Hello from New York City!

I am both a homeowner (HO) and sitter here. As a sitter, if I see an interesting sit in a desirable location, I apply immediately. For example, I will be in NYC the weekend of May 7 for a family event and have been looking for sits for that time. One popped up yesterday and I applied immediately because I wanted to be one of the first. NYC sits go quickly, so you should not have a problem finding someone.

On the other side, as a HO, I have had 3 sitters in my home now, and 2 were first-time sitters. I like to give new sitters a chance, since I am pretty new here myself. I look at their pet experience, external reviews, application wording (have they personalized it to my listing?), and my gut feeling when I video chat with them. For longer sits, I like a person that has some experience of home maintenance, in case something goes wrong (I own my house, so no landlord to call to fix things). If they aren’t local, I like them to explain why they want to visit my city (not as desirable as NYC, so I don’t want them cancelling for a better location later).

If you are having trouble getting started, look for local sits to begin with. I started with one in a suburb of my town that had no other applicants. Once I had that first good review, it was much easier to get locations that I wanted.

Good luck!

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