What motivates a house sitter?

When you think of a ‘typical’ house sitter, you don’t instantly have a picture in your mind of a person of a particular age, occupation or background, but rather consider their motivations.

We know that many house and pet sitters are self motivated, educated, go-getter people with friendly and nurturing dispositions and everyone has different reasons for choosing house and pet sitting as a long or short term lifestyle.

House and pet sitting is increasingly becoming popular with a range of travellers, workers, families, couples and singles as a way to achieve personal goals.

  1. Saving: The most common reason to house and pet sit is to save. Avoiding high rental prices, saving for a home deposit or holiday are all achievable by living rent free as a house and pet sitter. Many house sitters also do so to save for other life goals like an upcoming wedding, family reunion, or to get ahead of debts.
  2. Animal friendships: 99% of Mindahome’s house and pet sitting positions involve the care of a pet or animal, so enjoying the company of different animals is one of the main motivators of our members. Some of our members who want to live in high density areas for work often don’t have the space or time to own a pet of their own. House sitting offers the opportunity to enjoy the unconditional love of animals and their own little quirky behaviours and personalities.
  3. Experience: House and pet sitting is a chance to experience something new. Meeting different people and animals and seeing how other people live is one of the exciting parts of any house sit. Being given the home owners trust to care for their most treasured possessions is such a huge responsibility and one that can make you feel proud and privileged to be chosen. Different places, people and fur-friends is part of the experience that is embraced by many house and pet sitters.
  4. Holiday: Families, couples, single travellers and even international travellers will shout out the benefits of using house and pet sitting to travel. Rent free accommodation means that you are able to use the money you have saved to spend on other things on your holiday. The biggest advantage of house and pet sitting for holidays is that you are staying in a well established home. Often there is ample living space, full kitchen access and washing facilities – which aren’t always available (or charged as extra) at hotel or motel accommodation.
  5. Helping out: Many of our house and pet sitting members say that they do so to help out home and pet owners. Pet boarding can cost pet owners hundreds of dollars for only short periods and aren’t always the best option for a pet’s emotion and mental health. So having a live in house sitter means that pets are more at ease while their owners are away and pet owners have the peace of mind that their home looks ‘lived in’ and their pet is comfortable in their own home environment with their same routine and food. House sitting offers a win/win situation for everyone.
  6. Privacy: Although we might love our families, living with them isn’t always the easiest thing to do. So many students and young people are choosing to house and pet sit to have a break away from living in the family home. It gives everyone a break and offers these house sitters to live independently for a while.
  7. Trial pet ownership: There is a great deal of responsibility that comes with owning a pet, so you want to be sure that your pet suits your lifestyle. House sitting can offer the chance to care for different breeds, size and temperaments of a variety of animals and can be a good way for families, in particular, to get a feel of what type of pet may suit their lifestyle.
  8. Trying different suburbs: Whether you’re moving to Australia from overseas or living in Australia and looking for a different place to live, knowing exactly where you want to end up isn’t always an easy choice. Having the opportunity to try out different suburbs by house and pet sitting gives you an idea of what it would be like to live like a local and shop, eat and travel in different suburbs. It’s a eye-opening and affordable way to trial different suburbs before buying a home.

So whatever your reason to house and pet sit, our hope is that you are achieving your own personal goals and experiencing the benefits of house and pet sitting first-hand.