If the image of a caretaker brings to mind a creepy, solitary character from the pages of Stephen King or a script by Harold Pinter, meet a new breed who travel the world fighting rodents, loose roof tiles, burst pipes and other harbingers of second-home apocalypses.
The economic crisis may have upended many people’s lives, but some intrepid souls have found that leaving the rat race — voluntarily or involuntarily — can mean living in a dream house, with mortgages, taxes and utilities already covered.
Last June, Kevin Shea, a former management consultant with an MBA who once counted the Ford Motor Co as a client, and his wife, Alicia, decided to leave the corporate world in search of adventure. They created a Web site detailing their skills in home repair, gardening, cooking and animal care in the hope of landing a caretaker’s job. So far, the Sheas, who are from Belmont, Massachusetts, have found positions at an 8 hectare estate on the Connecticut River and a seaside property in New Hampshire, where they fished from the dock.
“We are building references for more exotic destinations,” said Shea, 59, citing a desire to go to places where he can pursue fly-fishing and skiing. “We took our professional attitudes and incorporated them into getting good places to take care of.”
He added: “If you’re just in it because you want a free place to stay, you’re not going to build trust, which is what you need to get the job.”
Gary Dunn, the publisher of the Caretaker Gazette, a newsletter and Web site that matches property owners with caretakers, said it was a “boom time” for the business. The Caretaker Gazette has more than 11,000 paid subscribers, up more than 10 percent from two years earlier, he said.
“Homes that used to be flipped quickly are now empty for extended periods of time,” Dunn said. “Years ago, we didn’t hear from real estate investors. Now they’re advertising. Meanwhile, we have more people who have lost their jobs who want to travel the world and live rent free or even get paid.”
Susan Holtham, who runs mindmyhouse.com, an online service listing housesitting and caretaker positions, mostly in Europe, shares this optimism.
“Business suddenly took off in January,” she said. “People are leaving their jobs and want to explore new places and get a roof over their heads.”
Bruce Matters, who has been running a caretaker and property management business in the Hamptons since 1976, said business was picking up.
“It used to be retired policemen and the like who would come here to take care of someone’s house,” Matters said. “For the past year and a half, I’ve seen ex-entrepreneurs, bankers and real estate agents moving in. Everyone and their brother wants to jump on the caretaking bandwagon.”
The economic downturn has brought Matters a new set of clients: banks and federal agencies.
“It’s mostly done under the radar out here,” he said, “but when a house is seized, they need someone to take care of it.”
If the Hamptons aren’t enticing enough, the job listings on Dunn’s Web site and mindmyhouse.com read like offerings from the Abercrombie & Kent travel catalog: a horse farm in northern Virginia; a private island off the east coast of Australia; a mountain chalet in Aspen, Colorado; an ancient farmhouse in northern France.
Dunn said pay could range from “a free place to park your RV” to more than US$100,000 a year.
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