We joined TrustedHousesitters.com and booked our 1st house sit! (Part 2 of 2)
In part one I gave a walkthrough of the TrustedHousesitters.com website and service. I covered pricing and support, detailed what’s included on sitter profile pages and homeowner ad pages, and touched on what it’s like connecting with other members for a sit.
In this second installment I’m sharing a timeline review of how long it took us to book our very first sit once we’d joined the site.
Side note: Unlike many house sitters who are sitting as a way to travel far and wide, we are currently only sitting locally in the Austin, TX area. We definitely want to do this as a means of seeing new and interesting places, but we’re not there yet.
Part I: About the TrustedHousesitters site
Part II: Joining Process and Timeline to 1st Booking (you are here)
Here’s a quick overview:
We joined the site on December 2, 2017. It took us nearly three weeks to get our profile all ready to go and then a week after that we applied to our first sit, which we got a few days later! That means 38 days after joining the site we were on our first house sit, and bonus it was our 11th wedding anniversary!
Now let’s break that down a bit more.
Day 1: Signing Up On TrustedHousesitters.com
Joining the site was easy and straightforward. Anyone can create a free account to just browse the roster of non-detailed listings and sitters. After initial sign up we paid the membership fee (with a 20% off discount that you can get too!) and were able to start filling in our profile.
Days 2–20: Completing Our Profile
We really took our time to build up our profile fully and adequately demonstrate our competence and trustworthiness to provide ourselves with the best chance of winning the sits we apply to.
I uploaded as many photos as I could and made sure they showed our pet care experience, lifestyle, and some adventures we’ve been on. We also made ourselves sit down and record a short video (being natural and knowing what to say on camera can be challenging but we felt it was worth it). Our bio section has ALL the relevant information and took me quite a while to finish.
We also sent out four reference requests. You only can submit for these from within the site so they can send the email on your behalf and directly receive any testimonials in return for display on your profile. This can take a while of course depending on how responsive the people you know are. Our landlord never did get back with us after saying he would, be we were fine without that one.
And lastly, we committed to getting all three verifications (which display a trust badge on your page). The Enhanced level (which costs $20) took over a week to come through and the site said it shouldn’t take more than two days, but it was the holiday season so maybe that was the reason for the delay.
Days 21–27: Looking For Sits
Pretty much each day we checked the site for sits in Austin and got familiar with the factors and features that would or wouldn’t work for us. We are in a major US city (Austin, TX) with people coming and going all the time but there still weren’t more than 10 sits to choose from on a given day — and out of a 10 sit sample there would be just one we loved and one we liked.
Still a great opportunity took less than a week to show up and we got on it quickly. Paid members get to see new sits 24 hours before anyone else which is a nice advantage and also means that some sits may not ever been seen by non-members because they get filled that quickly.
Days 28–31: Applying To & Securing Our 1st Sit
To apply for a sit you simple lick the ‘Apply Now’ button on the ad, select the dates you’re interested in (if there’s more than one option), and write up a personal introduction message to be sent along with your profile.
I spent a solid hour crafting our message (which is now a template I customize and improve upon each time). I included a quick summary of who we are, why we are sitting, and made positive mention of both their home and pets. I also let them know we were available for a phone or Skype call to help determine if there was a mutual fit.
The homeowners got back with us quickly (same day) and asked if we’d be available for a chat over the weekend. We responded the next day that we were, but then a whole other day and a half went by without a reply from them. So Nathan shot them another message (including his phone number) in case they didn’t receive a notification or things had just gotten away from them. Within fifteen minutes the wife was calling us and we were able to connect, get lingering questions answered and cover details not previously mentioned. The day after that we got the message confirming that the couple wanted us as their sitters (although we pretty much knew from our phone call).
Days 32–37: Waiting For Our Sit To Begin
Once we were confirmed we requested their Welcome Guide which had all the details we needed. After that we just had to wait for our sit to begin.
Day 38: Starting Our Sit
The day of our sit was also our 11th wedding anniversary and because we had mentioned this to the homeowners we arrived to fresh flowers, champagne, and a sweet note! We were really moved by this and enjoyed the bubbly that night in their hot tub overlooking a private view of the west Austin hills — and followed that up with the jasmine rice, black beans, and homemade fresh salsa they left for us to enjoy. It was divine!
But let me back up here because before any of that we got the grand tour of their property and met the fur babies. There were two dogs, one cat, a four bedroom home, guesthouse, two small greenhouses, numerous raised garden beds, a pool and spa. There was plenty to keep us busy during our short four day stay!
I hope this breakdown of what and how long it took us to book our first house sit was helpful. Things would have undoubtedly been a bit different if we were going for something far away right out of the gate, and if we didn’t put so much effort into our profile and communication, I imagine.
If you’d like to see photos of this sit and read about the 10 lessons we learned you can check that out here.
Happy Housesitting!
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