Renting or House Sitting advice? (apartment, renters, HOA)

[Mathguy]

Ok, so I'm headed towards retirement in 5ish years but still working but can work from anywhere with internet access.

No pets etc., just me.

Looking for either:

a) suggestions on good places to rent (probably just an efficiency or mother in laws suite, I need little space, perhaps furnished, want to stay *light* while working through a transition to a more permanent retirement location. My intention is to buy a condo after the market craters following the announced series of fed interest rate hikes this year or next. (I have plenty saved since I downsized recently.)

and\or

b) are there places that use established individuals to house-sit etc. where there would be no parties\drugs\mess etc. I would think if some agencies did that, I would be a relatively attractive candidate given I'm >50 with no pets, high credit rating, no arrests ever, continuous 30+ year higher end job history with over half that at current company yada yada yada.

[loves2read]

There are services that place house sitters
Have read about them but can’t provide links
You might search for people who trade residences for vacations
Maybe there is someone there doing a tour that would like someone to house sit

I tell you the woman who bought the house next to us could use someone staying there
It is really starting to look abandoned

[Yukenbo]

I don't know much about house-sitting. I can see some value in the very short term (days to weeks) but I feel like you'd need your own cheap place and then house-sit on the side for say a level up in accomodations. It also seems a lot of house-sitting is really pet-sitting at a house, so hope you are good with that.

Another idea though: off-season renting. If you are flexible and maybe have a place where you can shack up for the winter, then there should be quite a number of places where you can rent May through December at a good rate.

For example, in my community, we can only rent 3x per year. Lots of communities have rules like this because they want a certain atmosphere at the community. We basically almost cover our annual expenses in the high season and then hope we get renters from May - Dec. Usually we do get people in the Oct - Dec period. Sometimes things fall through. I'd be ok with a much lower rent for say 8 months (e.g. $1200) than have to scramble for a 2-monther in Nov/Dec for say $2200 to $2500 p/m and maybe another in the Autumn. Either way, I'm paying HOA all year round and my utilities and cable are always on. If I found someone super trustworthy that could also take care of certain things (we are out of country) I would drop rent lower. But that's just me. I'm not offering; just some thoughts.

You might want to get friendly with some rental agents. Think about international owners and communities where they have rental rules.

[beccalee78]

I have a few friends that house-sit full time it sounds like a fantastic gig!

Some of my friends work remotely and some are more retired, it seems to work well for a lot of people! One of my friends who house sits (and works remotely for a tech company) does longer stints (4-8 weeks minimum) said it saves her sooooo much money and she gets to explore a new neighborhood plus she said its easier to work from these homes, as most have a home office, which is better than working at a kitchen table.

From what she said there seems to be an array of sites to find assignments, but some seems to have a lot more assignment available and even provide insurance, I was thinking of trying it myself, and I was using this to help me choose https://www.thetravellinghousesitter...ting-websites/ to see which site to , I just wanted to make sure there were lots of assignments in the spots I want to go!

[1rainman]

Around here there is almost no difference in price between an efficiency, renting a room out of someone's house, or renting a small apartment or renting a two or three bedroom house. Welcome to a tourist state. And a six month rental will cost more than 12 months. I mean you can stay the entire year cheaper than six months.

There are people that stay in winter and rent their place cheap in summer but you have to know people. Typically not available to strangers.

So if you think you can save money with an efficiency think again. You could live out of a camper or tent like everyone else.

The weird dynamic is if you are buying a three bedroom house the prices are somewhat reasonable. Anything less than that and the price is like a sick joke. The cheapest motel in port Charlotte is now $200 a night during season and it's dirty and run down. Yet they are filled up in season. I don't know where people get money for this stuff most bunk with several people I guess. But if people want this place so bad they can have it.

You can just buy a camper and there's camp grounds all over Florida. You could travel the state. Some charge a bit like a private camp grounds might be $100 a week or $150. public parks are like $30 for three months. You can park at a truck stop free short term. At the end of the year or two years what you spend on an efficiency could buy a used camper.