We have a single family 2 story home (with basement) in the Upper Montgomery County, Maryland area in a lovely, quiet neighborhood with parks and shopping nearby. We also have 2 dogs and one cat (all seniors, ages 14, 9 and 10 respectively). We retired about a year ago and are actively looking for ocean property to live at seasonally.
Trip 1 will be from Nov Trip 2 we are hoping to spend 3-4 weeks checking out the North Carolina coast in the winter, possibly February.
Of course it is EXTREMELY important that our home and pets are are well cared for while we're gone, and that the conduct and behavior of a housesitter would basically mimic our own. Petcare will not require much work (2 walks per day for the dogs) and our home is in good shape, which basically leaves bringing in mail and maintaining a presence for security purposes. NO smokers, NO children and NO other pets please!!
We realize much of this process is based on faith in your fellow human being, but we also believe that faith alone won't be of much use if, even in the most unlikely of events, some unfortunate scenario were to occur. In order to ensure we are partnering with like-minded individuals, and to ensure everyone is clear on what their responsibilities are (since both sides bear responsibility), we will require any Housesitter(s) as well as both Homeowners to sign a short Agreement detailing in general what we believe are reasonable and fair expectations for both sides, as well as more specific items we'd expect for anyone staying in our home, even as a guest. Furthermore, we may choose not to, but we also reserve the right to conduct our own background check on any interested party, AT OUR EXPENSE.
If this hasn't scared you off, and you have at least 3 references to share, we'd love to hear from you!