Summer Sit-In
How to Find Someone to Stay While You Get Away

By Cheryl Kenny
Special to The Washington Post
Thursday, June 2, 2005

A good vacation means escape from the routine, and from routine concerns. But who can relax with mail stacking up outside the door, shrubs shriveling from lack of water, hamburger moldering in the freezer after a summer storm knocks out power?

Enter the helpful housesitter: maybe a friend, neighbor or co-worker, or someone personally recommended by one of them. Or maybe a stranger found through a church bulletin board, the community paper, a neighborhood list serve or an Internet matching service.

The arrangements homeowners make in this high season for housesitting can be as quick and casual as jotting a few notes, leaving phone numbers and handing over the keys. Or they can include written contracts and security deposits. Whatever the specifics, there are basic steps needed to ensure the experience is pleasant for both sitter and homeowner.

Becky Zonies, 24, of College Park favors a casual approach to her occasional housesits for friends and family members. Zonies, internship coordinator at the University of Maryland Career Center and house director of a sorority at the university, doesn't charge for her brief stints, which seldom exceed a few days. "It's more like a favor," Zonies said. "But often friends will leave the refrigerator stocked with some goodies, and I've gotten trinkets from their trips."

Amanda Righi is a project manager for a Washington consulting firm who housesits for co-workers or their friends, often for two- to four-week stretches. The 27-year-old Righi also keeps her arrangements informal, and usually charges about $10 a day -- enough to cover the cost of commuting from work to wherever she is housesitting. Until recently, Righi shared a Washington house with four roommates. "To stay in a nice house with a nice yard," she said, "is part of the compensation. . . . Being alone, having more privacy, is a big draw."

Army National Guard Master Sgt. Donna Gregor is on the more formal side of the housesitting scale. Gregor relies on a series of sitting arrangements, running from a few weeks to many months, to provide her a place to live. "I'm a single parent with two kids in college," Gregor said. "I'm saving money to pay off my sons' tuitions."

She generally does not charge a fee -- her compensation is the money she saves from not having housing costs -- but insists on a written contract. She also provides a security deposit, and says homeowners should not be embarrassed to ask for one. "If the person is responsible, it should not be a problem," says Gregor. "Someone could cart all your possessions away."

Gregor gets many sits from word of mouth, sometimes from deployed guardsmen who do not want to leave their houses or apartments vacant. She also has made arrangements through HouseCarers.com, an online source that matches homeowners and housesitters.

Ian White is founder and owner of the five-year-old, Australia-based HouseCarers.com. He said sitters include "retired people, travelers, writers, people checking out an area before committing to purchase." His site's basic advice for finding the right person to entrust with your home: "Provide a clear explanation for your expectations and required tasks" and "follow your intuition."

Check references

Before leaving the keys with a relative stranger, do a little background checking. A face-to-face interview plus calls to a potential sitter's friends and former housesit homeowners are basic.

Gregor, who often stays for long periods, encourages homeowners to check driving and credit records, and do a criminal background check. She makes a point of doing a background check on the homeowner. "I want to make sure they are really the owners, that there is no illegal activity at the house, that it's not a party spot . . . the person could be subletting from someone else."

HouseCarers.com does not do background checks but offers advice about choosing a sitter, tips on working out arrangements, and sample written agreements.

Make things clear

Even sitters who don't use written agreements or provide deposits emphasize the need for a clear understanding between homeowner and sitter about what is expected and acceptable. Can a sitter smoke in the house, have overnight guests, use the home computer? Should she sleep in their sheets or bring her own? Use food from the cupboard, or pack groceries?

Righi urges homeowners to outline a sitter's responsibilities. Zonies suggests homeowners also note any unusual features of the house (leaky toilet, flood-prone basement). Emergency contacts and itinerary information are musts. Righi and Zonies both say they eat from the homeowner's cupboards only if invited, and buy perishables or eat out. They use the homeowner's linens unless told otherwise, and launder them before leaving.

White said short arrangements made through HouseCarers.com normally include free gas and electric service (but not long distance telephone charges) in addition to accommodations.

Chores

Watering plants, mowing small lawns and forwarding important mail are often part of the deal, but homeowners should expect to pay for some extras. "The spirit of our site is rent-free accommodation," said White. "However if there are onerous duties to be performed such as grooming three horses or large lawns to be mowed, a fee can be negotiated between the housesitter and homeowner."

Righi's chores have included watering plants, filling bird feeders, and taking out trash and recycling. Gregor often does yardwork.

Who lets the dogs out?

Many HouseCarers.com sits include free pet care, White said. Gregor cares for pets for free, as does Zonies if it's for a friend and for only a weekend. But some sitters, such as Righi, charge: Cats are free, but Righi asks an extra $20 per day for dogs, which need walking. If an animal needs medication, an extra charge may be in order.

Transportation

Location can make a difference in finding a sitter. Heidi Quist, a State Department employee who occasionally housesits, said she may refuse to stay in a house that is too far from her office. Gregor has the same concern, and said a housesit should include parking: "In Washington, that is a major concern." Righi, who often does not have use of a car, said unless the homeowner makes a car available to her -- and some have -- she takes only jobs within walking distance of a Metro.

After all the bases have been covered, there's the more imprecise business of gauging a potential sitter's familiarity with things domestic.

College students often are asked to housesit; some college career offices list openings, and ads may be posted at student unions. But many students have little experience in home maintenance and repair, especially if they've lived only in dorms.

Alex Antram, a senior at George Mason University's Fairfax campus who frequently sits for a former professor, has handled basic plumbing and other household tasks for her parents. "It's definitely helpful if you are comfortable with a house and know how to handle emergencies," she said.

Likewise, Zonies's experience as sorority director makes housesitting easier. "I know a house's pipes, how they connect . . . the smell of gas, when water pressure is not right. If I didn't, I definitely would not be triggered as quickly if something went wrong."

Barb Goetting had college students from Arizona sit her Falls Church home during the summer two years ago. The students both lacked basic experience maintaining a home, and knew nothing about basements, which are scarce in Arizona houses. When heavy rains caused flooding in Goetting's basement, the students were oblivious. "Once they mentioned a funny smell," says Goetting, "but I didn't think anything of it . . . . Then a friend of ours stopped by the house. She opened the front door and immediately smelled that something was wrong."

Goetting's friend headed straight for the basement, found soaked and smelly carpeting, and took charge of the problem. Goetting's lesson: "I will only allow people to housesit who are relatives and are older, and have had a house."

On the other hand, Quist, an apartment dweller, points out that if she did have her own home, the extra responsibilities that come with it might make her less inclined to take a job sitting for someone else. "I wouldn't want to go back and forth to check my own house," she said.

Bottom line? Righi offers this advice: "Treat [the homeowners'] space as theirs, not yours."