House Sitting Abroad: An Affordable Way to Explore

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House sitting is a temporary arrangement where a live-in housesitter will take an assignment to care for the property and often the pets for the homeowner. Moreover, house sitting abroad is when the sitter must travel away from their home country for the assignment.

House sit abroad

House sitting abroad is worth considering because house sitting overseas can be exciting. It is a rewarding way to travel and see the world, as you feel you are contributing to your journey by earning your keep. House sitting abroad offers authentic ways to experience travel, exchanging your time and experience for free accommodation. Wherever you go it enables you to live-like-a-local absorbing the authentic experiences of the location. A couple of our housesitters Andrew and Christopher ‘the Global Wanderers’ explain what it is in this video.

Click either housesitting video picture to view Christopher and Andrew’s winning video –

What is a house sitting assignment?

House sit assignments are the individual house sitting opportunities whether in your native country or house sitting abroad. The house sit assignments are usually facilitated through the use of a housesitting website. A home and pet owner would register paying a small annual fee and post a house sitting job on the house sitting site. The housesitting job advert will ask a sitter to mind my house and care for my pets. Like an AirBnB you are staying in someone’s home. It could be one of the many AirBnB Tiny house rentals. Unlike with AirBnB you don’t pay the owners. Your stay is for free.

Whether the pets are dogs, cats or farm animals, the house sitters who apply are also registered on the site. They too will have paid an annul fee. They will review all the sit assignments on the house sitting site for a good house sitting job that suits them.

There is usually no payment taken for a collaborative house sit assignment. The sitting job offers an exchange of services. Free house and pet sitting in exchange for free accommodation.

Some sit assignments could be classified as luxury house sitting, some as fun pet sitting for character pets. Sometimes a house owner will look for experienced house carers to ‘mind my house until I return’. Usually there is a definitive end date for the house sit.

cat lovers — Some pets can be tremendous fun to care for

What is house sitting abroad?

Housesitters who travel abroad

If you have property and pet care experience, with or without previous housesitting references, you may consider the opportunity to housesit abroad.

All you need to consider is do you have home care and pet care experience to offer in exchange for free accommodation.

Have you cared for pets and property?

Most of us in our lives have cared for a home and garden. We may have been involved in pet care of some description. You can prepare for pet sitting perhaps by taking a pet first aid course, or volunteering at a pet rescue shelter. Both will help you to gain experience of a wider range of animals.

Housesitting membership networks like HouseSitMatch exist to serve house sitters and petsitters wanting to find suitable assignments at home and housesitting abroad. However, at HouseSitMatch we can also help new sitters get started on their journey.

What does a house sitter do?

One of the things you may be not realise is that if you have cared for a home and pets you have great house sitter experience. So what does a house sitter do? A housesitter will care for your home, and if asked any pets resident in your home.

Become a house sitter

If you want to become a house sitter then you need to do some preparation to optimise your opportunity.

We offer advice, top tips, contacts in the housesitting community such as Housesittingworld.com there you will find full time housesitters who can advise based on a wealth of community knowledge and years of experience in housesitting and petsitting activities.

Learning from the community can help you prepare to become a highly rated housesitter. This community specialises in supporting and nurturing reliable housesitters.

It is easy to register as a housesitter. You get ID and police checked online as part of the registration process through HouseSitMatch. Once registered you can build a housesitter profile and specify the countries in which you would prefer to housesit.

International pet housesitting

House sitting and pet sitting through a recognised trustworthy network can provide fantastic international opportunities for house sitting and pet sitting your way around the world, for example by pet sitting like a friend in exchange for free accommodation.

Jill and Gavin are long term full-time Australian housesitters. They enjoy house sitting abroad. They were once home owners themselves,. They’ve been travelling for seven years, visited five continents and housesat in 18 countries.

Starting as international pet sitters

Since their first assignment nearly a decade ago they’ve answered housesitting adverts saying sitters required from the Czech Republic to Western Australia.

They’ve taken jobs abroad outside of their native Australia following tourist trails to North, Central and South America.

They’ve done long term housesitting in Europe taken a dog sit looking after house and pet, to multi pet sits with dogs cats, birds, guinea pigs and all kinds of other animals as their video will show.

Here is the video story of why house sitting abroad is so rewarding by international housesitters Jill and Gavin…

Travel agents also do house sitting abroad!

Dianne and Mike are a professional Canadian couple who decided last year to take a grey gap year, so they sold everything at home in Canada and started housesitting through the HouseSit Match network.

Based in the United Kingdom HouseSitMatch is a house and petsitting network that can offer you international house sitting assignments.

They joined our network as new sitters. However, they had tested the waters by doing local housesitting in their home town to see if they liked it. After a while they decided housesitting and petsitting suited them and they would enjoy travelling by house sitting abroad.

International house sitting

How they started international housesitting

By submitting to an ID and police check, building a good profile online, offering descriptions of their pet and property experience, their motivations for housesitting they have been able to secure a house sitting assignment and have travelled throughout the United Kingdom and across Europe.

Some of the most popular housesit assignment are for housesitting in Spain.

In just over a year they’ve paid very little for accommodation. Just a few days here and there in hostels between housesits. They’ve even extended their grey gap year. They took the TEOFL exams and so they teach to supplement their portable professional income as travel agents.

House sitting adventure

Extending a Grey Gap Year

Their grey gap year is now turning into a long term housesitting adventure across Europe. With every housesitting and petsitting assignment they are building reviews on their profile and a reputation for being reliable housesitters.

Dianne and Mike have undertaken many international housesitting assignments now but they tell us their favourites are the pet housesitting placements.

One petsitting assignment was for an Akita dog lover in the UK. They’ve also cared for houses and pets in Spain, Ireland, France and taken on a house and pet sit near Oxford UK.

They enjoy travelling and living in a home and pet care is a pleasurable service they can offer in exchange for the opportunity to live in beautiful new surroundings and spend time to explore new tourist trails.

This helps Dianne with her work as a travel agent. They cared for dogs, cats and hens in this English home, and horses, donkeys and lovely cats in Spain.

They say that HouseSitMatch is one of their favourite pet sitting websites.

Trusted house sitting

Pet owners with holiday homes abroad use services for house sitting abroad

The investment of a holiday home or any property in another country comes with benefits and responsibilities. Finding people to help you care for that property requires a degree of trust.

If you keep pets and a garden in your property abroad, their safety, care and maintenance is also an important consideration.

According to PetKeepers pet housesitting is one really affordable option to consider.

Free house sitters through a trusted house sitting website

If your property is in another country, then organising house sitters for care maintenance is an important factor in the success of your investment.

House sitters can care for your property and garden. And indeed they also care for any pets you keep in your holiday home. The housesitting is in exchange for free accommodation.

Like old fashioned barter this arrangement is facilitated safely through a website which takes fundamental security precautions.

Second homeowners with multiple properties

If you’re a second homeowner it can be hard managing both properties when you only live in one.

This is when using a house sitting network to find a house sitter to care for your property is really helpful.

Also if you are managing a property portfolio organising house carers and house sitting abroad can help improve security. Care for your properties by ensuring they are occupied as well as cared for.

It is important to ensure that gardens are maintained especially if you’re absent as this is a clear sign of an unoccupied and vulnerable property.

House sitting abroad

Pet owners who need housesitting abroad

One advantage of pet sitters from HouseSitMatch is that they exchange their time for free accommodation. This means there is no cost to you other than the membership fee.

You will have a choice of pet lovers to choose from. View their pet experience in their profile – we make it easy for you to choose a suitable match.

Bragi Jonsson is an Icelandic security guard and part time shepherd who started housesitting at the age of 60 years old.

He contacted HouseSitMatch asking if we could help him start house sitting abroad. He wanted to enjoy warmer climates during the harsh Icelandic Winter.

Within a month Bragi had completed a housesit in Marbella Spain. He cared for a small Yorkie and two friendly cats.

The owner of the Yorkie told a friend who introduce Bragi to her. She also needed a sitter for her dog in Marbella.

Friends tell friends about a good housesitter

So one house and pet sit led to another, and through the HouseSitMatch petsitting website he answered housesit adverts asking ‘sitters required’. Then two more long term house sitting assignments in Europe were secured. This kept him busy until his return to Iceland in the Spring for lambing season.

Over the years Bragi (aka Bravo on the HouseSitMatch housesitters’ directory) has developed a number of strong relationships with his matched homeowners, and now does the occasional return housesit.

Bragi is one of our trusted pet sitters who loves housesitting abroad. He enjoys it as a way to explore new destinations and enjoy warmer climates.

Travel by housesitting

Housesitting offers a way to travel further afield

He says though he hasn’t yet discovered Western Australia he would like to visit. And friends in the housesitting community suggest that he might enjoy Central America and South America for the climate.

If you have pets at your property abroad you may also prefer to have them cared for in the home rather than in a kennels. Our housesitting arrangement will save you the costs of a fee charging pet minder. This is a considerably more affordable option.

Most vets agree that pets being cared for in the home experience minimal separation anxiety.

This is very important particularly for rescued animals who will often take some time to settle into a new environment.

How to find sitters

It is easy to register as a homeowner and pet owner to find sitters. Then you can benefit from live-in checked sitters who are happy to travel and do housesitting abroad.