Could I pinch you all for a bit of market research?

[RED-DOG]

The house-sitting market is big business as it goes and I have a few friends who literally travel the world sitting houses, walking dogs of complete strangers. Now you would think that on the face of it letting someone you've never met live in your house while you're not there would be a ridiculous concept, certainly more risky than storing a few old wardrobes in a garage. But the key is reputation which does indeed build trust. Just like it's in the interests of eBay sellers to build a great rep so would it be in the interests of storage facilitators to provide safe, clean and accessible storage. I think the issues of safety and security will naturally take care of themselves as the facilitators are running a business and it's in their interests for that business to be good.

If anyone needs a house/dog/plant sitter I am available. Great rates, excellent references.

[Karabiner]

I seem to have missed my calling as an itinerant house-sitter/dog-walker.

On the matter of storage - a friend of mine is planning to populate some land that he owns just outside Nottingham with containers for that very reason.

Just like car-parks storage is an ideal business model needing minimum staffing.

[arbboy]

Thanks for all the replies - I seem to get all the same problems asked and how we could deal with them.

Insurance/theft/missing items - This is the number 1 problem to get around. There is insurance on items available, home insurance & so on. I've also questioned if the company itself should pay for potential thefts and hope there aren't many, and the app would potentially hold the people doing storing purely responsible. A long way to go on this issue.

Items - I can't see many people wanting to store anything expensive, like the £2k dining table, I'd assume that many items would be just bits people can't store, paperwork clothes Xmas stuff, etc.

Times - I know 100% that it will be an issue of accessibility. I would hope to add a appointment feature on app/website to be able to access their storage and hope people accept there can't be instant access.

Not just spare space - I would hope that this just isn't garage space, but space in your home, commercial premises, or also letting cat parking space too.

Months to go though to try and get round the issues & I didn't realise someone had already started something similar!

Why would you store items valued at less than £1k for months on end at the current market rates?  Easier just to sell them then rebuy similar 2nd hand and avoid the exs surely?  The reality is when people store stuff surely it has significant value otherwise why store it?  Maybe people are just dumb.  It stacks up that most people are dumb given the levels of personal debt and over spending etc in general.

Regarding house sitting how much do quality house sitters get paid?  I could literally house sit for anyone anywhere in the world and still do my day to day work i do anyway online whilst someone else pays all my bills.  Does it really pay that well?  I must be one of the few people who doing this really wouldn't inconvenience their normal day to day existence in the slightest.  Seems like dead money in the pot i should be looking to hoover up whilst getting to travel around more glam places than Stoke!

[4KSuited]

I've recently been to a local storage place to investigate the costs. Not cheap; and then you've got to pay their insurance costs (really not cheap, and adding a big % if you're space requirements aren't huge) since your household contents coverage doesn't include goods stored outside of the home. Not really very surprising when you think about it.

I only want storage for a period of months rather than years, and I suspect that this is the norm. There would be others who may have businesses run from the home and they need secure "overflow space"s; something else I looked at a number of years ago, and then discovered how expensive these big groups are.

I would absolutely need to be confident that the storage area was clean, dry & secure. There would need to be a system whereby the customer would be certain that their goods could only be accessed by themselves: the big faceless organisations have the benefit of security cameras and staff that value their jobs just enough to resist temptation. My stuff isn't valuable per se, but I definitely don't want to risk losing it.

[aaron1867]

Thanks for all the replies - I seem to get all the same problems asked and how we could deal with them.

Insurance/theft/missing items - This is the number 1 problem to get around. There is insurance on items available, home insurance & so on. I've also questioned if the company itself should pay for potential thefts and hope there aren't many, and the app would potentially hold the people doing storing purely responsible. A long way to go on this issue.

Items - I can't see many people wanting to store anything expensive, like the £2k dining table, I'd assume that many items would be just bits people can't store, paperwork clothes Xmas stuff, etc.

Times - I know 100% that it will be an issue of accessibility. I would hope to add a appointment feature on app/website to be able to access their storage and hope people accept there can't be instant access.

Not just spare space - I would hope that this just isn't garage space, but space in your home, commercial premises, or also letting cat parking space too.

Months to go though to try and get round the issues & I didn't realise someone had already started something similar!

Why would you store items valued at less than £1k for months on end at the current market rates?  Easier just to sell them then rebuy similar 2nd hand and avoid the exs surely?  The reality is when people store stuff surely it has significant value otherwise why store it?  Maybe people are just dumb.  It stacks up that most people are dumb given the levels of personal debt and over spending etc in general.

Regarding house sitting how much do quality house sitters get paid?  I could literally house sit for anyone anywhere in the world and still do my day to day work i do anyway online whilst someone else pays all my bills.  Does it really pay that well?  I must be one of the few people who doing this really wouldn't inconvenience their normal day to day existence in the slightest.  Seems like dead money in the pot i should be looking to hoover up whilst getting to travel around more glam places than Stoke!

I've found that people neee storage for items they need in the future or store things they can't bear to throw out. Often people just wanting to store items whilst they move and find somewhere to stay etc. I mean that's what it's all about, not to store huge items with huge value, but instead you're full up and can store your clothes, memories & general household stuff for half the price of elsewhere. I mean you can pay £10/week to dump stuff elsewhere for £10/week or pay £20/£30 at big yellow box. I'm sure there are storage options for expensive and really expensive stuff.

[MANTIS01]

Don't believe the house sitting pays a wage of sorts but the perks are pretty sweet. My friend sits for an Australian surgeon for 2-3 months every year when the fella visits family in Europe. He pays for her flight, she stays in a 5 bed condo overlooking bondi beach, use of a 4x4 and loads of fruit/veg/eggs in the garden. She gotta look after his 2 dogs, feed the chickens and koi carp and that's it. Seems like a good deal for anybody not planted in one location. Better than Stoke fo sho.

[arbboy]

Don't believe the house sitting pays a wage of sorts but the perks are pretty sweet. My friend sits for an Australian surgeon for 2-3 months every year when the fella visits family in Europe. He pays for her flight, she stays in a 5 bed condo overlooking bondi beach, use of a 4x4 and loads of fruit/veg/eggs in the garden. She gotta look after his 2 dogs, feed the chickens and koi carp and that's it. Seems like a good deal for anybody not planted in one location. Better than Stoke fo sho.

Obviously my point wasn't purely on cash.  I wouldn't be that interested in going somewhere for 4 days but 3 months in a spot like that i would be willing to do for close to free potentially if exs were covered.

[tikay]

I like the idea although the devil is in the detail.

You would have to make sure that all the storage spaces/units were fully covered insurance wise and
get your terms and conditions double and triple checked to make sure there water tight or else your
going to spend a lot of time in small claim courts over piffling little things going missing , stolen or damaged.

I know when I  moved it cost me a fortune for a storage unit for around 6/7 weeks and 90% of it was junk
the ex didn't want to chuck out and had been in our loft for 10 years , never seen the light of day.

Don't know who is already doing it but think there is some mileage in the plan.

Surprised you take that view, Jim.

You never know when that "junk" might be needed again.

Suppose, for example, you wanted to get it back on with your ex-missus? You'd be grateful you never chucked it then.

[MintTrav]

Hmmmm.........I've got some empty rooms I was thinking of renting out.

Think I might put an ad in FreeAds and see what demand there is for storage instead.

[atdc21]

One difference between renting a room in your house to a lodger, and renting it for storage is, you can have a lodger for about £80 a week and not have to declare it for tax reasons, storage would be a business and all takings declared and taxable.

[bookiebasher]

I like the idea although the devil is in the detail.

You would have to make sure that all the storage spaces/units were fully covered insurance wise and
get your terms and conditions double and triple checked to make sure there water tight or else your
going to spend a lot of time in small claim courts over piffling little things going missing , stolen or damaged.

I know when I  moved it cost me a fortune for a storage unit for around 6/7 weeks and 90% of it was junk
the ex didn't want to chuck out and had been in our loft for 10 years , never seen the light of day.

Don't know who is already doing it but think there is some mileage in the plan.

Surprised you take that view, Jim.

You never know when that "junk" might be needed again.

Suppose, for example, you wanted to get it back on with your ex-missus? You'd be grateful you never chucked it then.

I know your baiting me but I will bite

For a start , I would rather spend a week listening to Wadey's bad beat stories than spend 5 minutes in the company of my ex.

Apart from the police having a word in her ear she then decided to put a great big screw under my car tyre and demands 100% of the equity left after selling Moulty Towers.

She never chucked anything out and our loft and double garage were full of what can only be described as tatt.

I wish I had known you are a lover of junk , I could have stored it all at your place in Ilkeston.

Does Aaron know you have storage facilities ?

You could be one of his first customers.