[Mr&MrsExcited]

This is an entirely new concept to us, but we've been fortunate to be offered a house sitting position in Eastbourne, Wellington for 6 weeks starting on Tuesday. We found out about it through the hostel we've been staying in.

House sitting seems like the ideal solution to our accommodation needs and we'd like to continue with it is possible. There seem to be a few websites offering house sitting services, but registration fees are applicable.

Does anyone have experience of how to get regular house sitting positions? Are websites such as happyhousesitters.co.nz & housecarers.com worth the registration fee?

Any advice much appreciated :cheers

[JandM]

Our son and his wife did three jobs like this before they found a home of their own, and in each case, it happened by word of mouth. They heard of the first people because they had a common interest, then the locals came to know how come they were there in the neighbourhood, and the next jobs came along from people who'd heard them mentioned. There's nothing like personal recommendation.

Then, when we were going to be in NZ last year and wanted a base, our son put cards in several local post offices and dairies offering us as housesitters, and found the (very nice, 3 bedroom 2 bathroom detached) house we had eventually from among the replies. These replies included several from businesses, either agencies who were trying to recruit housesitters, or to rent out property, but there were lots of private people who seemed up for this format. We got a really good holiday home for well less than the cost of a motel, and the owners had the reassurance of a presence in their private-from-the-road home, also had it kept aired through the winter while they were in Europe.