If you are a first time homeowner and you are preparing to welcome sitters into your home, take note. Here are the top 10 things that house-sitters hate, or find difficult to deal with. Take head – to build a good relationship with your sitters for your benefit and that of your home and pets consider the sitters situation and make a plan to avoid these 10 situations in particular. Treat the sitter as you would want to be treated. It really helps you get the housesitting relationship off to a good start.

Revealed: 10 Things That House-Sitters Hate

If you’re offering your home to house-sitters in exchange for staying at their properties when you go away, it’s important to note there’s a certain ‘etiquette’ that you should bear in mind. After all: the last thing you want is for your house-sitters to have a bad experience.

Most house-sitting experiences are positive, and the people involved have nothing but praise for their stay. If you want to avoid giving people memorable experiences for the wrong reasons, you should take note of these tell-tale red flags and know how to avoid them:

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1. Uncomfortable furniture

The people staying at your home will undoubtedly spend much of their time outside of the property. They will most likely remain in your home when they aren’t exploring the area around your abode.

When those people are inside your home, it makes sense to ensure they have a comfortable stay. So, if your sofa is old, worn, and smelly, consider a replacement from somewhere like https://www.furco.co.uk/leather-sofas.

Likewise, when they go to sleep at night, make sure your house-sitters aren’t sleeping in a bed where it’s more comfortable to sleep on floorboards!

2. An unfair exchange

House-sitters can get a negative experience if they view the house exchange as unfair. But, what constitutes an unfair home exchange? An example might be if a homeowner asks you to take care of Airbnb guests.

Or, you offer a clean and immaculate home, yet the property you stay in should probably require visitors to wear a hazardous materials protective suit! Whenever you offer your home to house-sitters, make sure your property is clean and presentable.

If you don’t have the time to make that happen, hire a cleaner from somewhere like https://www.homeclean.co.uk/uk/franchise.

3. Paying for expenses

Let’s say that someone offers for you to house-sit their property, but they live in a remote location that isn’t accessible by public transport. They should offer to add you to their car insurance, so you’ve got transport when you need it – especially for emergencies.

Another related item that house-sitters hate, is being out of pocket when the housesit should be a fair collaboration. You shouldn’t have to pay for expenses like hiring a car due to the remote location or for paying taxi costs for the same reason. If you have to pet-sit for the person as well, it’s even more reason they should allow you access to their vehicle while you’re house-sitting.

4. A lack of trust

If you’re doing a house-swap with someone, there needs to be an element of mutual trust between both parties. The sad truth about some individuals is, they feel they can’t trust a stranger enough to look after their homes while they aren’t there.

For example, keeping a WiFi router in an inaccessible room means that the house-sitters have no way of resolving the problem if the Internet stops working. Such a lack of trust doesn’t inspire successful house-sitting experiences.

5. Lack of direct communication

As you can imagine, there’s a lot to discuss when arranging house-sitting with homeowners. There has to be a discussion of the terms of the house-sit. And, it gives both parties a measure of what each other is like.

It makes sense to arrange pre-house-sit conversations over video calls using WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Apple FaceTime, or Zoom. You should be wary of people that refuse to do that, as it can often mean they have something to hide, and it is a strong red flag!

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6. Unreasonable expectations

What should you make of a situation where a homeowner has nothing but complaints about previous house-sitters? The answer is they probably have unreasonable expectations of their house-sitters!

If you come across such a situation, you should endeavour to find out what went wrong in those cases. If a pattern emerges, it’s highly likely the house-sit isn’t going to be a good idea, and so you should look for an alternative house-sit.

7. Homeowners won’t show you any photos

It’s not unreasonable to expect to see some photographs of the property where you will be house-sitting. House-sitters hate not having enough information. With that in mind, if you’re a homeowner offering a property for house-sitting, you need to provide plenty of clear photos to potential house-sitters.

Doing so means people will have a clear understanding of your property, how everything is laid out, and whether there might be access issues for them. It saves everyone a lot of time, hassle, and potential misunderstanding.

Similarly, suppose you’re looking to house-sit, and a homeowner refuses to give you a photographic or video tour of their home. In that case, you should consider that a red flag and move on with your search for a suitable house-sitting experience.

8. You’re expected to be a baby-sitter

When you’re house-sitting for a homeowner, you expect to have a degree of privacy in your temporary abode. What you don’t want is to end up becoming a baby-sitter because the homeowner’s relatives are staying in the property with you!

Similarly, you shouldn’t have to “look after” visitors to the homeowner’s property, such as friends, relatives, or even neighbours. The homeowner should make you aware of any planned visits, such as those from gardeners or cleaners.

9. Aggressive pets

If you plan to house-sit for someone, and they ask you to pet-sit as well, you need to ask questions about their pet’s temperament. The last thing you want to do is have the stress of dealing with an aggressive pet that might ultimately spoil your house-sitting experience.

Often, pets are aggressive because they, or rather their owners, haven’t had any suitable behavioural training from a professional.

10. House-sitters hate aggressive homeowners

Lastly, potential house-sitters won’t want to spend time talking to an aggressive homeowner. Quite frankly, some people should not be offering their homes to house-sitters if they can’t conduct themselves to those house-sitters politely and courteously.

There’s no need for unwarranted aggression, and it’s something that can even see homeowners get kicked off house-sitting exchange websites. Especially if word of mouth spreads about a homeowner’s attitude towards complete strangers.

Other useful blogs about housesitters

At Housesitmatch.com we like to share useful blogs and practical advice about housesitters, housesitting and pet sitting. We hope you find this small selection of our blogs on house sitters useful.

Housesitters keep pets safe at home and save money

What a housesitter does – Top 10 responsibilities

Preparing a home for a house or pet sitter