Housesitting

Housesitting

• Aussie House Sitters is an Australian owned house sitting database exclusively for house sitting jobs within Australia and New Zealand.  It’s TOTALLY FREE for homeowners to advertise for a house sitter or to scroll and find a suitable house sitter. Registering as a house sitter costs only $65 for 12 months membership. This one flat rate makes Aussie House Sitters an extremely affordable option for seniors. Aussie House Sitters do NOT charge huge zoning fees like most other house sitting websites!
  Go there
  
  
• Happy House Sitters. People do housesitting for many reasons. They may be saving for their own home, having their house renovated, being transferred interstate, not want to be tied to a lease, or they may like to live in many different locations. Happy House Sitters is an Australian company which manages a ‘list’ of house sitters. Home owners searching for house sitters are introduced to the house sitters via this list. Sitters pay a fee starting at $175 for one year’s registration. The service is free to homeowners searching for a sitter.
  Go there
  

   

• Right at Home provides a personal service to both home owners and sitters. They screen and match sitters with compatible home owner requests and provide legal agreements for all parties, so that expectations are clear and easy, and everybody is protected. They manage short and on-going stays in Melbourne and country Victoria and will soon be in other states. Short term sitters are especially popular at school holiday times. The costs to sitters is just $50 for short term and $195 for ongoing. This covers you for a whole year. The cost of having a fully screened and checked sitter to care for your home and pets can be found on their website.
  Go there
  

   

• Worldwide Housesitting Register. This Australian service has now gone worldwide. Have a house sitter look after your home and pets while you’re away. There is a $50 fee to register for 12 months for Australia, USA, Canada and UK but registration for other regions is free.
  Go there

House swap, sit or stay

Staying in someone else’s home may not be your idea of a good holiday option but house swapping or house sitting can make seeing different parts of the world more affordable.  In our downloadable PDF, House swap, sit or stay:, About Seniors explains how to trim your travel budget and live like a local.

Sitting

Many people feel secure knowing their house is occupied while they are away. Once you have established relationships with house swappers and have had a positive experience, you might find yourself hooked: house swapping is cheap (especially for families or groups), and gives you a direct, personal experience of a place and its people.

Naturally you have responsibility for the leaving the house in a good condition. There is always the chance that some aspect of the house or arrangement will disappoint. The only thing that can prevent this is doing more research.

It’s in the interests of both parties to be up front about the limitations or realities of their properties. But if the house or apartment isn’t what they said it was or isn’t how you envisaged it, you can save it as a good story to tell your friends when you get home.

HomeLink has 13,500 house swappers from 69 countries on its database. The 12-month fee for listing your property on the website is $250 and for listing on the web and in the huge hard-copy directory, $300.
Ph 1800 853 535
Web HomeLink

Aussie house swap provides properties for swap in Australia and New Zealand. Membership is only $65 a year but you can browse without becoming a member.
Ph 0431 417 419
Web Aussie House Swap

Happy house sitters is an Australian-based company established in 1999. Potential house sitters pay a registration fee, which varies depending on the area.
Ph (03) 9532 9837
Web Happy House Sitters Australia

Other homestay websites are:
Unique Home Stays
British Homestays
HomestayWeb