If you are a new house sitter, or someone with one or two house sits under your belt, you could be wondering how easy it will be to keep finding house sits. This is a bigger concern if you intend to use house sitting as part of a full time nomadic lifestyle. 

We are often asked how we manage to consistently secure back-to-back house sitting jobs in the locations of our choice. Well, firstly let me tell you, we have had to put some work in to make this happen.

Home sitting ​jobs rarely just drop into our inbox, conveniently timed to make our life easy! We've worked hard ​to perfect our profile and our house sit applications. This all helps us get more house sitting jobs, for more of the time!

​5)  Find ​sits ​using an ​aggregate ​search ​site

There are now two sites that allow you to search for sits across a range of house sitting platforms. Each one searches different platforms, so using both could be beneficial.

• Housesittingworld searches across Nomador, HouseCarers, HappyHouseSitters and HouseSitMexico - you will need to sign up (either free or on premium subscription) to get access.
• House​SitSearch has much wider coverage and also includes the largest international platform - TrustedHousesitters. It's available to use without signing up, and has some pretty cool search filters. It does, however, lack ​"email alerts".

6)  Know what you want when reviewing assignments

Obviously the location and dates are important, so we isolate those sits that fit the time period gaps on our calendar.

We don't overlook those that overlap a little - if they are close by we could separate to cover a day or two on overlapping sits.

We recently did this in Australia (with home owner consent) over the Christmas period, overlapping by just 3 days on two easy sits. In this way we were able to cover a period that might otherwise have been more difficult - again, maximize your possibilities by thinking outside the box.

Next we assess the home owner's advert. We look for the following:

• A good representative selection of images of both the pets and the property.
• A well written, informative listing that details exactly what's required throughout the sit in terms of both pets and the property - the more info the better. We are more attracted to sits where the owner is transparent about potential issues.
• Unusual requirements such as off-grid, swimming pools, or remote locations - we have the skill set to look after these properties, and less people generally apply.
• Firm dates - someone who hasn't confirmed their dates doesn't work for us. Furthermore there's a possibility it's simply an advert to see if house sitters are available, SHOULD they decide to book a holiday.
• We work online, so internet is important - high speed internet is a must. Make sure you take into account any work considerations and filter accordingly. Don't forget you can ask for an internet speed test if in any doubt about connectivity.

7)  Know ​what to​ avoid

This is a list that will potentially grow as you become more established as a house sitter. It's only after experiencing a number of different situations, in a variety of environments, that we've really identified what to avoid for our particular situation. Here are just a few of these items:

• No pictures on the listing is a no-no for us - there's too much work involved in assessing whether the property and pets are a good match for us. But if you're new to house sitting, or simply have more time, then you could choose to pursue further. However, beware of no pictures with just a 2 or 3 line house sit advertisement - that would definitely be a red-flag for us. Detail and matching expectations is key to a successful house sit - that should start with the advert.
• Any mention of deposits or payment for utilities, is another no for us personally. We prefer a trust based, payment free exchange that provides a win-win-win for the owners, the pets and us. That said we do understand that sometimes it's worth considering utility payments on long-term sits, or if the sit is especially attractive.
• Because we still work online part-time we prefer not to have too many animals or pets that need a lot of continual daily care. Again this is personal to our particular situation and we don't want to ever feel that we can't give the required time to our charges.

8)  Apply ​quickly ​and ​personalize ​​applications

As soon as you've found an assignment that suits you, send in your application.

I think the key to success is to personalize your email or message and make connections. Talk about points from within the advert and use the pet's names. If you identify with something in the listing, or perhaps know the area, then mention this. We often become friends with our home owners and this is usually because we find sits where we make like-minded connections.

When making an application, remember at all times that it is about fulfilling the home owner's needs first, not your own. Talk about how you can do that. Draw on your experiences and put links to anything that can back up your application, such as your personal website, a blog you've written - anything to reaffirm your credibility.

Of course, I'm not suggesting that you negate your own needs, but don't make them the focus of your application.

We refer a homeowner to all of our references in one place on our website, but if you don't have this, create a word document or a PDF that you can attach to your application. It helps to make this visual too - include pictures alongside your written references.

Offer to Skype or video chat at a time that suits them.

Be sympathetic to the fact that the homeowners are likely to be overwhelmed with enquiries, especially if they are in popular locations.

9)  Maximize ​exposure of references in applications

We are often asked, "What if I'm new to a site and my references are on other platforms?"

This is a more common situation than you may think, especially if you want to increase your house sitting job opportunities by subscribing to more than one house sitting platform.

But don't worry, it's easily dealt with.

When we first joined TrustedHousesitters, we had to compete with house sitters that had 20+ references. Of course we took advantage of the facility to request reviews from people we'd previously sat for, but we also took some pro-active actions:

• Quote all or part of your best reference and insert it at the top of your profile.
• Add your most recent references from sits through other websites, to the end of your profile.
• Explain in your message that you are "new" to this particular website and that not all of your references are accessible. Direct the home owners to where they are available, with web links if possible.
• Consider creating a personal house sitting website with a "references" page.

10)  Keep ​on top of your applications

When we don't hear back within 3-5 days, we send a reminder message or email.

If we don't hear back within a few days of this, we pretty much write off that application and move on. If a reply does happen to come through later, don't feel bad if you've already found something else. You made the effort to connect and it wasn't reciprocated.

This is an opportunity to remind home owners that they need to respond quickly these days to get the best house sitters - we often ask that they keep our details on record for future house sitting opportunities.

We've often found that slow responses equal patchy communication on an ongoing basis, which is worrying for us when we are filling a year round schedule. So, we do prefer to deal with people who take the time to respond promptly, even if it's a cut and paste, "We've been overwhelmed with responses but we'll get back to you soon".

11)  ​Listen to ​your intuition - know when to say no

After six years of house sitting, I can tell within a few seconds if a house sit gig will work for us. My intuition is now highly tuned to house sitting expectations and I make sure to listen to ​any messages.

On the one occasion we over-rode this to be in a fantastic location, we had our worst ever house sitting experience. We ignored all the red-lights presented to us, but did at least learn from this mistake!

Listen to your intuition when you first review a house sit online and most importantly once you start corresponding by email, and when carrying out a ​video interview.

Don't ever be afraid to turn down a sit if it doesn't feel right for you.