IMAGINE living rent- or mortgage-free and being able to wake up in a different house whenever you want.
That’s exactly what life looks like for Emma Truscott, who hasn’t paid rent in over two years AND is traveling the world.
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And to top it all off, her house-hunting lifestyle has also left her with an extra £12,000 in the bank.
Emma Truscott has been a ‘professional’ house sitter since 2022, staying in other people’s homes for free as long as she waters the plants, takes out the bins and looks after the homeowners’ pets.
She first ventured into the rent-free venture in July 2022 during a visit to London,
The 37-year-old has since continued to lead an active lifestyle combined with travel, and has started working remotely as a virtual assistant and copywriter.
Emma, originally from Cornwall, has lived in 29 different homes so far and says she saves an estimated £12,000 a year on bills.
“It became a bit of a game: seeing how long I could maintain a continuous travel schedule,” she says.
“The app I use – Trusted Housesitters – has thousands of active sitters available at any given time, so it’s actually not that difficult to do it full-time.
“I also got some nice five-star reviews, which made it much easier to get selected.
“I started house sitting two years ago and have been actively looking for consecutive house sitting sessions for the past 18 months.
“As a single person I think I save about £12,000 a year because I have no bills or rent/mortgage payments.”
Emma has so far visited London, Brighton, Bristol, Manchester, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Dublin, Belfast, Vienna and Berlin and is currently in Paris.
Her 30th house sitting assignment starts next week in Ghent, Belgium.
The idea to travel full-time came after Emma worked on yachts for a while.
She says: “I didn’t like the work and didn’t want to go back.
“But I loved the lifestyle: travel, free accommodation, free food, no bills.
“All the money I earned was my own, and it was great to spend it on whatever I wanted.
“I wondered how I could have this financial freedom, travel and do a job I loved, so I decided to start my own business as a virtual assistant.
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“Before I started yachting, I had my own beauty salon for 12 years and I felt I had a lot of experience and skills.
“Then I accidentally discovered the phenomenon of house sitting through social media and I thought: I’ll give it a try.”
Since then, she has focused on copywriting work, which helps cover her travel expenses.
Emma says: “The biggest benefits are being able to live like a local in neighbourhoods all over the world, visit places I didn’t know existed and not having to pay for accommodation.
“I also love having a pet with me and making sure they are happy is of course my number one priority.
“For me there are no disadvantages and I have only had positive experiences so far.
“I understand that it’s not for everyone, but I love living this way.
Be wary of visa regulations surrounding house sitting
Although house sitting is a cheap and easy way to travel, it can get you into trouble.
In 2022, Madolline Gourley, 32, was booked to stay in a house through TrustedHouseSitters, a website where people can stay in houses for free in exchange for looking after their pets.
The problem arose when she landed in Los Angeles while trying to reach her final destination of Montreal, Canada.
She told Sun Online Travel: “When I gave my passport to security they saw I had spent 60 to 70 days in America earlier that year and they started asking questions.”
Madolline, who lives in Brisbane, told them she had visited the US but was back in Australia for a few months.
She continued: “They had some issues with that. They couldn’t quite understand why I was coming back to the States so quickly and how often I travel.”
Madolline explained to authorities that she was a free house-sitter to help pay for her travels, and had been using the service for years without any problems.
Madolline continues her answer, saying that the border officer “wasn’t really happy about that”.
When she was asked to stay for further questioning, her phone and other belongings were taken away, and she was then led to an interrogation booth in another room.
She said: “He asked questions about the house sitting service. He wanted to know what I did during the day, where the house sitter stayed and how many houses I would be looking after during my stay.
She explained that as a house sitter she cared for the house and fed the pet, but spent the rest of her time visiting art galleries, Broadway shows and other tourist attractions.
She said: “I was hopeful that they would let me go, but at the same time I realised I wasn’t going to Canada.”
“At the end of the second interrogation he said, ‘You are being deported.’”
According to a spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), visitors entering the U.S. on a visa waiver are prohibited from “performing any form of work or receiving compensation for services rendered.”
“It’s not as tiring as backpacking. You’re in a comfortable house, you can do a big errand and unpack.
“Of course you travel for a day or two every month, but that is a small sacrifice to make.
“Right now, I don’t see any benefits in staying in one place and spending most of my money on bills.
“I feel like I’m really alive: I see things, meet people and have incredible experiences that I will never forget.
“Maybe I’ll be lucky enough to live to be 70 and still be able to look after houses – what a life I would have had then!”
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