21 December 2011

houseminders.com.au in Canberra?

| nunzig
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Hi there everyone.

We are planning a trip and are looking for a house sitter for a 4 week period. We have used online services to locate babysitters locally before and have found this service:

http://www.houseminders.com.au

It all looks great and seems cool, but I am wanting to find out if anyone in the Canberra region has used their service and would be prepared to share their experience?

We have 3 large dogs and are hoping to find someone who is a dog person and will have the time to give them some TLC.

Anyway, if anyone has used these guys, we’d love to hear about how it went.

ciao and thanks in advance.

nunzig

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Hi there,
I have done a lot of housesitting over 4 years. I use Housecarers, aussiehousesitters and happyhousesitters
It is free for home owners, and only about $50 per year for sitters (except for happyhousesitters) though it is up to you to choose the housesitter. I have a website about housesitting if you are interested, with tips on how to choose a housesitter, what to put in your ad, what information to give, thanks Cate.

I have done house and petsitting for a number of years through Aussie House Sitters. Made firm friends with a few pet owners and now only sit for them.
I’m pretty sure the pet sitters you will meet thru this site will be very trustworthy. They will have references you can check – and please do – for your peace of mind.
As far as caring for your 3 “big” dogs, I would be looking for someone suited to their activity level. If they are active and need a good run, the dog parks in Canberra are terrific.

thnx for all your comments folks. Really helpful.

I’m going to start writing the ad shortly and will see how it goes. i’ll post it here redlu2002 if you are interested!

ciao

A friend of my daughter’s has just started a match up website for in-home minding of homes, farms, pets and livestock – http://www.resteasyngo.com

I think you have to pay a small fee to go on the register, but after that presumably it is a barter arrangement between the person getting the accom at your place and the owners getting the animals and house cared for. Could be worth a look.

I am a house sitter in Canberra & Queanbeyan and have had some amazing positions.
I use two sites to seek out positions, housecarers.com.au and aussiehousesitters.com.au
Both sites are great, and I have found some very nice jobs on both. The home owner ad should be free to place.
You just need to trust your instints, and your pets.
You know how your pets respond to people and you can judge people based on thier response.
You also need to be clear in your expectations of the house sitter. I see no issues in providing the house sitter your routine with your fury family and expecting that they will follow this to the best of thier ability.
We all house sit for various reasons and finding this out too will help eliminate that weird feeling as greyswandir mentioned.

I’ve sat houses before – my overwhelming experience is that it seems to be better when you get someone you actually know, as then there’s no weird ‘are they going to wreck our stuff or not, and if they do, will they replace it’.

But that could just be me being paranoid about breaking things my family friends have trusted me with.

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