A house sitter can save you thousands

Planning a trip? It's not enough to stop the mail and board the dog. You need a house sitter.

You might not even have to pay for this service: 

• Maybe a friend with three roommates would appreciate a week of privacy and peace.
• Perhaps a trusted neighbor will pop in for a daily walk-through, as a frugal act of kindness.
• Have a recent-grad cousin who had to move back home? He'd probably pay you for a chance to pretend he has his own place.

Whether your sitter is a live-in or a drop-in, you need a vigilant pair of eyes on your digs. Even for a long weekend, you really do. Here's how I know.

My dad was out of town last week, and I got there for Christmas a day-plus before he did. Good thing, since a leak in the water pump tank was just beginning to develop. Within 20 minutes the drip became a steady trickle, dumping eight gallons of water per hour.

I shut off the power to the pump and emptied the water tank so it wouldn't drip all night. The plumber who showed up the next day diagnosed a failed pressure relief valve.

If circumstances had been different, my dad would have come home to an indoor wading pool. That's one vote for having a live-in house sitter. He did have someone walking through once a week or so. But suppose the leak developed five days earlier vs. starting shortly before I arrived?

An Anchorage friend spent several months house-sitting last winter. Initially the homeowner had waffled on having someone stay there. Good thing she changed her mind: The furnace failed. Had the house been vacant, the owner would have returned to find frozen pipes and major water damage.

Lots can go wrong 
Speaking of cold, if you live in a snowy place, your house sitter's footprints and/or a shoveled path could discourage would-be burglars. This kind of subterfuge works even if the house sitter isn't actually staying there. A guy I know who's keeping an eye on the neighbors' place moves the couple's vehicle from spot to spot to warn away would-be thieves casing houses in that part of town: Somebody is home.

He also checks their mail, which is a good thing: A number of pieces, including a tax bill and a credit-card bill, were not forwarded to their six-months-a-year snowbird address.
Stopping your mail isn't always good enough. "Shopper" publications and coupons/political ads hung on the front door are dead giveaways. (My daughter calls these "rob-me tags.")

So are packages. One was waiting outside my apartment when I got back from a two-month-long trip last summer. I'd had my mail forwarded, but this unexpected mailing was dropped off by a private carrier. Luckily, I had non-larcenous neighbors.

As for my dad, he's planning to buy moisture sensors for the basement -- the kind you can check via the Internet when you're out of town. Even a live-in house sitter might miss a leaky water pump tank, unless he sleeps in the cellar.

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