Eve DeVries of Victoria started house-sitting several years ago as a favour to her friends. Now, she and her roommate Bob Guido happily house-sit without charge - sometimes even for strangers - in exchange for staying rent-free in other people's homes for days or weeks at a time.
"It's kind of a holiday for us," said Ms. DeVries, who lives in a small cabin on a property where she and Mr. Guido are caretakers.
Ms. DeVries estimates they house-sit about three to four weeks a year.
Since they also have full-time jobs at the Victoria Airport, they can't stray from home for too long. But Ms. DeVries said demand for house-sitters is so great, she believes she could travel across the country, moving from one house-sitting job to the next.
No longer simply a task for the neighbours, house-sitting has become a serious business as homeowners travel more often, farther and for longer periods of time.
Companies such as Vancouver's Domestic Assistants and Toronto's The Housesitters Canada offer professional house-sitting services, starting from $20 a visit.
Meanwhile, websites such as Australia-based HouseCarers.com and Saskatoon's CanadianHouseSitters.com provide listings with which homeowners can find amateur house-sitters from across the country and around the world.
Registrants offering their services online include retirees wishing to explore new cities, students seeking affordable housing and young people hoping to save money to purchase their own home.
Novice house-sitters Joyce Flasch and her husband, Allan, volunteered their services on HouseCarers.com when they recently decided to renovate their Calgary home.
The couple are hoping to land a sitting job that would provide six months of free accommodation while the renovations are under way, said Ms. Flasch, who works as an interior designer. In return, they would water plants, look after pets, collect mail and do other housekeeping chores.
Competition among house-sitters is intense, she said. They have had difficulty finding an opportunity that matches their needs.
"Not all of these situations fall one after another in a sequence, so you could be homeless for a number of weeks or a number of months before you found another situation," Ms. Flasch said.
Many homeowners prefer to hire house-sitters than saddle friends or family members with the responsibility, said Jeanie Cherkowski, owner of Domestic Assistants.
Also, companies like hers come with references and house-sitters who are bonded and insured.
Bonding covers minor losses due to employee dishonesty and accidental breakage, while some house-sitting companies are insured against more serious damage to the home, such as fire.
Ms. Cherkowski's clients frequently travel for business, sometimes leaving their homes vacant for up to a year, she said.
Unlike some professional house-sitters, she and her staff do not live in the vacant homes. But they try to make them look occupied by visiting daily to tidy up, and turn on lights and televisions.
Depending on the clients' demands, some sitting services also inspect for leaks and vandalism, ensure water pipes don't freeze, shovel driveways and mow lawns.
Tina Conidis, director of operations for The Housesitters Canada, said some of her clients seek professional house-sitting services because their home-insurance policies require that regular checks be made on their homes while they are away.
Many homeowners also want live-in sitters to take care of pets (a service that costs about $50 a day), she said.
In recent years, Ms. Conidis's clients have increasingly taken longer trips abroad and to more exotic locales.
"When I started in this business 15 years ago, you never really heard of anybody going to Japan or Saudi Arabia or Dubai," Ms. Conidis said, noting these have now become popular destinations. "When the economy is good and people are going on vacation, then [business is] pretty good."
But it's not just travellers who need house-sitters, said Kyle Freeman, co-owner of vipSITTERS, a Toronto-based pet and house-sitting
company.
His company has provided house-sitters to look after entire neighbourhoods for mere hours during large community events such as weddings, when multiple houses are left vacant.
Clients also include real-estate agents who need help maintaining unoccupied properties on the market, he said.
While more house-sitters are offering their services,
Mr. Freeman said his company, which has more than 50 sitters in the Toronto area, is busier than ever. And the increased competition has
not deterred his plan to expand his business across the country within the next two years.
"There's enough business for everyone," he said.
