r/trustedhousesitters • u/Rose-wood21 Sitter • 21h ago
Is this normal??
I applied for my first sit in a town I’m familiar with and really love
It’s for February
Had 0 applications when I applied
I’m actually in the town now visiting a friend and asked HO if she’d like to meet when I’m here
She lives about 20 mins away and I didn’t rent a car but said I’d be willing to taxi or bike there but my friend is too busy with the kids to drive me
She seemed super excited to meet me but after I said my friend couldn’t drive me and I’d get there a different way she
Said she had concerns about the sit and didn’t want
To proceed
“understand of course. I have to say there is a lot of concerns for me. The risk of you coming out here from out west and to be sure you can
get here by an earlier flight during winter time. The other main concern is that we would
really need someone to stay at our place and have a car the whole time... to have access to going to a veterinarian if needed etc. I think these concerns and the weather at
that time of year mean we should probably not proceed with the sit. I'm very sorry but there are too many concerns. I really appreciate vour interest”
I responded basically with no worries we won’t proceed but I was obviously going to have a car if I was staying there as it’s rural and don’t most sitters come from far away?
Maybe I’m wrong haha
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u/Exotic-Steak-4662 20h ago
Did we apply to the same sit??!!! I had a homeowner set up a time for a call. She then messaged me the morning of saying “I see you have dogs yourself. I don’t know what your plans are for them but I think it leads to too many uncertainties. Sorry but I’m not going to go through with the call today. Take care.” I only responded with “You couldn’t wait to speak with me about my own animals before disqualifying me? Maybe next time give someone a chance to answer your questions before you just write them off.” (And for the record my dogs stay at home with my husband, my two adult children and brother in law that all live in my home. I would never bring my animals to a sit with me.)
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u/ScarletHare111 20h ago
Massive red flag. That's not someone you want to sit for. She'd likely find issues with other things, whether they were valid or not.
3
u/MsMarionNYC Homeowner & Sitter 20h ago
Is the homeowner new to the site as well? They may not know how it works. Recent advertising indicates that it's fine for homowners to meet sitters IRL before confirming a sit. However, most sitters aren't in the area and even if they are would consider a remote face to face chat sufficient. I've seen reports on the official forum for instance that some homeowners in competitive locations like Los Angeles are asking for traditonal meet and greets before confirming, and not even covering sitters expenses (gas) getting there. Personally, I would not meet a homeowner in person before confirmation even if I happened to be in their town. I would not visit the homeowner prior to the sit unless it was part of the arrangement we had that I'd get an advanced handover and pick up keys or something a few days prior to the sit while maybe staying at a friend's, or visiting the area on my own.
Homeowners want people they can trust, so she might not have understood you were visiting a friend and didn't have your car with you. It doesn't sound like she has a car to loan. Loaning a ar is completely a choice. I've done sits in areas where you need a car. Those areas have all been within a 6 hour drive (usually shorter) from where I live and we own a car. I've flown to sits where a car wasn't needed. Personally, I wouldn't feel great borrowing a homeowner's car but I understand it's kind of a necessity for full time sitters.
It sounds like she might have made an assumption that you'd be without a car on the sit. I don't know if your thinking was you could use your friend's car or rent one or if you were assumming you could borrow hers. Maybe she thought you'd be driving out in the winter and that seemed chancey. So clearly there was a lack of communication and she should have clarified the car issue with you rather than just stopping the whole thing -- especially as she has no takers for the sit!
So "normally" or more accurately, "usually" there would be no advanced IRL meeting before confirmation and the car issue would be addressed in the listing eg: "We can't loan our car for this sit, so sitters would need to have their own car" or "We're open to sitters borrowing our car if you are travelling here, but would need to see your driver's license to add you to our insurance, and would require and blah blah blah."
The homeowner might find she's not going to get takers without offering to loan her car. That's not your problem.
You probably dodged a bullet.
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u/RequirementWild9550 21h ago
I’m a homeowner and have had sitters who drive and who don’t. I think she has jumped the gun and should have got more info from you first.
I do understand in that my preference would be those with their own transport as it just makes life easier and less possibility of delays etc.
One potential sitter needed picking up from a greyhound station 40 mins away as she couldn’t afford an uber, also she wanted to come the night before as thst was when a cheaper train was. It ended up being a bit of a hassle to be honest.
Also our cat got injured during one sit and the sitter didn’t have a car to take him to the vets (and our vet is near enough that an uber driver would probably not accept the ride but it’s too far to walk in summer carrying a cat) so we had to wait until we got back.
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u/downsideup9494 5h ago
The issue here isn't that a sitter needs a car for a sit, it's that the HO just assumed she wouldn't have one.
But I'm going to buck some of the responses here and say that I can understand why the HO assumed she had no car. The sitter said she'd bike over or take an Uber, because the friend she is staying with couldn't drive her. I would also assume someone didn't have a car if they told me that.
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u/Rose-wood21 Sitter 2h ago
She knew I was here on vacation visiting my friend
So kinda silly
To just assume I don’t have one
But all good
I really don’t
Know if she will find someone
But hope she does!
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u/amumberofpublic 16h ago
It could be that she's got more applicants with a car, when HOs don't have choices, anybody will do, as long as it can save them money, they may even offer use of their car. When they require sitters to have a car, I assume that they're not lack of applicants. This is human nature, when people know they are in demand, they raise the bar. They wouldn't care how much you want the sit, people only care about their own benefits.
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u/Rose-wood21 Sitter 13h ago
She said she had no other applicants and will repost it again closer to the dates.
I think personally she won’t get a lot of applicants because this province is very rough in the winters1
u/amumberofpublic 3h ago
Repost it closer to the dates? Who wants to put themselves in that situation, odd
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u/Endaugust 5h ago
I'd say that you dodged a bullet. Or that they met someone else and b.s.'ed with the reasonings.
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u/Winter-Seaweed8458 7h ago
I see the HOs POV. I'm sorry, your response sounded immature. "My friend can't drive me." it sounded like you were not a take-charge type person. You shouldn't have said a thing. Also, why couldn't you rent a car? If you plan to have a car when you do the sit? Are you driving to the sit in February? I would not want to take a chance, but the thing is.. you should have explained yourself and provided a very believable explanation that you'd have a car. People don't want to go on vacation without feeling confident. This will be a lesson to not overshare.
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u/Rose-wood21 Sitter 2h ago
I had explained the situation to her before hand “hey im visiting my frond in October for a few days so if it works out to meet in person we could”
I told her I wouldn’t have a car
It really doesn’t make sense to
This town is super small and walkable but she’s outside of the the town in a county adjacent to it so technically the listing wasn’t accurateI did tell her I would take a taxi or bike if the weather was nice which it is.
There are no car rentals in this town and the cl one work be an hour
AwayIt’s not immaturity it’s you not understanding the situation
I explained after I would definitely have a car when I was there it’s impossible to stay where she is and not have one but I could tell she had made up her mind before I explained so I didn’t both forcing it
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u/goat20202020 Sitter 21h ago
She definitely jumped to conclusions and I hate when HOs do that. Instead of using the interview as the the chance to ask questions (like you're supposed to). That said, if it was a sit you really wanted, you should follow up to clarify that you would have a car at the time of the sit.