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Our First House Sitting Job in Kuala Lumpur | The Trading Travelers
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We Went and Got Ourselves a Job

Well I must say we have had a week full of some exciting news for things to come and we couldn’t be more thrilled! I’m wishing I could divulge all of the details to you today, but unfortunately right now I can only share one of these pieces with you. I promise we will reveal the rest once the plans come to fruition but until then, let’s talk about what is happening now

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We scored our first house sit and will be leaving Thailand for the holidays! (Did I forget to mention this job only lasts a week?) I know it seems like we just got here, right? Well we teamed up with Trusted House Sitters while we were home this summer and we finally landed our first house sitting gig over Christmas which happens to fall in line with our visa dates. So where are we heading? Glad you asked! This year we will be spending Christmas in…

Photo credit: localglobetrotters.com

Photo credit: localglobetrotters.com

Photo Credit: blogs.sacbee.com

Photo Credit: blogs.sacbee.com

Photo credit: tourist-destinations.com

Photo credit: tourist-destinations.com

Christmas in Malaysia

That’s right – last year we spent Christmas zip-lining in Chiang Mai and this year we will be decking the halls in a 4-story townhouse with a private pool and garden taking care of two mischievous little kittens in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia.

Meet Padstow

Meet Padstow

As you know, we want to visit as much of S.E. Asia as possible while we are living in Thailand so we are excited to tick Malaysia off our list. And as bummed as I am about missing the holidays at home (again), this is helping ease the pain a bit. I’ve been doing tons of research about Christmas in Kuala Lumpur and it sounds like they know how to do Christmas right. I don’t think I’ll have to worry about getting my fill of Christmas and I suppose I’m used to having a tropical Christmas. We are lucky if we get to wear a light sweater on Christmas day in Florida after all. In addition to exploring Kuala Lumpur, we are also looking to tack some days onto our trip to relax on the paradise island of Langkawi or maybe eat our way through Penang. We are still figuring out all of these little details.

So, What is Trusted House Sitters?

So in case you are confused about what exactly this “house sit” is that we speak of, Trusted House Sitters is a safe and reliable website that connects home owners looking for someone to watch their house (and often pets) with house/pet sitters that are looking for an alternative way to travel and live like a local for a specified period of time. This is mutually beneficial as often the house/pet sitters are getting free accommodations while the home owners are getting free home/pet care. For us, this is a great way for us to travel the world, save on hotel costs, get insider tips and recommendations from a local as well as squeeze in some animal lovin’ (since we obviously can’t have any of our own right now). The only issue we’ve run into is scoring that first assignment. Trusted House Sitters is hugely popular and getting a house sit is pretty competitive. Without having any references from a Trusted House Sitter source yet, that put’s us on the back burner for many home owners that are receiving upwards of 50 applications per assignment. We’ve been told that after getting that first assignment, others tend to come much easier so we are crossing our fingers that it pans out. While we are going to be staying primarily in Thailand for at least the next 6 months, we will be looking for house sitting assignments that line up with our visa runs.

Where Can I Sign Up?

If this sounds like something you may be interested in, you can head over to TrustedHouseSitters.com and get signed up. While they do charge a small fee, the way we look at it is it weeds out a lot of people that are not serious and it pays for itself easily with just one assignment. If you average $60 for a hotel room in KL, this is saving us over $350 in accommodations and I’m sure this house will beat any hotel that we could afford. On the flip side, it’s easy to drop a pretty penny for pet care when you leave town, but with Trusted House Sitters you can get free pet care and know that your pets will have undivided attention. You know longer have to let the stress of leaving your pets behind keep you from traveling. And if you are looking to travel but your budget is holding you back, consider this as a great option to get out there and see the world.

Once we complete our assignment we will let you know how it goes – wish us luck!

About the Author Charlie and Brittany

We are Brittany and Charlie - we traded the 9 to 5 and the so-called "American dream" to live our own dream and see the world. We sold all of our belongings and left the US in August 2013. For 5 years, we lived primarily in Thailand and built our online business and location independent lifestyle while we traveled to over 30 countries. We’ve had house sitting gigs on 3 different continents and we’ve even appeared on HGTV’s House Hunters International.

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14 comments
Updates on Expat Life in Thailand Round 2 | The Trading Travelers says November 20, 2014

[…] gym, back to Coffee Monster to get some work done, and starting to make plans for where we will be spending the holidays..stay […]

Reply
ian stevenson says November 20, 2014

Good for you guy’s gets you around S.E asia. About the bloke who complained to you about the Forza a bit harsh I think as I don$t think you are a mechanic? 7 months 3500km great bike for an old man like me. Keep on posting. Enjoyable, Ian

Reply
House Sitting Tips & A Special Black Friday Promo | The Trading Travelers says November 27, 2014

[…] you checked out our last post where we revealed our big news then you know we finally scored our first house sitting job. What we didn’t talk about though […]

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rodi (Rob and Diane) says November 27, 2014

Hey guys !!!!!

Great to hear the excellent news and now I’ll be expecting a thorough review from you both about Penang !!!

Sadly, the coin may be turning for us as I’ve just heard back from Joy-Stay, our MM2H visa and things are looking less and less favorable; they do not want to use investments as “cash in hand” any more and obviously no American in their right mind would keep over $100K USD in “fixed deposits” as they call it or a checking account that pays less than one tenth of one percent interest

First I was speculating but after Obama’s SE Asian visit it’s becoming clear that the government clearly would rather not have Americans on the program ,perhaps as some sort of stupid political retribution or maybe because the pro Muslim government wants to stay in power so badly they’re willing to take a stand against American interests.

Depending on what she says after we file and close escrow there’s a strong possibility we may wind up in Chaing Mai waiting out their decision and I guess we’ll stay if they reject an application with the insane notion that over $750K in liquid investments “doesn’t meet their financial requirements”.

Anyway, we very much hope you guys are still there in June and we may come knocking on your door for help in the beginning (but not too much).

Have a blast and enjoy the holidays

Rob and Diane

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    Charlie and Brittany says November 29, 2014

    Hey there! We are excited to finally be making it to Malaysia and will definitely give you a thorough review 😉 We’ve been enjoying the Ecuador posts! That sounds like a nightmare dealing with this visa stuff. I hope it all works out but will not be disappointed if you have to come hang out with us in Chiang Mai for a bit! We’d be happy to help! Good luck with that and keep us posted. Hope you had a great holiday!

    Reply
      rodi (Rob and Diane) says November 29, 2014

      Hi Guys
      Glad you’re enjoying the Ecuador posts; the blog suddenly died this weekend; maybe due to holidays in the USA? Anyway, Diane seems to be more OK with going to Thailand but that’s because I’ve probably spent over 100 hours with detailed correspondences to KL and I really don’t want to start over

      But…everyone seems to love Thailand and we’d really appreciate an opportunity to hang with you if we wind up there; we’ll probably decide by June or after I can’t deal with staying at my in-laws any more since we hope to close on the house well before the visa thing is resolved and we’ll be cash happy and house poor.

      Holiday was quiet; just cooked dinner and enjoyed watching the 49ers get spanked on national TV.

      Hope you guys also enjoyed and have an blast in KL

      Regards
      RoDi

      Reply
Cost of Traveling Europe For a Month | The Trading Travelers says August 4, 2015

[…] but we were in a better place financially. In addition to that, we’ve been introduced to the wonderful world of house sitting and hoped to get some assignments through Europe that would allow us to save some money along the […]

Reply
Thoughts on Leaving Home a Second Time | The Trading Travelers says August 14, 2015

[…] more items off our bucket list and visiting the S.E. Asia countries we missed, like Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. But for some reason, that crappy anxious feeling is taking over my body making leaving […]

Reply
Heather Sinclair says September 5, 2015

Got to say, I LOVE how housesitting has opened up the world for us! We’ve just started, and already it’s been such a huge success, allowing us to travel slow where we want to, and stay in warm places during the winter. That’s so exciting that you’ll be in Asia for Christmas!
Well done, and go Trusted Housesitters!

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    Charlie and Brittany says September 7, 2015

    It really does open up so many opportunities! I feel like we now have so many options on where we can go it’s almost overwhelming – in a good way of course! 😉 Good luck on your house sitting adventures!!

    Reply
Secret Traveller says November 2, 2015

Sounds like a fantastic opportunity. Can’t wait to hear how your first house-sit goes! 🙂

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Paul and Carole says January 2, 2017

Congratulations on your house sit. We have been with Trusted housesitters for a couple of years now and have some great experiences, in between working full time. Look forward to reading about your house sitting experiences.

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Finding Beyond says February 24, 2017

We are writing our House sitting profile today. It seems like there are great some opportunities on the website, so hopefully we will be lucky in finding one. We can’t wait to look after animals as we are slightly obsessed.

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    Charlie and Brittany says March 9, 2017

    That’s awesome – Hope you snag a house sit! We are obsessed with animals too – dogs in particular 😉 Are you looking to sit in a specific location?

    Reply
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