What skills do you need to be a house sitter?

To be a house sitter you need to be reliable, honest, patient, communicative, and respectful of other people’s possessions.

Not just anyone can be a house sitter, you have to be a certain type of person to be comfortable being a house sitter.

You firstly need to be happy living in someone else’s home in their space and feeling like you can relax. Having the responsibility of looking after someone else’s home and pets is huge, so you must be reliable and not a safety hazard.

As a house sitter, you will need to be in charge of the safety of another home, which includes ensuring you don’t lose the keys and making sure the home is secure when you go out like closing all windows and locking doors.

You can’t be a liability or someone who is clumsy and forgetful. You have some important duties as a house sitter. Although accidents happen, it is not good if you are prone to breaking things as you are being trusted with someone else’s valuable belongings. 

Here are a few skills that you need to be a house sitter:

Reliable 

You need to stick to your word when you are housesitting. The homeowner is relying on you and all they have is your word and your experience to go off. If you say you are going to turn up at a certain time, then you should. If you say that you are going to be working at home for most of the day, then you should do this. 

Of course, plans change and you do not need to keep the homeowner updated on your every move, but if they have asked you to stay at home to collect a parcel and you have agreed to this, then you should stick to your word.

This includes feeding pets at certain times and undertaking your responsibilities to the letter. 

Communicative

Communication is key when house sitting. Homeowners get nervous when they are away as they are hoping that everything is going well, that the home is safe and that their pets are comfortable. Giving regular updates and answering their queries in a timely manner is important for them because it shows that you are reliable and it means that they can put their mind at ease knowing the house is in good hands. 

Sending the occasional update is a great way of reassuring the homeowner that everything is under control.

Keeping in contact with them during the sit is one of the key elements of being a house sitter and is one of the main ways that you can get good reviews and repeat house sits. 

Patient

You need to be patient whenever you are dealing with animals, especially someone else’s pets. Since you are not familiar with the pets when house sitting you don’t know their personality traits, their likes and dislikes and how they behave. But you soon learn!

Being patient is very important because you are not necessarily going to instantly bond with the pet and this shouldn’t frustrate you.

Remember that you are in the pet’s home and it doesn’t understand what is happening. It may take some time for them to get used to you. Some cats are timid and may take a while to warm to you.

Animal lover

Being a house sitter often comes with the task of caring for pets in the home. So it is vital that you are an animal lover too. 

You should enjoy being around animals and be kind and caring towards them. Being in their company should make you happy otherwise you are not going to enjoy the house sit experience and you are likely not going to do a very good job.

Respectful

Since you are staying in a stranger’s house, you need to be a respectful person. You must respect other people’s possessions, property, animals and the neighbours too. 

This means not playing very loud music late at night, not having parties at the house and not inviting people around. 

You must also be careful with the furniture and other belongings and treat them how you would want your things to be treated.

To conclude…

The skills you need to be a house sitter are fundamental to your character. If you are caring for someone’s home and animals, then you need to be a caring and responsible person by nature.

Having these qualities will make you trusted and will give you repeat customers.