What's the best way to find the right sitter for you

House sitting works best when you find the right house sitter for your specific house and pet care needs. So how can you attract the right house sitter quickly and efficiently? 

Here are some tips for enticing sitters who best match your preferences, to respond to your homeowner ad.

Be clear and upfront about what your house sit involves and what’s important to you.

Give clear, relevant, honest information about any responsibilities or details needed for your house sit. Providing this upfront in your ad will help house sitters decide if they should apply, based on their experience and preferences. This might include any special pet care required, home or garden care. You want to encourage applications from sitters with the necessary skills required for your house-sitting job. If you have pets, then you want a house sitter who has experience with animals. If you have lawns and gardens, you want a house sitter who can manage your garden maintenance.

Make sure you know what your priorities are and state these clearly in your ad. What are looking for in a house sitter? Give these details in the description of your ad. List any key skills and then a few ‘nice to have’ characteristics. For example, if you’d prefer someone who can be home a lot for your cat, or is active enough to keep up with your dog’s daily exercise, make sure you put this in your ad. 

Show house sitters a bit about yourself, your home and pets.

You want a house sitter who has similar values to yourself. If you find a house sitter who has a similar mindset or approach as you, you have the best chance of them doing a great job for you. Give a few details in your house sit ad about what is important to you. This gives an insight into who you are and will help sitters know if they could be a suitable match. 

Having photos can make your ad stand out and encourage sitters to apply. Pictures of your pets can help house sitters get a good idea of the breed or animal size they’ll be dealing with, so they know what to expect when applying. And let’s be honest, who doesn’t love a cute animal photo!

Having some photos of your home and garden can also further entice great sitters to apply for your ad. Having more sitters apply for your ad means more house sitters for you to choose from. 

Make sure you have accurate information in your homeowner ad about features and location.

Once you have added details about your sitting job, and uploaded photos, make sure you take the time to fill in the house sit features and house/location type fields. House sitters often search house sitting job ads using these fields to look for specific features for their next sit. For example, a sitter might need access to fast internet to work from your home, they may need space for their motorhome, or be wanting to be in a beachside location. Filling in these extra fields correctly ensures that sitters can easily find you when they are looking for new sitting jobs.

Make sure you communicate clearly and promptly with all house sitters

You can use your homeowner ad to let sitters know how you’ll be reviewing applications. You might give an end date by which you’ll respond to all potential house sitters. If you will only accept a sitter you can meet in-person first, make sure you make this clear in your ad so only local house sitters apply for your ad. Letting sitters know your process helps manage applicant expectations and will prevent you having house sitters messaging you asking what is happening.

Prompt communication between homeowners and house-sitters is key to a successful house-sitting community. We have a ‘reply rating’ system helps to support this. We encourage homeowners to reply to all first enquiry messages from interested house sitters within 5 days, ideally within 48 hours if possible. If you don’t reply within the five days, you lose a ‘reply rating’ point.

Maintaining a high reply rating as a homeowner makes you appear reliable and attractive to potential house sitters, which means more high-quality house sitters applying for your house-sitting job.

Whether you use a free house-sitting ad or not, you can also contact house sitters directly via their profiles. You can use the FIND HOUSE SITTERS search option on House Sitters America and use the filters based on your preferred criteria. This can include availability of your sit dates, ID verification status, experience with certain pets, or preferred sit length. Using these search filters can help you quickly find and communicate with house sitters who best match your needs.

If you’re looking for a house sitter, why not register as a homeowner today and find a caring, trustworthy house sitter from our pet-loving community.