House Sitter Service
The shortcut: Most people picture house-sitting as crashing in someone's home for free Wi-Fi and a guest bed. The version that actually pays treats it as a scheduled in-and-out inspection — 30 minutes, checklist, photo report, drive away.
Industry: Home Services
Investment level: Micro — $100-$500
Time to launch: 2-3 weeks
Best for: A reliable, detail-oriented person with a car, a smartphone, and a clean background. You don't need a trade license. You need ten neighbors who travel a few times a year and trust you with a key. What you'll likely make: $400-$900/month by month 3, $1,500-$2,800/month by month 6, $3,000-$5,000/month by month 12 once you have a small repeat client base and one or two snowbird-ish accounts. Math is in Section 4.
Market Opportunity
The first thing most newcomers get wrong is signing up for TrustedHousesitters and waiting for the money to come in. It never does — that platform charges both sides a $129-$259/year membership and explicitly forbids cash changing hands between owner and sitter (HouseSitters Guide). It's a swap economy, not a service business. If you want to get paid, you have to skip it entirely and go after the people who pay strangers to watch their house: traveling pet owners, second-home owners gone for two weeks at a time, and busy professionals who want plants watered and packages pulled off the porch while they're at a conference.
The demand is real and growing. The house-sitting platforms category is forecast to grow at 12.30% CAGR, driven by more second-home ownership and remote workers spending stretches away from their primary address (OpenPR). Rover — the closest paid comparable — booked over $1.1B in gross booking value in FY2024 at a 20% commission (Business Model Canvas Template). That's a lot of households writing checks for someone to come let the dog out.
What you're selling: peace of mind to people who don't want to ask their neighbor a fifth time. The job is recurring, the ticket is small, and the customer loves you forever once they get the photo of the fed cat.
Start with this idea — free signup, no card required.
