My partner and I are thinking of buying a house in Spain. We are normally based in the UK, but want to spend two 90-day blocks of time in Spain a year. We’re looking for a solution for the other two 90-day periods, because we’d like to re-home a couple of dogs from the local shelter and they need year-round care.
The proposed home is in the hills behind Mojacar - 45 minutes from Almería and 2hr10mins from Alicante. When finished it will have 4 beds, 4 baths, pool, open fire.
How can we assess whether trusted house sitters could provide enough house sitters? Think of the winter months… how could we ensure we have guaranteed house sitters for a 90-day period?
My crystal ball is offline today . And securing housesitter commitment on a distant contingent basis with various unknowns seems rather ambitious.
But a pragmatic idea may be to add housesitter access to your pet parent membership and, for educational purposes, create housesit searches that are broadly similar to your intentions. For example, Alicante location (or regional manual map) plus over one-month duration. Monitor if any such housesit listings appear and whether they successfully find housesitters. Encourage not be too specific on location in any such sleuth searches as housesitters will likely travel significant distances for an attractive 90-day housesit. It is our impression that there is a segment of housesitters that expressly seek longer term housesits. For what it’s worth, we have a 3-month housesit confirmed Jan-Mar 2025 in Western Canada (personal contact, not THS). Good luck with your plans!
There is no such thing as a guarantee and a lot will depend on you as a home owner and what you offer. As long as you keep in mind that this is an equal exchange, not a job listing, you’ll probably be pretty successful as, in europe, non UK sits are in demand. You’ll also need to keep in mind that many sitters will also have the 90 day limit so you’ll need to likely make your sit shorter than 90 days to account for travel time to/from the sit and have it open to the biggest audience. Otherwise you will be limited to only EU citizens/residents.
Are you proposing to have sitters before the renovations on your new home are finished?
If it’s still a building site / unfinished or will have building works on going during the three month period of the house sit that will not be an attractive proposition for most sitters .
Ensuring the sitter will be warm and comfortable during winter months is essential. Will the open fire be the only source of heat and hot water during winter months ?
It is no guarantee as said above, it depends on how attractive the sit is. In that area I would for instance believe the pool is only attractive in summer (and probably filled in summer) and open fire in winter, although an open fire does not warm up a house. It also sounds quite rural, which isn’t necessarily the most sought after locations, so it would probably be a great plus if a car was available (maybe the public transport is great, in that case should be mentioned).
There is a number of sitters that would like/ prefer long sits, so that is not a challenge in itself. Hospitality and seeing the sit from the view of the sitter means a lot. What does the region have to offer, what are the facilities of the home (that the sitter can use). A good quality bed, good kitchen, clear section of responsibilities etc. and in general be transparent and give an honest impression of the sit. For all pets and maybe newly rescued dogs in particular an honest disclosure of the behavior and needs of the pet is important. That could also be different for a stranger looking after them than the owners themselves. Housetraining, responsiveness regarding food or for walks, possible medications.
A listing for a long sit in Spain can be interesting, and the content of the sit and the listing will have an impact on possible pool of sitters and how attractive it is.
Thanks for your thoughts. I would plan to get all building work done first. The are/will be aircon units that can run as heaters. The hot water is provided by electric immersion heaters.
My answer is of a different variety. It’s strange to me that you’re planning on rehoming dogs from the shelter (that have already gone through a lot) to personally care for them a few months of the year, and then leave them again in the hands of strangers.
IMO, their well-being needs to be taken in consideration more. They were already surrendered by their previous owners, shortly after being given a chance to bond with new people (you) they will be left in the hands of strangers.
It’s like a yo-yo of attachment.
I hope you don’t take offence in what I just wrote.
Edited to eliminate reference to period of time. Thank you @CreatureCuddler
We’re sitters and we split our time between the UK and the Costa Blanca. We’re British, but our son and his family live in Spain, so we live our lives around the Schengen rules (like you).
While there are no guarantees, I’d make one small difference, it will be far better for you if you made it 80-85 days max, so that you have plenty of sitters to pick from, because then those in UK can apply too, rather than 90 days, where they’d be breaking the Schengen rules if they overstayed, because you know how much people in the UK love Spain. So you open yourself up to the largest amount of applicants to pick from, because I’m sure there will be many other sitters like us.
To give you a little insight from our perspective, pet sitting gives us a chance of staying in Spain for longer, without feeling like we are getting under the feet of our family, so it works brilliantly for us. In fact, we’re heading to Spain in a couple of weeks time, to visit the family and pet sit at the same time for an elongated stay (again).
Plus everyone we sit for understands our family is our reason for being in Spain, so they know we’ll be returning to the Costa Blanca area on a regular basis, for when they need a sitter in the future, so we already have future return sits arranged.
You may find that the whole of your first 90 days in your new home is taken up by organising planning and getting various permissions and permits from the mayor’s office. It’s not easy renovating abroad. I have had two places in France, and everything takes twice as long as you think it will. I once waited a month for permission to put in an extra small window because I lived near the church and extra rules applied regarding privacy for the congregation, not me. So I think the dogs and comfort and sitters may be way down the list.
One thing to think about is that this is a matching site with many thousands of sitters. Trusted Housesitters doesn’t “provide” any of them. You posted this in the owner advice category as though you are asking other homeowners whether or not Trusted Housesitters can provide this service in return for the dollars you pay in membership. But that’s thinking about it backwards. The service THS provides is matching humans. Both sitters and homeowners pay the same fee. You would probably be better off asking sitters if they think they’d find a sit like the one you describe appealing.
Sitters aren’t stock characters with the same story. There are part time sitters looking for inexpensive getaways, and there are nomadic types, on the road, sometimes planning out stays long in advance, who would love 90 days in relative luxury with the company of a couple of good dogs, as long the wifi is high speed in case they aren’t retired or independently wealthy. There may be people who simply have dreamed all there life of spending a few months in the Spanish countryside
If you create a listing, and make it attractive, you will probably get some people who would love to have this opportunity.
I absolutely agree! As Brits, our travel time in Europe is now restricted and, as we usually travel in our own vehicle, it would negate the opportunity for this sit.
That’s a good point. But, in all honesty, in over 40 sits - most of them including dogs, some of whom are rescues - we’ve never had a problem in quickly forming bonds with them, and they with us. In fact, I feel that having good sitters who genuinely care for animals is a good lesson in socialisation, and we often feel we give more attention to the resident animals than the pet parents do!
. And securing housesitter commitment on a distant contingent basis with various unknowns seems rather ambitious.