020- New Starts with the House Sit Diva
Is international pet and house sitting right for you? The House Sit Diva joins us this week to discuss a topic that she literally wrote the book on!
- Is it right for you?
- Take the quiz!
- How to check it out?
- house sit locally
- friends or familY
- minimize the unknowns
- What platforms!
- 50!!
- 5-6 really big ones internationally
- Trustedhousesitters.com out of the UK
- housesitmatch
- mindmyhouse
- nomador (bi-lingual in English and French)
- Housesitsearch.com is free
- like the kayak of the house sitting world
- Pay vs free platforms?
- Think about what kind of experience you want to have
- Kelly's first international house sit
- cat named Merlin in London
- What about my profile?
- cover letter
- it's a job application
- What to look for in a home owner letter
- detailed profile!
- Red flags?
- Whats a reasonable time-line?
- as fast as the homeowner will go
- Best time to start??
- Over the holidays and summer!!
- down side? Airfares are expensive!
Kelly Hayes-Raitt admits she sleeps around. Usually with animals.
As a full-time housesitter and traveler for the past decade, she’s learned a thing or two about housesitting and shares her knowledge and experience in her popular book How to Become a Housesitter: Insider Tips from the HouseSit Diva available in soft cover or Kindle at Amazon (http://amzn.to/2hlj7UP) or ebook on her web site (www.HouseSitDiva.com.
Before nomading, Kelly reported live from Iraq during the early weeks of the U.S.-led invasion. Her journalism has won several literary awards and has been widely published in anthologies.
Lately, she’s turned her energy toward helping other writers get their books jumpstarted. Her coaching clients call her “inspiring,” and students in her workshops rave about her unique teaching techniques. Learn more about working one-on-one with Kelly at www.JumpStartMyBook.org.
Or join her in Cape Town, South Africa, February 1 – 10, 2020, for a magical writing retreat to jumpstart your book! www.JumpStartMybook.org/writers-retreat/
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Email us at: feedback@petsitterconfessional.com
A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
Collin 0:16
I'm Collin and I'm Meghan. And this is pet sitter confessional. An open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Hello and Happy New Year. I hope your Christmas and holiday season have been great. It's a new year and we are thinking about new things new starts. Have you ever thought about how sitting internationally taking care of people's pets in homes? On today's episode The House That diva Kelly Hayes rate brings some tips on how to get started and things to consider before you do. If you've missed Kelly's previous interviews, go back and check out episodes nine and 16. For those of you unaware, Kelly, quite literally wrote the book on this subject. It can be awfully daunting to think about. So Kelly, thank you for coming on today. And where do you recommend people get started?
Kelly 1:04
Hi, Collin. Thanks for having me back. I'm really excited to be here. And I think the first thing that people should think about when they when they consider how sitting is what they're not how sitting is right for them. I am a huge advocate of how sitting it's changed my life. I've been house sitting full time for 10 years, throughout the world, all kinds of different environments, different people, different paths. And one of the things that I've really learned is that somehow sets are right for me and others just aren't, which doesn't mean they're bad houses. It just means they're not right, for me a given time. So I think the first thing folks should do is you're turning over a new leaf and this new year, and considering traveling and a new and different and exciting and authentic way is to is to really, you know, sit down and think about how you feel about living in somebody else's home, working around their schedule. Having your life possibly be kind of thrown up in the air if a pet gets hurt or something happens with a house and you need to change your plans in order to deal with that responsibility. I like that I don't have a problem with that most of the house sitters I know, relish that opportunity to make sure that a home and pets are safe while the homeowner travels. But for some people, they want more flexibility, or they just don't want that responsibility. So you mentioned my book, thank you very much. How to Become a house sitter insider tips from the house, sit diva. And right at the very beginning, I have a quiz is house sitting right for you. And it's an opportunity to just think about all the different things that go into how sitting and to see whether or not it's for you or to see what what parts of how sitting aren't for you. And then you know, to avoid those particular parts.
Collin 2:51
So in that in that quiz, you know, what would be a big red flag that you know, this is I know that it's very complicated to And there's a lot of things to take into account. But maybe what's one or two things that if it's if it's a red flag that may send off somebody that it's absolutely not for them.
Kelly 3:10
Well, I can, I can just speak for me, I'm a city girl. So when I see houses that say rural setting off the grid, I quiet isolated. That's just not for me, it may kind of sound romantic, I think, Wow. You know, that would be kind of nice to spend three months in that little mountain top of chalet and in rural France, but the reality is, it's you and that would be perfect for a lot of people is that it's not really for me, I like to be in a city where I can roll out of bed and get my cup of coffee without thinking. So yeah, but you know, for other people noise bothers them and so being in the city would be not a good fit for them.
Collin 3:54
Yeah. And I think that the key there is that knowing that it's a very personal, intimate juul decision that is not a one size fit all cookie cutter kind of approach that whether it's right for you and then after that what kind of sets you do is all dependent on your personality your tastes and what you're wanting out of it.
Kelly 4:14
Exactly. And isn't it cool that it's not a one size fit all thing otherwise everybody would would be going for all the sits I want a lot more competition, right?
Collin 4:27
It's a big world out there. So there's a lot yeah.
Kelly 4:32
But for some people, though, it's just a they don't want that kind of a responsibility when they're traveling. And and I can understand that there are times when I just need to take a break for health sitting and I want to be in a hotel and have people cater to me. Yeah. You know, it's it's nice to have that little break. What, my brother, this is probably a really bad advertisement for my book, but for an acquaintance bought at one time and we had coffee afterwards and she said, I want to thank you. That was the best $13 I've ever spent. Because I learned that house sitting isn't for me. And it was a really expensive mistake.
Collin 5:11
I think that's a pretty good accolade for your book really helps people decide if that's, you know, it's because it is such an investment of just time and energy and that you don't want to get way out there and all of a sudden realize, ooh, no, nevermind, I don't like this.
Kelly 5:28
Right. And once you're, once you're in it, you're pretty much in it, because somebody is relying on you in order for them to be able to take their vacation. And it's also an investment of money to write in terms of you're doing International House sitting to get to the place. Yeah. Lisa, to get to the place to you know, figure out all of the other expenses that are involved. So it you know, it is an investment. And, you know, I think the way we're talking about new starts here, so I think the best way for people to check out how sitting once they've taken my quiz and decided that it might be for them. To try to house it either locally or for friends or family to do what you can to minimize all of the different unknown factors. So, instead of going to, instead of jumping in, you know, with both feet and go to a country that is entirely foreign, where you don't speak the language, and you don't know the food, and you're dealing with pets, you've never met before and dealing with a homeowner you've never met before, and having everything be entirely different. That can be really jarring, right to try to figure it all out. So I would suggest the first, you know, first few sets that someone does that they do it internet in a city they know or an environment they know or with people they know, as a way of finding out what works for them and what doesn't work for them.
Collin 6:49
Yeah, that's a really great way to dip your toe in and work out some of the mechanics and maybe some of those awkward ways of talking with people about their house and getting some of those kinks worked. Before you get off and go to, as you mentioned, where everything's different, and so to just to ease the way is easier way down into that. That's that's a really good idea.
Kelly 7:11
Yeah, I think that's that's a good way for people to get started. The other thing too is I get asked a lot Well, what platform Should I join? You know, con i don't know if she realizes there are 50 platforms out there that match how sitters and homeowners. Oh my goodness, I did not know there were
Unknown Speaker 7:27
that many.
Kelly 7:28
Yes, there are five or six that are that are kind of the big granddaddy international housesitting platforms. And then there are country platforms. For example, I'm a member of how sit Mexico because I have set up quite a bit in Mexico and so it's good for me to to get a chance to see how sets that are here locally. The big ones internationally. The real granddaddy is trusted house sitters calm they're based out of the UK and they've been around for a little over a decade. They tend to be the largest, the most expensive and the most competitive. And they also offer the most houses and the most housesitting opportunities. So that's one option for people. A couple of others that I really like or mind my house, how sit match house, it matches also out of the UK and they have a lot of your assets, and no madore, which is the only bilingual house sitting platform in French and English. And they tend to be French oriented, and French territory oriented. And there are you know, there are lots of them. So one thing that I recommend to people is to go onto a free site, which is called house search search.com. And it's kind of like that kayak housesitting movement, where you can go on you put in your parameters or not. And the parameters can include a geographic region, timeframe, the duration of the house that you want, maybe you want something that's only a week. You want something that's longer than a month? What kind of animals you're willing to take care of or not take care of. And then push, push, push find it for search. And and what the house it search website does is scour all the major housesitting platforms. And we'll show you what what's available based on your parameters. And so then that can be a nice guide to figure out which housesitting platform to join.
Collin 9:25
Hmm, no, that's really nice that they have that option there. So so why would somebody choose if that if that free option is there? Why would somebody choose to go to a paid platform?
Kelly 9:37
Oh, that's a good question. So once you find out what options are available, then you are directed to the particular platform that has the site that you built that has the sit that you want to apply for and then join that platform, just like with kayak, you know, kayak will send you to the airline's website or to the you know, otcs website or whatever. And, and that's the way And then you then you join. But it's a way to find out kind of it's like a one stop shopping. So you don't have to go to all of the different websites to see which one you want to join.
Collin 10:09
Right now it's really nice. That way you can see is my is my idea of how sitting even out there or even an option for me and to be able to search and see everything at once is, is a good way so you don't feel like you're locked into one one platform over the other.
Kelly 10:24
Right. Exactly. Exactly. So I think another way for people to get started, I always encourage people to to think about the kind of experience you want to have. And that will be different each time you travel. Right. So if you're going away for the Christmas holiday, and you're looking for a house it somewhere, but you really want to be able to have the freedom to do a lot of sightseeing. You want to know that up front so that you're not locked into a house sit where the dog needs meditation four times a day and you can't be gone for more than three hours of your time. Right example? Yeah. If I'm the Other hand, you're looking for a nice quiet retreat to write that next best seller, you just might want something that, you know requires you to stay in the house so that you won't have as many distractions from the area that you're the community that your house sitting in. Right, right. So to think about what you individually want at that given time, I think is really important so that you can find the best match. The best match and how sit?
Collin 11:25
Yeah, absolutely. Because if you're not, again, if you're not happy with that, or you know, you may have, you may think you want one thing, but have a bad experience with that, or, you know, just putting some forethought into exactly what you want out of it. And as you said that changes from each set to sit is that as you have different opportunities in certain areas that you may want to travel more in one versus another or may want to be a homebody for one and, and be out exploring and another opportunity. It's something to think about before you get there.
Kelly 11:57
Exactly. So those are the tips that I have for people to think about getting started. It's a it's such it's been such a fantastic way for me to travel. When I first started housesitting, it was something that I just kind of fell into. And again, I did it for family members at first. And that gave me a chance to really see. That's when I decided I liked it. And then once I saw an opportunity to do the International House sitting I went, Oh, this is cool. And my first International House, it was wonderful. It was for a wonderful cat magical cat named Merlin in southeast London during the Olympics, and it was for two months. That summer and London was just on fire that summer. It was so exciting to be there. I didn't have tickets to go to any of the games but I was to tube stops away from Stratford from where the Olympic Park was. And so every time I got on the London Underground, there were probably volunteers dressed in these pink and vest and they were just everywhere around the whole city and I saw some of the athletes and and I thought this is a good start. I could do this for a while.
Unknown Speaker 13:12
Yeah, well, I mean, that's what a great introduction to that too, and to be there during the Olympics, and like you said, You weren't necessarily being able to go see the games, but just to be in that atmosphere. Is would be would be quite spectacular.
Kelly 13:24
Yes, it was. And so that's what that's what started me off. But you know, as we've as we've talked before, most people don't house it full time, like I do, right? They do it for, you know, a couple of weeks in the over the winter holiday, or maybe four or five or six months during the summer or for a weekend. You know, you're on a long weekend. You know, over over g in January, right when around New Year's, there's no, you know, few days off and so it's an opportunity for you to go somewhere and and spend just a long weekend in a new city that you haven't had a chance to explore and that's great. You know how sitting is a great way to do that.
Collin 14:00
Yeah, absolutely. You mentioned when we're talking about platforms here and you know, let's say we've decided someone's decided to go to a particular one of those. What are some things because we get asked this a lot too is can you review my profile so I can get the most hits? Can you see what I need to have on there or not? Do you have anything in there that you would recommend people absolutely have an absolutely not having a profile when they're setting up for international housesitting?
Kelly 14:29
Absolutely, I think the first thing to think about is think about if you know if you're a homeowner and you're inviting a stranger, to come into your home and take care of everything that is near and dear to your home, your pets, your garden, your pool, perhaps I mean, all of that. You know, you want somebody who looks good on paper, and at the very least, so what I would recommend to aspiring house sitters is don't put up pictures of you partying.
Unknown Speaker 14:57
kind of you know that's an obvious one right? You're saying but yeah,
Unknown Speaker 15:02
but you'd be shocked
Kelly 15:06
pictures of you with Pat says good showing that you can interact with pets, that's always a great thing. So the photos I think are you know, one one element of it is so photos that show that you that you're going to be responsive and caring how sitter within the profile. I think the kinds of things dimension or what kind of experience you've had with pets, what kind of experiences you've liked to have with pets Think of it as a resume, you know, you're not just putting down what you've done, but what you would like to do and why. Yeah, nothing wrong with that. Why you would like to house it. It's It's nice, just as in a in an application for job. It's really kind of nice if you could talk about what you could offer a homeowner as opposed to I've always wanted to come to Rome and three weeks they're eating spaghetti and taking Spanish we have taken Italian lessons, right? Yeah. So to put in what you have to offer is a good idea. Yeah, in the in the cover letter, it's nice to be able to really just like a job interview to refer to very specific things that's in the homeowners profile, to mention the pets by name. If the homeowner has said that one of the pets needs medicine needs regular medication, you could put in there that you've had experience if you have that you had experienced biting medication for pets, just something that shows that you're taking a personal interest in that particular family and those particular pets. How stunning is a very personal and I would say intimate kind of relationship, in that, you know, it's it, you're living in somebody else's home and they're allowing you to live in their home. And so there's a real there's a trust to that. There's also an intimacy to that and I think being being cognizant of that and respectful of that can go a long way to helping you go to the top of the heap when there's competition for a particular set.
Collin 17:00
Sure, and I really like the idea here of the cover letter and all of these components being brought together and really actually, you know, treating it like a, like a real job application and taking it very seriously and expressing that in all of these elements that you're bringing up.
Kelly 17:17
Yes. And I like I like it when the homeowner does that too. Sure. You know, I don't know how many homeowners are listening to, to pet sitting confidential. Maybe they're trying to find out you know, the inside scoop what we're thinking about and if they are Yeah, let me just say that I always appreciate it when a homeowner takes the time to be very thoughtful in an in her posting, and takes the time to put details about the home the neighborhood and the Pats and, and some of the quirks. And the reason why I appreciate that is because it tells me that the homeowner is taking this relationship responsibly as well, that they're recognizing that I'm paying my way to come there. care for their pets, I'm saving them a lot of money. I'm, I'm putting myself out there in terms of being responsible for for them and their home and the pets. And so it shows that there's kind of a level of appreciation and recognition of that. So when I see a detailed profile, I appreciate that. The other reason I appreciate a detailed profile is that it gives me an opportunity to to recognize that it might not be for me and I don't waste my time applying for a house if that in the long run, I'm going to turn down if I'm right. And therefore the homeowner saves time to going through applications that aren't going to pan out for her. So I think the more detailed everybody can be upfront, the better off it is right from the we're talking about starts right from the start. right up front with everything that's good.
Collin 18:55
Yeah, and and recognizing I know this, this comes up an awful lot, but knowing that it's It's a two way, it's a two way applicant application process. The owner is looking for someone to sit for their home and you're looking for an owner to sit for. And so the more details that are there, the faster and easier that process is going to go.
Kelly 19:16
Exactly. And it is a two way street. I mean, it is a responsibility to a responsibility. And just as you know, if I'm applying for a job, I mean, that employer is taking a risk on me and they're there. I'm also interviewing them if I'm applying for a job to see if this is going to be a fit for me.
Collin 19:35
Right, right. Yes. Yeah, that is so that is something that you don't really think about right at the beginning is that you know, this is I need to make sure that I'm okay with sitting for this person or this house and this pet it's but knowing that going into it helps you see what kind of red flags are out there. You know, if when you're looking at an owners profile, or there are a couple things that that are red flags to you as to I know, it's you know, it's very personal but that just stand out as maybe that's not the one that I want.
Kelly 20:09
I think some universal red flags or things like the homeowner requiring me to live with their adult children dropping by it will see that sometimes, you know, right so or I'm expected to take care of their
Unknown Speaker 20:26
vacation rental to Sita in the back or no pay. Okay.
Kelly 20:33
You know, additional kinds of things like that like that, that other somehow citizen sitters that will take those, there's some health sitters that will take some of those are paid positions, and that's, that's fine, too. Yeah, but for but for me, I want to I want a homeowner to recognize that it's a big responsibility that I'm taking on to care for their pets in their home and then that's enough, and I should not be as it should not be assumed that I'm going to handle their business. Yeah, or their relatives dropping by and so we see that so that's one big kind of red flag for me. Another is a homeowner that comes off sounding kind of demanding in the posting. I want this I want this we expect our house sitters to do this with you to build up blah blah blah and it's like, excuse me, I'm volunteering for you You know, I mean, yes if you expect me to do X y&z That's great. I'm glad you're letting me know but perhaps you could ask it in a little bit Kinder way less demanding way. So that's one thing learned a lot during the Skype interview so there's there's several stages right there's the homeowner who's posted I posted my my availability and and my posting and I've done my best to show me with the animals and to talk about why I want to house sit and what I have to offer you and that's all the posting I've applied for the house sit with a cover letter that says Let me reiterate what I have to offer you specifically. And yeah, this is why I'd like to come to your community and let's talk. And then during the Skype interview, that's kind of the next stage is the video conference. And that's an opportunity for me to see the home to see the interaction to meet the Pats right a video, but more importantly, to see the interaction between the pets to the homeowner even briefly during a half hour Skype interview. It's also a chance for the homeowners to ask me more questions and to get a chance to get a better feel for who I am and what my experiences and how I would handle certain certain situations. So the Skype interview is is really important and I like to do that as early as possible in the whole conversation so that we don't drag out the the the dating if you will get
Collin 22:57
right to the
Unknown Speaker 23:00
Yeah, I'm, you know, with with how sitting with pet sitting in pet care, it is really it's one of the most awkward speed dating processes that I think we can go through in life. Because, as you mentioned, it is a very intimate, you know,
Collin 23:16
process of getting to know somebody getting to know the house, getting to know the location and and being in these people's lives. You know, that takes a lot of time and investment and energy to get there.
Kelly 23:31
Yes, absolutely. speed dating. That's funny, and it's true. I mean, I, you know, and especially when you've been doing it for a while, and as I have and I've got to the point where I can pretty much eyeball what experiences would be good for me and what ones wouldn't based on my experience and what I've learned that makes me happy. Yeah. And and where I can shine, right? I mean, I wouldn't take a house if that involves taking care of horses because that would set me up for failure because I don't know anything about taking care of horses and horses usually aren't in big cities right?
Collin 24:06
city girl I've been to that right
Kelly 24:09
so by now I pretty much know what kinds of houses are good for me and and so I you know I can apply for them and I usually get to at least the the shortlist where we have an opportunity to Skype. And I like to have that whole process happened very quickly because during certain times when I'm looking for a house that during a certain period, I'll be applying to five or six different houses, so I'll probably get shortlisted on four or five of those. And I'm going to make a decision fairly quickly because I want to get my visa I want to get my plane tickets sorted out. I want to work around the dates that the homeowner has. So like for example last summer, I was offered three houses in a week. One in Quito, one in Incheon, South Korea, and the other And around y'all in, which is a French island in the Indian Ocean. And I was offered. I mean, I had Skype conversations on top of each other I had to in one day and wanted another day and was offered all three of them. And so it gave me a chance then to make a decision about what I wanted to do. And I had a great choice, which was
Collin 25:18
lovely. Yeah, that's it. That's a good, you know, you want to be in that position to be deciding between those three. That seems very nice.
Kelly 25:25
Right. And it was nice that the homeowners also wanted to move quickly, because, right, they wanted to decision made, and so they didn't drag the process out. So I think both homeowners and house sitters do themselves a disservice right at the beginning, if they drag out the communication, and you know, so that's something that I just want to caution everybody on that the one way to really get yourself up to the top is to be very quick with the responses and emailing back setting the Skype conversation up quickly, and really being responsive to the homeowners timeframe. I guess it's to your benefit as well to move quickly.
Collin 26:03
Yeah, no, that that really makes sense. So what would you say is a reasonable timeline to expect here? And I know it's varied by sitter and their experiences and in a lot of other factors. But is, is a three day timeline from posting to booking too short to expect? Or is it generally more drawn out?
Kelly 26:24
Well, I, you know, the, the homeowner really sets the tone and the speed on that. So when the homeowner posts Generally, the rule of thumb is, the faster a house sitter can get in her application, the better off she'll be because it might be that the homeowner gets 15 or 20 applications and only looks at the first five or six. Oh, wow. So you know, it just depends on some homework. Some homeowners will go through all of them and will respond to all of them, but some won't, you know, they'll just look at the first handful of applicants and keep going until they find the right person. So the sooner You get in the faster, the better. The second thing is then when the homeowner contacts you back, and that usually happens through the platform's messaging system, you want to be able to respond very quickly back to that if you let a few days go by, you know, chances are the homeowners probably corresponding with a few people at once the speed dating thing again, right. And, and so you know, you want to be able to be sure that you are still at the top so not to let any time like by and then try to just set up that Skype interview as quickly as possible. Now, here's something that happens, and I've seen this happen with homeowners a lot. They post, especially new homeowners who haven't had a house sitter before, they will post and not realize that they're going to get a dozen or 15 applicants and they're feel overwhelmed and not get to it right away. Or they'll post at the beginning of a really busy work week with the intention of not getting to it for a couple of weeks. Oh, and and by that time some of the applicants have already moved on to do other things because they didn't hear anything back that it was already filled. So for any of the homeowners who are listening, one of the one of the things to do is to really it's like, it's like going into a restaurant, you don't go in with enough money just to buy your meal and you've got enough money to pay for the tip and the parking, you recognize that those are parts of it. So it's not just about the time frame for posting your listing. It's about setting aside enough time after that posting goes live, to sift through and and assess the different applications you get. So that's sort of thing. And the more time you set aside to do that, right after the posting, the better off you'll be, you'll have more options.
Collin 28:45
Yeah, and as the as the house set or knowing that the process is only as fast as the homeowner can or will go. You know, it's both a both a blessing and a curse knowing that it's kind of out of your control and you can only do so much Much to make the process go along faster.
Kelly 29:02
Yes. And, you know, I mean, you can't cyberstalk somebody on the platform. It's like, you know, every once in a while, I'll email somebody back and say, I just wanted to check and see where you are on the process. But if they haven't answered my first email the or the first application, they're probably not going to answer that one either. Right. And it's, you know, it doesn't it's, it's the thing that really annoys house sitters who take time to have a really thorough application that's personal and, and, and they hope helpful for the homeowner to not even see that it gets red. And a lot of the platforms we can tell whether or not our application has been read. And I can't tell you the number of times that I put in an application and it wasn't even read. Oh, my God. You know, it's and I don't know what that's about. I don't know if the homeowner decided not to take a trip or decided that the whole process was not going to be for her. or her niece decided to come and live in her house and she didn't need a stranger. It could be any.
Collin 30:05
Yeah. Yeah. If they're not communicating back to you, you have no idea.
Kelly 30:10
Yes. So one of the things that I always tell house sitters when they're starting out, is to put out a lot of applications.
Unknown Speaker 30:18
You just you need to sell a lot of seeds to see which one is going to is going to grow for you.
Collin 30:23
Yeah, cuz you don't know what's going to bite and as you get more experienced through the process, and as you get more reviews and more referrals, I'm sure that speeds it up to so that you don't have to continually send out as many each time.
Kelly 30:37
Yes, and well for me, what happens is I get a lot of repeat
Unknown Speaker 30:41
since so yeah,
Kelly 30:43
so I'm not applying for as many as I used to when I first started out. But, you know, still like, I mean, like Last summer I applied for, well, I applied for three houses, and those all three of those were people who, as I said, you know, set up a Skype interview with me, but it could have very Well, Ben that all three of those people didn't follow up with me. I mean, you just never know. Yeah. You just have to keep putting putting applications out there and and, and really, you know callin the best time for people to start and this is a little counterintuitive, but the best time for people to for newbies who want to start how sitting is over the holidays, the Christmas holidays and during the summer, because that's when a lot more people are traveling. Right? And well, especially during the holidays because during the holidays, what happens is some house sitters don't want to house it, then they want to be home with their families. So there are fewer house sitters on the market, if you will, is less competition. There are a lot of houses out there because people want to travel, then especially teachers in foreign countries, they want to travel and go home to their families and they have their pets that they want taken care of. So there are a lot more houses available in different places. So the ratio of house sits to house sitters shifts During that period of time in favor of house sitters, I'm particularly in favor of new house sitters. So that's a great tip for people starting out.
Collin 32:09
Yeah, and as you said, it's kind of counterintuitive because you think everybody would be out there trying to house it during that time. But as you mentioned at the very towards the beginning, is that not everybody house its full time and so people come and go off the market. So whenever there's a great much greater demand than there is supply of house sitters. That's the time to jump in and let your feet and see what you get.
Kelly 32:30
That's right. Exactly. The only downside to that time of the year is that the air fares are pretty expensive. But there's you know, there's ways around that to be able to go before I'm For example, I have a this past Christmas I had a house in in South Korea, the one that I didn't take Last summer I asked the woman if she wanted someone for the Christmas holidays, so that's where I was sitting. And she very graciously allowed me to come a couple of days early, and my flight from the Los Angeles to Seoul was about $370. One way, if I had flown The next day, it would have been 100 and something dollars.
Collin 33:09
Oh my goodness, because
Kelly 33:10
I was going into the Christmas season. So the homeowner was kind enough to let me come three days early. And so that's something that can be negotiated. Or even if I had stayed in a hotel for three days, it's still would have been cheaper is on the $800
Unknown Speaker 33:22
ticket. So yeah, absolutely.
Kelly 33:25
So those are things to consider if you're going to be starting around the around the holiday season, and I realized we've just come out of that. So yes, isn't necessarily a timely tip to show.
Unknown Speaker 33:38
Keep in mind, well,
Collin 33:40
yeah, and that's and as we think of, you know, a new year and new starts as we keep bringing this up is now's a good time to start planning to start looking ahead for 2020 and and make that decision if it's right for you. Start doing those test trips that you've talked about starting locally and getting those words referrals going deciding on a platform. And then and then working on your profile, having people review it, you know, it's starting now so that whenever the summer hits and then the holiday startup, you're ready to go. And you're not sitting there trying to pull it all together and just winging it. It's a good time to just just start.
Kelly 34:17
That's right. That's a that's a really good tip. Yeah, I mean, it's either the to join most of the of the house sitting platforms is under $100, which is, you know, well under what we might pay for a hotel and a day's worth of meals. Yeah, in a lot of places. So it's, it's something that is very affordable to join the different platforms. And so getting that up now is a nice new year's resolution. It's a nice thing to do.
Collin 34:45
Yeah. And as well as as well as checking out your book and how can people find your book and follow along with your work, Kelly?
Kelly 34:52
Oh, thank you. My book is called How to Become a house sitter. insider tips from the house sit diva. It's available is an ebook on my website for 799 at health diva.com. Or it's available as a softcover on Amazon, or as a Kindle on Amazon. And again, it's how to become a house sitter insider tips from the house it diva. And that's where I have The Wiz is house sitting right for you. And which I hope it is. Wow. And and also just, I have I have one chapter that has over 20 different considerations that you might want to think about when you're looking at a house it everything from this location to the type of house it is things that homeowners may not necessarily think to tell you about their house. And that's the whole chapter, as well as some anecdotes of just my little house. What are your experiences which have been kind of fun? Yeah. Somebody said you need to write a book one day. There you go.
Collin 36:00
We're all thankful that you did with all that great resource. And we appreciate you coming on today and sharing with us a little bit about getting started and just you know how to even begin to wrap our brains about that, that process and things that we need to be thinking about. So we really appreciate you coming on today, Kelly.
Unknown Speaker 36:18
Thank you for having me and Happy New Year everyone.
Collin 36:22
So whether it's starting something new, or continuing to refine and hone those things that you're already great at, I hope 2020 is the best year yet for both you personally, and your pet sitting business. If you have questions or feedback, or maybe a story or passion that you'd like to share with others, email us at feedback at pet sort of confessional calm. You can follow along with us on Instagram and Facebook at pet sir confessional. We're also on Twitter at PS confessional if you haven't checked out our website. It's a great resource with all of our past episodes, along with show notes and transcripts for each episode is pet sitting right for you. You and what do you do after you get your first booking? Join us next week when we cover these and more topics.
Keywords: homeowner, pets, house, people, sitting, house sitters, sitters, platform, set, nice, application, home, houses, posting, opportunity, applicants, profile, travel
