House Sitting in Australia

by Graham Kelly
(Victoria, Australia)

Recently we had a need to go visit my grandkids in Australia, but accommodation was limited, and we couldn't afford motels, and I didn't want to commit to a long term rental house (also VERY expensive). So I decided to sign up with a house sitting service. Within a day or so I was able to get a house sit actually in the town where the family was, and within a short period had been booked up for almost 6 months in advance! Amazing!

As I also run an online business, broadband internet access was a minimum requirement, but I quickly discovered that not all internet access is equal. Most folks had a minimum access to the internet, mostly because it is cheaper that way, I guess. So, I had to arrange with the house owners to upgrade their internet access, naturally which I had to pay for. It was a steep learning curve, but we now only accept sitting assignments where we can easily upgrade the internet access to our minimum requirement. Only this week I turned down a PERFECT long term house sit assignment, ONLY because of slow internet in their remote location.

One more issue; as I was using the house owners internet, I found it easier to buy my own equipment (ADSL modem, with wireless and 4 ports etc). But that meant I had to get the logins and passwords for the owners internet access. That was very awkward initially, but good communication seemed to fix the issue.

We also grew very attached to the animals that we looked after... and in fact, the only negative about sitting is you have to say goodbye to the animals.

I'm glad we discovered house sitting. I plan to house sit for the next 10 years, throughout New Zealand, Europe, Canada, and South America.