know was burglarized by laborers that worked for a construction company responsible for new buildings in there neighborhood. These guys were not professional thieves that were there specifically to case the place. They were simply opportunists. While they were doing their job, it became obvious that no one was home for several days.

For those of you who are looking to find responsible house sitters, try networking. Talk to everyone you know who travels and has pets, and it's likely you'll get some recommendations for house sitters. I've used 5 or 6 different people over the past 10 years, all of whom were either previously known to me or recommended by friends. It's a good way to avoid some of the problems mentioned earlier on this thread.

Because I live in SF and the housing situation is so tight here, I always seem to have a friend or two who are available to house sit for free. These are people who have tiny apartments with no parking who welcome the opportunity to stay in my home for a week or so. I haven't had a bad experience yet and I really like the idea of having someone here while I'm gone -- and it doesn't cost me anything.

in Seattle WA
$18/day or $22/day holiday supplement

Includes feeding 2 cats, staying for a 1 hour visit, changing cat litter, bringing in mail, watering plants.

The person is bonded and licensed and they supplied the contract with the terms of agreement all spelled out.

$30/day to walk dog 3X/day and bring in mail.

What you pay makes no difference compared to how trustworthy the housesiiter is. If you do not know the housesitter personally don't take a chance.

If a potential burglar wants to "case the joint," he doesn't need to sit around timing your timers, he can just pick up a clipboard and ring the doorbell pretending to take a survey.