How to live rent free: Become a professional house surfer, pet sitter

IMAGINE how much money you could save if you never had to pay rent. It’s possible, but the answer may not be everyone’s cup of tea.

House for sale at 11 Ocean Drive, Dundowran Beach off Hervey Bay.

IMAGINE how much money you could save if you never had to pay rent.

It is possible, but the answer may not be everyone’s cup of tea. You must be comfortable living out of a suitcase, happy to move on short notice — and you have to love pets.

House and pet sitting has become a popular way for people to save — for home deposits, overseas trips, or even small business capital — and a batch of websites have sprung up over the past few years to connect homeowners with house sitters.

“Australians are very flexible,” says Sue Coombs, founder of house and pet sitting site Mindahome.com.au, which she says has seen a surge of interest in the past 12 months as renters experiment with life on the go.

“House sitting is good for people finding it difficult to save money. There are a lot of success stories of people who have saved for a home deposit or older people saving to go on holidays, for example.”

Sites such as Aussie House Sitters and Mindahome.com.au charge prospective house sitters an annual fee for the ability to apply for house sitting positions. Stays can range from a few days to up to 12 months, and some have made a comfortable lifestyle living in other people’s homes.

Melbourne naturopath Janelle Castle, 36, has saved around $3300 in rent and utilities in the past five months from regular house sitting, and plans to use that money to start her own business.

Sydney couple Dave Muller, 28, and Esther Muller, 24, have saved around $24,000 for a home deposit since moving out of their $420-a-week Mosman apartment, while Dale Ryan, 54, and Cathryn Ryan, 57, have negotiated a 12-month house sit in Hervey Bay, Queensland.

Ms Castle says it began as a way of saving money but the lifestyle has grown on her. “I’m actually really starting to enjoy living out of a suitcase,” she says. “I’ve got it down to a fine art — there was one week where I moved house three times.”

While the idea of letting strangers into your home might sound dangerous, Ms Coombs says house sitters must usually provide references and police checks to homeowners. Unlike accommodation site Airbnb, Mindahome doesn’t handle any money — it simply provides a platform for owners and sitters to connect.

“It works like a dating site to a degree,” she says. “We’ve never had any thefts or any major issues. We did have one complaint about a house sitter and we quickly took them off the books.”

In addition to saving money, Ms Castle says an added benefit of house-surfing is it prevents her from making unnecessary purchases. “It’s quite refreshing not to have to think about buying stuff for around the home like furniture and cookbooks. You’re not as inspired to shop and purchase because you think, that’s just another thing I’ll have to lug around.”

Originally published as How to live rent free: Become a professional house surfer, pet sitter