House sitting abroad?

I was just wondering if anyone has housesat abroad?

I'm travelling at the moment - around Asia until my money gets low then the plan is to head to Australia, I'm just young enough for a WHV and my professional qualifications transfer right across in a field where I should be able to pick up locum work fairly easily. I'm thinking that Australia is somewhere I might want to base myself long term so I want to spend time living in a few cities to get a feel for whether they might be places I want to settle, so I was thinking that housesitting might be a good way to live in a community and test the waters as it were, as well as being economical accomodation, and I could still work.

Most housesitters seem to be retired couples though, not 29/30 year old backpackers (albeit a professional!). Has anyone done this whilst travelling?

Hey purplepixie,
We've been housesitting since our RTW trip started and have absolutely loved it. We've stayed at 7 different properties and it has been absolutely brilliant, both on the budget and as a way to slow down a bit and keep the insanity at bay. We really cannot recommend it highly enough.

We wrote about this on our site where you can get more insights of our experience - http://www.marriedwithluggage.com/2011/ ... e-sitting/. We are a bit older than you, but have met people of all different ages who are getting involved. I believe the critical piece is to highlight that you are a professional, first and foremost. Most homeowners are nervous with the idea and thus want to know the person they are leaving their home with. As a result, be extremely open in your profile about who you are so they can get to know you as much as possible. If you have a website, link to it. Include a video introduction as well. Anything that can get you to connect with the owners.

Australia is a perfect place to start as there are a wide variety of options. We highly recommend Trusted HouseSitters and even have a discount code (non affiliate) listed to save you a bit.

Good luck and please don't hesitate to reach out directly if you have more questions or would like to chat more about it.

Thank you,
Warren