House sitting is the practice of letting someone assume the role of the house owner while the true owner is away for a period of time. While this sounds reasonable enough, it could become a big job to sort out. An owner of a house has his/her entire life tied up in their home, so it is not an easy task entrusting someone with such important belongings.

Even so, it is often inevitable that a person needs to go on a nice vacation or must go on a business trip and needs to do so without worrying about whether or not their home and pets are secure.

So how do you find the right house sitter? Here’s how:

1. Ask Friends or Neighbors. You could just ask a friend or neighbor to check on things and grab your mail on occasion. More often than not, your neighbors or friends will have no objections to visiting your home once a day or so to make sure everything is fine, especially if you have pets! But is checking in once a day enough?
2. Post Ads or Requests on Craigslist and Facebook. I’d suggest using this method as your last resort because you never know who you’ll get calling in on you. This is less likely with Facebook as you can view their profile and pictures to get a good grip on their personality, but with Craigslist, you get virtually no look until you’re ready to interview someone.
3. Network at Work. Your co-workers are a wealth of information, and you’d be surprised at how good of a process this could turn out to be. Ask around your office or place of employment if any of them know of a guy or girl who could help you out in a time of need. You could even ask your co-workers directly if they’d like to take care of your place while you’re away if you want. What’s the worst they could say? No? You never know unless you try.
4. Contact an Agency. Aside from the obvious cost, this is perhaps the easiest method to find a proper house sitter. While you’re essentially leaving it up to the agency to find a trustworthy occupant, you’re leaving all the searching and interviewing to them as well. If you can afford it and depending on how you feel about letting a stranger into your home without doing any background checking yourself, this could work for you.
5. Use an House Sitting website. Using a House Sitting website like Mindahome is the smartest way to find a sitter as there is no cost to home owners and most of the information about the sitters is available on the site before you meet them. All the finding work is done, you just need to choose who you would like to interview for the job. It’s not always the easiest thing in the world finding a house sitter to watch your house while you’re away, but use a house sitting site like Mindahome and your search could be over in no time.

About the author:
Joe Petchonka is a professional writer and blogger that helps Detroit Buick dealers write proper website content and media releases.