House Sitting is becoming more and more popular amongst travelers. Every day, hundreds of new profiles are getting set-up in the hope to travel and stay in a new place for free. And because of the rising growth of these profiles, it becomes harder to land that house sitting opportunity you always wanted. But there’s a way to stand out from the thousands of average profiles on these house sitting websites! The key to success is having a killer house sitting profile.
HOW TO CREATE A KILLER HOUSE SITTING PROFILE
After you’ve chosen the house sitting service you like (we use housecarers.com), it’s time to create the best house sitting profile possible. Having a great house sitting profile will make a HUGE difference between getting great opportunities and not getting anything at all.
It’s very important to complete every part of your profile, don’t leave anything blank! The more information a house owner can have from you, the more this person will trust you. Your profile must reflect who you are, what your interests are, what you do in your daily life, which successes you had in your past, etc. Be honest, but also write smart. Make sure that people that read your profile will like your story and trust you. Maybe you can add some humour to it?
HOW TO WRITE A GOOD HEADLINE
A good headline can already make a big difference. This is something where you really need to think about for a moment. It’s the first thing they will see before clicking on your profile. It must show who you are, that you’re trustworthy, and are the right candidate for the house sitting application. A good headline catches attention, offers a solution or shows why you’re the one they are looking for.
The use of significant keywords can help with getting your profile to be seen. Some keywords that can help are ‘trustworthy’, ‘experienced’, ‘responsible’.
To give you an idea, the headline we use is ‘Experienced animal loving travel couple. Reliable and clean. Non-smoking.’
CHOOSING THE RIGHT PROFILE PICTURE
Besides having a good headline, your profile picture is the other thing that is visible before someone clicks further on your profile. So there’s no explanation needed to know why your profile picture is so important. Take some time to scroll through your endless album of selfies and pictures, and select only the good ones.
Don’t make your house sitting profile your second Facebook profile. House owners don’t need to see your drunk party pictures or selfies in front of the mirror. Select wisely! Are you traveling at the moment? Add that picture of you in front of the Angkor Wat temples. Just make sure you come across spontaneous and fun, but also mature and trustworthy.
If you plan to look after pets while house sitting, it’d be great to put a picture of you and your favorite pet as a profile picture!
Make a small selection of 4-6 other pictures that reflect who you are, what your interests are, …
Tip: If the platform allows it too, adding a short introduction video (preferably with your pet) can make the difference.
ADDING GENERAL INFORMATION
This part is essential for the home owners to get to know you. Your general information needs to explain everything that might be of interest of knowing about you. Add relevant information about yourself, the more, the better. Immerse the reader into your life and try to convince them why you are the right candidate while keeping it personal and honest of course. Try to tell a unique story, stand out from all the other profiles and show a positive attitude.
Some relevant information you might add:
- Who are you?
- What’s your age?
- Where are you from?
- Are you working or traveling?
- What are your travel & work experiences?
- Do you have pets?
- Do you have experience with caring for pets?
- What are your interests?
- Do you have your own house?
- Do you have house sitting experience?
- Will you house sit on your own or with a partner?
- Why are you the right person?
- Things you want to achieve in the future.
- Some skills that can benefit in this situation (gardening, repairing, …)
Don’t convert your profile into a life story. Keep it short, detailed but full of relevant information about yourself and your experiences that reflect that you’re the man/woman for the job. Also here, you can add your big keywords again to highlight your advantages.
Photo by Hector Bermudez
ADD A LOCATION AND TIME OF AVAILABILITY
On most platforms, you have the opportunity to add the house sit locations you’re interested in. If you are just interested to house sit in one place or area, then it’s easy, and you can just put that. But let’s say you’re a world traveler and want to go anywhere in the world for your house sitting, then it’s becoming harder to be seen. In this situation don’t just write down all the countries you want to house sit in, but dig a bit deeper and choose the cities or towns in that country.
By specifying your desired location, you’ll get noticed more quickly. Because house owners will search for people that are interested in staying in their region/town/city specifically, your chances are pretty small if you just put the name of the country.
Another important thing that often gets overlooked is adding the time of availability. I’m sure there will be times where you won’t be available for a period of time to house sit. Add your time of availability so house owners can see that you are available to house sit during that period.
ADD SOME REFERENCES
References or recommendations are a good way of showing the house owners that everything you’re saying in your profile is true. These references can be anything, from your football coach that is giving valuable insights of your character to your landlord that shows how clean and trustworthy you are. The best references you can get is from previous house sitting assignments. Try to get these as quickly as possible after the assignment.
Will this be your first house sitting and you don’t have any house sitting references yet? Don’t worry, we had the same problem! Just ask around your friends, neighbors, family if they go away on vacation or a weekend and ask them if you can house sit on their house during that time. They’ll be happy that someone they know wants to look after their house (and maybe their pet) for free, just in return for a recommendation.
Have you ever stayed in an Airbnb or HomeAway before? Then getting references or recommendations from these home owners can be great too!
CHECK YOUR SPELLING AND GRAMMAR
Don’t press that publish button yet! Reread your profile and check it for spelling and grammatical errors. Nobody likes to read a profile that is poorly written. It just doesn’t reflect your professionality. You might even want to let someone else read your profile before publishing it. They can come up with valuable tips to make your killer house sitting profile that teeny-weeny better!
With all this information and tips, you should be able to create a killer house sitting profile that will give you opportunities more easily. Be creative and make sure that people see who you really are, get to know you and see that you’re the right candidate for their house sitting assignment. Good luck!
Disclaimer: We wrote a lot about making sure that you come across trustworthy, reliable, and honest. If this is not you, then house sitting might not be the right thing for you.
Related articles you might like:
- A Beginners Guide To Your First Stay With Airbnb (With Free $40 Coupon)
- Why We Started Bottle Feeding A Baby Lamb During A House Sitting
- Is This The Best House Sitting Experience Ever?
- How We Saved € 20.000 In 1 Year To Travel The World
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