PROPERTY CARETAKER

A 'Property caretaker' is a person who cares for real estate in exchange for rent-free living accommodations, and with the possibility of additional compensation. The caretaking profession includes positions as housesitters, ranch sitters, bed & breakfast and innsitters, property managers, estate managers, and hosts at resorts or campgrounds. A caretaker is generally distinguished from a “caregiver,” someone with health care skills who is employed to care for another person, often as a live-in aide.
Caretaking is actually a very old profession, rooted in the British tradition of land maintenance. In 1868, ''The Times'' defined a caretaker as “a person put in charge of a farm from which the tenant has been evicted.” Today that definition has been expanded to cover a multitude of landowner/caretaker relationships. The number and diversity of these relationships has increased during the past decade. The property caretaking field has been covered by The Caretaker Gazette since 1983.