We caught up with a jet-setting couple whose accommodation costs are virtually zero thanks to their serial house-sitting habit.
Laura Cody, 26, and Tanbay Theune, 29, have been house sitters since 2013, when they sold everything they owned and bought a one-way ticket from the UK to Australia.
Laura says: “Originally we wanted to become house sitters so we could save money on rent to be able to eventually afford a mortgage, but as our first house sit ended up being in Australia we were quickly bitten by the travel bug.
“Thus, we decided that our new goal was to save money on rent so we could become travel bloggers and YouTubers and see the world.”
The couple has crisscrossed the planet staying at all manner of swanky places.
Favourites include a pad with a pool on the Gold Coast in Australia and a luxury house in Hamburg that had its own sauna.
These days they mix house sitting with running their popular blog travellingweasels.com, and are particularly looking forward to returning to the UK for a two-month stretch in London next year.
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How to get started
If you are keen to become a house sitter the first step is to sign up with an online specialist, such as Trusted HouseSitters or Nomador.
There are several companies offering their services, and it can cost up to £100 a year to sign up with them, which sounds a lot, but is less than a night’s stay in many quality hostels.
It’s important to compare a few, as you don’t want to pay for a service that ultimately fails to deliver, and some will have a far greater footprint in the areas you’re interested in visiting.
Look for a website with a good track record and plenty of customers on its books, read blogs and reviews of the various sites that are out there.
Even if you sign up with an agency there is no guarantee you’ll land a plum job.
There are more would-be house sitters than homeowners looking for a live-in caretaker, which means it’s important to build up a CV that will make you stand out from the crowd.
Experience is essential
The best jobs will go to those who have hands-on knowledge of what it takes to be a house sitter.
So, how do you get experience in the first place?
Laura told us: “Get experience by house sitting for friends, family and neighbours.
“Firstly it will give you references which are very important for first-timers as house sitting is actually quite competitive.
“Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, it will let you see if house sitting is really something you enjoy - it's not for everyone.”
With a few positive testimonials under your belt, you are far more likely to be successful in snaffling one of the more sought after contracts, and the jobs will soon start coming thick and fast.
Who knows, this time next year you could find yourself chilling out on a private beach in the Caribbean, sipping cocktails after a hard stint fishing leaves out of the pool.
If house sitting sounds right up your street, why not have a read of our comprehensive guide to make sure you're properly informed?
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