Elloraine

I am house sitting for an elderly couple. I agreed to house sit before I agreed to a payment amount. They said we could look up what other house-sitter's usually make and just try and find something fair.
I'm going to be house sitting for 1 1/2 weeks. My duties include watering the plants, lawns and two gardens. I have to water the gardens once a day and it takes a half hour each. I have to also weed the gardens. I need to check to make sure the ants outside don't get out of hand. I'm staying the night there because I don't have a car and it's easier because I have to take care of everything daily. I have the simple task of collecting the mail and signing for any packages that come in. I also take out the trash and recycling and compost.

There's also been some road work so I have to deal with the water being turned off for most of the day for a couple of days and possibly without warning.

What does someone usually get paid doing these things?

SandyBrit

Elloraine:

Can't help you but if you re-post your question in the lounge you will get suggestions.

Welcome to Fodors.

Sandy

Gretchen

Years and years ago it was $15-$20/day. NOt sure about requiring weeding the garden!! That is beyond a house sitter in my opinion. The amount of time watering the gardens should definitely be a factor.

Gretchen

Take a look.
https://www.google.com/#hl=en&gs_nf=...w=1280&bih=575

nanabee

My limited experiences from friends who have done house sitting is that they wanted a place to vacation or stay and someone would be away and needed someone to look after the house and yard. There was never money paid in this type of favor exchange.

In the future I would have this decided up front. Before the homeowner can tell you what she will pay you - I would do some quick checking on my own and tell her right away what price you have in mind - UNLESS you are willing to take whatever she decides is fair.

Gretchen

Yes, maybe as a favor, but I think the post above is correct. Get a figure in mind first and offer it. And don't underestimate the service you are going to give. Watering gardens is obviously high on their list of desir to have done. We have paid $5/day just for someone to come sprinkle our plants--probably took 10 minutes.

NeoPatrick

I currently am away from my Florida condo for an extended time. I have a friend who is "house sitting for me" for several months while she is also waiting to close on her home. Since it is a condo, there are no real exterior duties, but all the other things you mention, she is doing -- trash, recycles, mail, watering plants, cleaning the place, also meeting repairmen for several service projects. She PAYS ME $800 a month for the privilege of doing that and having a nice place to temporarily live.

Ackislander

Yes, we've never paid a housesitter but that's because we always had young people working for us who were delighted to have a house of their own for a couple of weeks instead of a bunch of roommates or, worse, brothers and sisters and parents! We left the refrigerator loaded for them and a sum of money for more food.

That said, all they had to do was walk and play with the Cairn terrier twice a day, water the houseplants once a week, and bring in the mail.

But if we had expected all that gardening, etc, we would have expected to pay $10-$15 per hour for that, and we would have paid if they had to wait for a package on a Saturday.

Now that I live in Nantucket, I would probably have to hire the police for crowd control if I let it be known I was looking for a free house sitter.

nytraveler

Yes - but the OP alredy has a home and is definitely doing this as an employee. Given the amount to be done - at various hours - I would ask for at least $50 per day.

tracys2cents

Sounds like you're going to be doing about 3 hours of work a day so $40 or $50 a day sounds fair. Tell them it might go higher or lower depending on what happens and how many hours of work you put in.

You're not really housesitting, it sounds like you just decided to spend the night because it is more convenient for you that way. You're working for them, so charge them, just like a housekeeper would if they asked her to come in one day and clean the house while they were away.

Dukey1

Doing the yard work, etc., is not "house sitting" IMO; more like house KEEPING and gardening, etc. For free? No way.

emcash

We pay weeded $20 an hour!

mztery

Just a warning - if they weren't willing to set a fee when you started, they may really balk when you present them with a bill for $40-50/day for 10 days.

LSky

Our house/pet sitter charges us 10-15 dollars a day. I think it's too little and pay her $20. She takes care of 2 dogs and 2 1/2 cats plus waters the garden. Never would we ask her to weed the garden, that's over the top. We're only gone 2 weeks at a time.

Gretchen

I think $40 is 'way too much. $20 sounds right to me in this day.

jubilada

We pay 35 dollars a day for housesitting which includes care of 2 cats one of whom needs shots twice daily. Much of what you mention ( taking out trash, etc) wouldn't need to be done if you were not there, so it is the gardening and watering, which is half hour per day plus weeding.
I think $20 /day is more than sufficient.

Paul

If you did it in Wisconsin, the pay would be substantially lower than Colorado.

nytraveler

A lot of this will depend on what area you're in and what prices/incomes are. Here a babysitter gets $20 an hour minimum - and I used to pay (5 years ago) $40 per day for a neighbor to care for 2 healthy cats and bring in mail.

Mamma_Love

I offered my babysitter (a recent high school graduate) $25/day to pet/house sit for us while we are away this summer. I told her I needed her to come by 3 times a day to take care of the pets (1 cat, 1 dog) and plan to spend about 1 hour each time, take in the mail everyday, and put out/bring in the garbage can once a week. No house/yard work required. It's less than half what we would pay to board the animals at the kennel. This way, she still gets to earn some money too while we have the kids with us so no babysitting income for her. Win/win arrangement. I'll also have neighbors keeping an eye on things.

A friend of mine has recently "paid" me in wine for pet/house sitting - will work for wine! LOL! Works for me!

sassy_cat

If watering takes half an hour you will probably spend an hour a day in the garden (bit of weeding plus an ant check).
Ask them how much time they want/expect you to weed each day and factor that into the cost.
Charge for the time you'd actually be doing something for them and add a nominal fee for the inconvenience (if any) of living away from home.

Trash, etc is your responsibility as you'd be the person living there.

For an hour a day of gardening I'd think $15 would be appropriate so a total of $150-$200 for the week and half stay... plus more $ for more weeding if required!

I hope you're not currently housesitting and can first suggest an amount you'd be happy with and negotiate pay with them beforehand!