RV House Sitter Tips
RV House Sitter Tips
Posted on March 24, 2021
Need a house sitter to watch over things while you’re enjoying the RV? Here are some handy tips to help you relax and focus on your holidays!
Finding a House Sitter
Selecting a house sitter who has the time, is trustworthy (sadly almost anyone can be pressured into a mistake), and is resourceful enough to avoid the common pitfalls of caring for someone’s home, can be tricky!
As tricky as it is to find a sitter, if you have plants or pets staying at home you will really need someone to come look after things while you’re enjoying your RV adventures.
Being Discreet
It can be easy to let the cat out of the bag while a homeowner is on vacation, so here are some discretion tips for a house sitter to remember.
- Don’t bring smokes or pets over to a non-smoking home with no pets (smells + animal sounds are also another tip to neighbours that the homeowner is away)
- Don’t order things to the home that wouldn’t normally get delivered (sending an illegal item to someone’s address is a bad idea even if it’s someone you hate, don’t do it while house-sitting)
- Any added guests that come over would be added liability, so it should just be the people the homeowner trusts and no guests
Ask for help from RV owners
A fellow RV owner is hard to beat, so always check this option first, especially if you can trade favours with someone who has the same towing setup or 5th wheel hitch as you do!
If something goes wrong with your rig either one of you can give tips or perhaps come save the other? Our inventory of RVs for sale can be filtered by make/type to help you find a unit that matches with friends or family.
The RV community is very helpful, friendly, and easy to get involved with, but taking time to help others by house sitting, so folks can get out and enjoy a great vacation, still stands out and goes a long way to building a great reputation with other RV owners.
A 2nd sitter is a good backup plan
If you can get multiple people checking on your home, that’s excellent, they just need to know who’s in charge.
Make it clear to the others that there’s a primary contact/sitter and you just want to be left a message/sent a photo if the primary sitter is missing or there seems to be a concern.
There should be no conflict between any of the sitters directly; If there’s a serious emergency then contacting fire/police/ambulance before leaving a voicemail would make sense
Put it in writing
Leave a signed note stating that you the homeowner are gone on vacation and your named sitter(s) are to be emergency primary contacts should anything go wrong.
Include a way for people to leave you a message as well, something like a voicemail you alone will be checking on, this way you don’t need to carry a phone, just check in periodically
Using Technology
Feeling a bit nerdy and don’t want to bother anyone? Modern home surveillance options are both inexpensive and increasingly easy to setup and use!
There are good cheap PTZ wireless cameras that work with Alexa/Home so you can just ask to see a room and then have a two-way audio exchange with people/pets/babies in the room while looking around and zooming in/out whenever you feel like checking in.
Most of us can appreciate having more time to focus on enjoying our RVs and exploring, so manufacturers even offer battery-powered outdoor wireless cameras that can charge with solar panels to make tricky locations quick and easy to install!
Fake Your Presence
You can also use $10 wifi power adapters to turn power sockets off and on so that lights around the home can make it look occupied when there are no sitters available.
Don’t like to pack a phone around? Both the Google Home and Amazon Alexa lines have standalone LCD stations to make all their features far more accessible. From one central location, you can just verbally ask for a specific camera and have a look around with ease.
House Sitter Communities Online
There are also communities online that offer ratings and reviews of house sitters who will often donate their time to check up on your home and pets in exchange for similar services or accommodations.
From boondocking groups to more specific services like Nomador, there are many options online to help find assistance making your RV adventures come true. The only caveat is to tread lightly, using sites with good history & honest reviews, as letting people online know you’re away could still be a concern.
Come See Us!
We are RV fanatics and we always want to help people enjoy life on the open road so we’re happy to chat with customers that need more advice!
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