Top 5 tips to winning house sitting jobs
Winning a house sitting job will always be a bit of a lottery. Owners will often receive hundreds of applications and you can have no idea what they might be looking for, except for a few clues they provide in the ad. Of course the majority of owners will be looking for the same qualities in a house sitter — reliability, attention to detail and animal lovers to name a few. There is no single formula for winning a house sitting job but there are elements of your application that can help you stand out to make you more successful.
- The early bird catches the worm
Sign up to the e-mail alerts to the house sitting sites you are members of and apply for the relevant jobs as quickly as you can. Owners often might only review the first ten applications to their ad so you increase your chances tenfold if you make it into the first top ten in their inbox. If they provide a phone number, send the application and give them a ring. If they don’t pick up, leave a friendly voice mail or text message letting them know you are free to answer any questions they might have. It can be helpful to have application templates ready to go to save you the time of writing out a new one from scratch every time but this leads onto the next point.
2. Read before you apply
One sure fire way to get your application binned is if you don’t proof read it. It might seem obvious but in the effort to get the application sent to the owners as quickly as possible, it won’t do if you’ve left in a pet’s name from a previous application or said how much you want to look after their donkey when they’ve actually got three guinea pigs. This is your chance at a first impression which you can never get back. Spelling errors, long-winded sentences and telling signs that you haven’t read the application properly all give the impression that you don’t have an eye for detail which is something people will want to be assured of if they’re going to let you into their homes and caring for their beloved pets.
3. Reference the ad
Once you’ve won an interview with the owners, the chances are that you’ve won the job. A face to face is so much easier than an online application to give them all the reassurance they might need to feel comfortable with you staying in their home and looking after their pets. Ensure that the application is personal to them — reference the pets’ names if they provide them, reference any requirements they state in the ad.
4. Provide information up-front
Once you’ve got some glowing reviews from previous house sits on your profile it gets a bit easier but if there’s an option to include a relevant testimonial in the message to the owner, it can’t hurt to do so. If they require a police check and you’ve already got one, attach this to the application also. It helps to establish trust on their side if they feel like they’ve got a good sense of who you are. Be candid in your profile — say truthfully why you enjoy house sitting and why you they should put their trust in you. Experience helps. Provide a tally of the numbers and kinds of animals you have cared for previously. Owners will often want to know where you live in between sits. Assure them that you aren’t sleeping in your car when you’re not house sitting and that’ll go a long way to establishing trust.
5. Include pictures of animals
A picture tells a thousand words and if the owners see physical proof of the love and care you show to the animals you house sit that will help strengthen your application immensely. Whether it’s an action shot of you taking dogs for a walk, a cuddle with a cat or you handling a lizard — show that you are up for a challenge and are confident handling a variety of pets.
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