What's the best way to find the right sitter for you?

Our Aussie House Sitters house-sitting community is a diverse group of friendly people with different skills, experience, and interests. House sitting works best when you match with the right house sitter for your specific house and pet care needs. So how can you attract the right house sitter quickly and efficiently? Having the right sitters apply for your house-sitting job will save you time when choosing your sitter.

Here are some tips for enticing sitters who best match your preferences, to respond to your homeowner ad.

• Be clear and upfront about what your house sit involves. Give clear, relevant, honest information about any responsibilities or details needed for your house sit. Providing this upfront in your ad will help house sitters decide if they should apply, based on their experience and preferences. This can include any special pet care required, specific garden needs or home care. You want to encourage applications from sitters with the skills necessary for your house-sitting job. If you have pet care needs, then you want to attract a house sitter who has lots of experience with animals. If you have a beautiful garden, you will want a house sitter with a green thumb.
• Know what’s important to you and include that in your ad. Make sure you know what your priorities are and state these clearly in your ad. What are looking for in a house sitter? Give these details in the description of your ad, so potential house sitters can screen themselves. List some key skills/attributes and then a few ‘nice to have’ characteristics that are more flexible. For example, if you’d prefer someone who can be home a lot for your attention-seeking cat, or is active enough to keep up with your energetic dog, make sure you put this in your ad. That way only sitters who can do this will apply.
• Show a bit of your personality to find like-minded people. To find a house sitter who really suits your needs, it is best to find someone who is ‘on your wavelength’. It really is a win-win, if you find a house sitter who has a similar mindset or approach as you. Give a few details in your house sit ad about what is important to you. These give an insight into your personality and will help sitters know if it could be a suitable match up.
• Include photos of parts of your home, garden, or pets. Having photos can make your ad stand out and encourage sitters to apply. Pictures of your pets can help house sitters get a good better idea of the pet breeds or animal size they’ll be dealing with, so they know what to expect when applying. And let’s be honest, who doesn’t love a cute animal photo! Having some photos of your home, garden and any specific facilities can also further entice great sitters to apply for your ad. This means a greater number of sitters for you to choose from.

• Include accurate sit features and house/location type in your ad. Once you have added details about your sitting job, and uploaded photos, fill in the house sit features and house/location type fields in your homeowner ad. House sitters search using these fields to look for specific features for their next sit. For example, a sitter might need wifi to work from your home, they may need space for their caravan, or be seeking a beach locale. By filling in these extra fields correctly can ensure sitters can easily find you when searching for new sitting jobs.
• Let house sitters know your process in your ad or message responses. You can use your ad to let sitters know how you’ll be reviewing applications. You might give a date by which you’ll respond to all potential house sitters. If you will only accept a sitter you can meet in-person first, make sure to mention this so only local house sitters apply for your ad. Letting sitters know your process of choosing someone helps manage applicant expectations and will prevent you having sitters messaging you asking what is happening.
• Reply promptly to all messages and maintain your 5 Star ‘reply rating’. Prompt communication between homeowners and house-sitters is key to a successful house-sitting community. Our ‘reply rating’ points system helps to support this. Respond to all first enquiry messages from interested house sitters within 5 days, ideally within 48 hours if possible. If you don’t reply within the five days, you will lose a ‘reply rating’ point. Maintaining a high reply rating as a homeowner makes you appear reliable and attractive to potential house sitters, which again means more high-quality house sitters applying for your sitting job.
• You can contact sitters directly with detailed search options. Whether you use a free house-sitting ad or not, you can also contact house sitters directly via their profiles. You can use the search option on Aussie House Sitters and use the filters based on your preferred criteria. This can include availability of your sit dates, ID verification status, experience with certain pets, or preferred sit length. Using these search filters can help you quickly find house sitters best match your needs.