How to advertise for caretaker position

ErinP · #21 05/15/14, 08:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trailsend

My post was most definitely misunderstood. We are first of all looking for someone to rent our guesthouse. In exchange for a GREATLY reduced rental amt, they would do lawn mowing and care for our animals when we are out of town. This is would be a fantastic opportunity for a person who wants to live in a nice home for cheap rent. Wow......

Yeah, you're looking for a caretaker all right.
If the chores are light, the rent should be free.

If the chores are a few hours a day, the rent should be nothing, plus a small salary.

I'm not entirely sure what the name is of whatever you're looking for (I'm leaning toward "rube" actually

) but you don't want to advertise for "caretaker" because people don't usually have to pay to be caretakers....

simi-steading · #22 05/15/14, 08:18 AM

Every place I've ever rented I had to mow the yard, and got no reduced rate for it.. I didn't have to take care of animals either.... I don't know... you're calling it a care taker, and yet asking them to pay..

We looked at a place when we bought ours.. They had a care taker staying there rent free, who also mowed about 5 acres... plus they paid them for any other work that needed to be done..

Personally, I wouldn't want to be called a care taker, and still paying rent..

Yellowmug · #23 05/15/14, 09:13 AM

So you have a farm house plus a guest house? So when you are not traveling you would be neighbors? Or are you calling your house a "guest house"? If you just mean that would stay at your house you are looking for caretakers and I know in my area we have to pay caretakers. It isn't reduced rent if it is just a couple weeks at a time--where do they live when you aren't traveling?

Our farm sitters love staying here because they don't have the space or animals that we have, but when they are here for a week they still have to pay rent on their home or apartment. We pay about $20 a day, which to use is a steal! We would pay more than that just to board the dog each night.

mnn2501 · #24 05/15/14, 10:04 AM

They could pay $400 a month to take care of your place and animals?
and have what, a room?
Yes that sounds very crazy!

rambler · #25 05/15/14, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trailsend

I really appreciate everyone's input. My intent was to gather info on finding ways to advertise for the rental. Maybe we will advertise for a "farm sitter" who would be able to live in our guest house ( which is fully furnished, complete with toiletries!) for a few weeks here and there so we can travel. Sounds like a long term rental would be a nightmare.

It seems you have a confusing set of offers running through here.

Good for you to ask advice and find out what is a normal deal.

At this point I do not know if you have a room off your house, a second house, both, or your only house just on vacations to offer to potential - sitters, renters, hired help, caretakers?

You will need to define what you have available and what is expected of them and what they will get from the deal to attract the right people for the situation.

If you have a second house on the property that you are renting out for long term living, and will reduce rent from time to time if they sit the rest of your property that is one thing.

But it is not clear that that is what you have or want, so people are filling in the blanks themselves.

A caretaker is someone who comes in and watches your property in your house while you are gone. Then goes away again when you come back. Clearly they need their own living arrangements and bills and you cannot expect them to pay you rent for the short time they are on your property.

If you have just a room off your house for rent for long term living THRN the $400 seems a little high, not sure what that all is.

I think you are trying to say you want a long term renter and occasional short term caretaker, but not sure.

Paul

Tabitha · #26 05/15/14, 03:24 PM

Paying you 400 bucks for taking care of your place won't get a dog from under the porch around here.
Where do you live and what is rent going for in your area? Okay, if rent is 1100 per month, as my son was paying in Co. then I can see your point.

Wendy · #27 05/15/14, 03:57 PM

When we first lived here we rented. Our landlord lived in the city. He had another house across the road up the hill where he would come to stay. Our rent was $50 per month. We paid our utilities. We had to mow the grass up at his house & down here & feed & water the horses through the winter. He supplied all the feed.

mnn2501 · #28 05/16/14, 11:29 AM

Yeah, you really need to define things better if you want good advice.

Is this a completely separate house from yours? how big?(bedrooms/bathrooms)
How much would it rent for? just renting it out - nothing else.
Would they live there all the time? or only when you're gone?
Who pays utilities?
What chores would they do?
How often will you be gone? How will that change their chores?

Bellyman · #29 05/16/14, 12:17 PM

As others have said, you should define just what it is you need in order to try to structure something that will work for you and the person/people you get to help you with taking care of your place and animals.

It could be a very different situation between whether you want someone to live there fulltime for many months or years ... or... whether you want someone to live there for a few weeks of the year while you go traveling. Either are certainly possible but they would mean different things for those involved.

As a for instance, if you want someone to be there for over 6 months, would they be required to officially move there, get that address on their drivers license, get all of their mail there, etc? Different states have different requirements. And that can be very important to people who travel seasonally to where the work is and then move on. Those types would have no interest in moving there permanently but still might be excellent workers for what you have in mind, taking care of your place.

If you are thinking about short gigs and perhaps if you have a nice place to hook up an rv, this might be of interest: http://www.workamper.com/ The types that would be reading would generally be heavy rv users, some fulltime rvers. Most are probably not looking to move to where you are but might be willing to stay for a few weeks to a few months if the terms are right and then move on down the road. Lots of retired folks that supplement their income and/or reduce their expenses by taking on jobs where they get either paid in dollars, work a certain number of hours for a campsite (typically all utilities paid) or some combination of the above. Situations vary quite a bit but I suspect that if you had your list of things you need well defined and you had your list of what you can offer well defined, if it's a good situation, someone is likely to be interested.

Looking for someone to move in permanently and someone to spend a few weeks might be pretty dramatically different propositions. Nothing necessarily wrong with either one. They're just different.

Just throwing it out there.

Best of luck.