Dave and Kate share an inspired story with us about house sitting and retirement. They actually retired early and for 9 years have been living a travelling life. These two discovered house and pet sitting a year into their travels. Since that time they’ve done more than 40 house sits! Their house sits and the early retirement travel story is filled with inspiration and colour. So much so, Kate is now penning her second book on the experience!
Kate’s first book on house sitting as a way to travel in retirement, Call it Wonder, documents their decision to embrace a life on the road all those years ago. Her upcoming book, Other People’s Houses will share their experiences and tips for anyone who wants to follow in their freedom-filled footsteps.
In our exciting pilot episode of Freedom and Four Paws, discover what Kate and Dave advise is the best approach for securing your dream house sits, how to make the most of house sitting, and early retirement. Also, how to stand out as a pet sitter.
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Top house sitting and retirement tips from Kate and Dave:
On their very first house sit they cared for 40 animals! They laughed hysterically and told Cooper and I that it was a great experience, but one each wouldn’t repeat. The lesson they learned (and we’ve had the same experience), is that as a pet sitter, you can be discerning about the situation you end up in. If 40 animals is too much for you, that’s ok.
Similarly, if you don’t like dogs sleeping in the bed with you and that’s a requirement of the house sit, you should feel free to say, ‘No thank you, this sit isn’t for me’, and choose another assignment. On a side note – make sure you do that before you accept – never commit and back away unless you really need to.
Discovering house and pet sits
Kate and Dave, nine years on, now use a few methods to find their next house and pet sit:
TrustedHousesitters (score 25% OFF your membership, more information here)
Personal referrals or repeat sits
Social media, e.g. Facebook Groups
Other house and pet sitting services
House sitting 101: safety, communication and when to take a break
During our conversation with these two adventurers, we touched on the difference between finding your house and pet sits on a paid site that includes reviews, vs. free services like on social media. Like our podcast guests, we’re very discerning when it comes to reviews, and find those helpful in determining what kind of sit it is. If there are no reviews, however, and it’s direct contact on Facebook, for example, they advised that connection is important. Find a trail of evidence to support the homeowners are who they say they are, and that their premises is legitimate.
They also advise to “think about what kind of experience you want to have”
What type of animals and works for you?
How much of your time should be involved during a sit
Ask the right questions, for example, we’ve learned to ask both ‘has your dog bitten anyone?’ as well as, ‘has your dog ever nipped anyone?’
Does the pet(s) require special medication, how is that administered?
And where do the pets sleep?”
It’s competitive out there, so start house and pet sitting in your own area to build experience and reviews before launching into international stays.
Finally, when you’re on the road, avoid booking back-to-back house sits. Remember, you are still working to an extent, so take breaks between sits. It makes it easier to travel to your next one without worrying about delays.
“Living a travelling life means we’re so much more adaptable and flexible than we used to be, and I really like that feeling. We’ve learnt to travel light and live a downsized life – it’s so freeing!
Ultimately, this lovely pair reminded us that on your house-sitting adventure, everything is about learning. There are no bad decisions: it’s just part of the journey. You should absolutely set off as soon as you can.
Find our guests, Kate and Dave online: kateevanswriter.com, Instagram @katenomadicwriter and Facebook page Kate Evans Writer.
Freedom and Four Paws
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We are Canadians “strictly exchange of service for accommodations” pet/house sitters wondering what you’re doing about liability insurance?
We have been members of one particular house/pet sitting platform since 2020 and have 17 5 star reviews. We thought we would check out some others and joined a country specific one. Since doing this and applying for and accepting a couple of sits on that site we realized a deficiency in this 2nd platform. That is in the area of insurance for the pet sitter.
We are nomads, full time pet & house sitters. We don’t own or rent a home, which means we don’t have homeowner or tenant insurance coverage. With the world becoming more litigious we thought we should look for some liability coverage. You just never know when an accident is going to occur.
We reached out to our insurance broker and several insurance carriers to find coverage. We explained that we sit in exchange for accommodations, absolutely no money is exchanged between us and the home/pet owner. We also explained that the original platform we use has coverage included in the annual membership fee, but the 2nd platform does not and that we are looking for coverage for the sits on the 2nd platform. These sits will be strictly in Canada.
We seem to have hit a brick wall. It appears that because we don’t charge a fee for service no one is willing to insure. The most recent exchange between us and a broker reads:
The insurance company does not deem this as business operations. It is effectively a bartering system and a number of the items offered such as, operations outside Canada, caring for farm animals or stand alone house sitting cannot be insured on a policy as they are excluded services. Most of the coverage on this policy is designed to insure a service for compensation business model.
Sometimes applicants will ask if the insurance carrier will just insure the services that can be insured while they perform the excluded service with the knowledge they are not insured. Some Insurance companies will not agree to these terms.
When dealing with liability coverage, it becomes difficult to exclude part of a service that is directly related to the main service being insured. The insurance company’s concern is that the courts will draw them into a claim, which at the very least results in legal fees that can be in the tens of thousands to establish that the policy’s intent was to never provide coverage for that particular service – or at the other extreme, the courts could decide that the exclusion doesn’t apply and the insurance company ends up having to cover a claim that it never intended to cover. To avoid these potential problems, carriers preference is to not insure companies where they won’t insure all of their services. Again, this mainly has to do with the Professional Liability coverage, which is the coverage that responds to allegations that care was deficient resulting in injury or death of a person or pet.
Any advice or recommendations appreciated.
Hi Avis, it’s a really good question and one I’m not sure of the answer on. I think you’ve popped this as a thread in the Facebook Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/trusted.housesitters.digital.nomads) too? Unfortunately we have recently experienced both in Australia and the UK, that many of the world’s critical processes have not at all caught up with the way many of us are living our lives now! It’s frustrating to say the least. Will keep an eye out for info around this and stay in touch with you. Thanks for your comment here! :)