A couple hasn't paid for flights since 2018 and lives in homes for free. Here's how they quit their corporate jobs for house-sitting gigs all over the world.

• Marco Ilagan, 42, and Fran Cassaniti, 30, left their jobs at Accenture to travel in 2018. 
• The couple live in other people's homes for free in return for looking after their pets. 
• They have saved $50,000 each year in accommodation.

Travel enthusiasts Fran Cassaniti from Buenos Aires, Argentina and Marco Ilagan from Chicago, Illinois were in a long-distance relationship. And while most people in long-distance relationships hop on FaceTime calls, Cassaniti and Ilagan had date nights in all parts of the world. They met in India, Thailand, or Brazil to spend time with each other.

When the couple first met in 2016, they both wanted to travel the world. So after a year of dating and another year of planning and saving, they quit their corporate jobs, let go of their rented apartments, and in January 2018 started traveling together.

The couple started their journey by flying to Ilagan's home country of the Philippines, before they traveled to Hawaii six months later.

However, they realized that moving hotels or hostels every five days wasn't working for them because they wanted to run a life-coaching business while living on the road. "We were looking for a way that we could continue traveling, but have more stability and save money on accommodation," said Cassaniti. 

They looked after pets and explored house-sitting

At the same time they'd started following a digital nomad couple on Instagram who had been house-sitting for two years, so they also decided to give it a go. Ilagan and Cassaniti set up an account on TrustedHousesitters.com and within 15 days they were accepted for a house sit in Anchorage, Alaska.

The couple needed to look after a dog and a cockatiel called Tweetie who would fly free around the house. While they were nervous about their first house sit, both the owners and the pets made it easy for them. The owners left a car, two mountain bikes, and hiking gear for the couple so they could enjoy the Alaskan scenery. "When we were having breakfast, Tweetie would sit at his breakfast station and wait for his peanut butter with cookies," said Cassaniti. 

Once they tried house-sitting, they never looked back. They booked each house sit through TrustedHousesitters as not only did the app feature more international house sits, but they wanted to collect all of their reviews on one platform. 

They have now been house sitters for 25 homes. They've stayed in a retreat in Utah with two Alaskan malamutes that overlooked a famous mountain range. In the evenings, the couple could sit in the outdoor Jacuzzi and watch the sunset over the mountains or watch 'Game of Thrones' in the cinema room.

They also spent four months looking after two relaxed German Shepherds in a beach retreat in Grenada, as the retired owners would go sailing during the winter months. "It was like our dream house," said Ilagan. "From the terrace we would watch the sun go down over the ocean and we didn't buy mangos or avocados for months as the garden was filled with fruit trees."

Cassaniti and Ilagan plan around their travel and business goals

The only time they faced any difficulty living for free was when the pandemic hit and they lost a month's worth of bookings in March 2020.

But after staying with friends in Chicago, they found a house-sitting gig on a golf community in Florida. The locals would travel everywhere by golf cart, whether that was to go to the golf course or grocery shopping.

This treated the couple to one of their highlights during the pandemic as the neighbors would organize drive-in concerts. "Each of the neighbors could play the guitar or knew how to sing, so they'd set up concerts in their garage and everyone would be sat socially distanced in their golf carts enjoying the concerts with snacks and beer. It was really fun," said Cassaniti.

They house sat in Italy, Slovenia, Croatia and Greece, then England, Scotland and Ireland, but none of these choices are ad hoc — they fit into clear goals.

Their longest house-sitting gig was four months in Grenada, but they usually move homes once a month. "Every year we set our personal, travel and business goals," said Ilagan. "We then break it down to smaller goals so we know where to go this quarter and weekly goals so every day we are aligned."

In 2022, they focused on Europe and in 2023 they will travel through central America.

The couple have created a daily routine in place of their 9 to 5 jobs. In the morning, they work out, meditate, practice yoga, and journal. Then they walk the pets and start their coaching calls for their site "Map The Unknown," where they help people get the life they want with courses that they sell for $199. Because they often change time zones, they use the free online app Calendly so people can see when they are available.

They'll turn down gigs if surveillance cameras aren't turned off

The only times they have turned house-sitting gigs down was when a potential host said they didn't want to turn off the security cameras inside their house because they wanted to watch their pets and another who kept rescheduling their online interview. "You need to coordinate lots of things with the host so for us the relationship with the host is important," said Cassaniti. 

The only challenge they've had with a pet was when a 14-year-old golden retriever they were looking after for a family experienced a seizure. The couple rushed the dog to the vet and were relieved when the vet managed to get the dog back on his feet. However, the scary moment prepared them for future emergencies. "We now ask for the vet's emergency number because we learned it's a different one," said Ilagan.

The couple uses credit card points to pay for flights

But it's not just the housing that the couple don't pay for, they don't pay for their flights either. In 2014, Ilagan found a blog that said you can get free flights if you apply for a credit card. So Ilagan now uses points and miles from his credit cards to pay for flights.

He takes out two to three credit cards each year, which he tracks on a spreadsheet. "I pay my bill off every month like it's a debit card and I use it as a tool to travel," said Ilagan. And, if the credit card companies start charging annual fees, he will cancel the card.

He hasn't paid for flights in five years. In 2022, they flew between Mexico, the US, Italy, Greece, Slovenia, the UK, back to the US and then Argentina for free. But Ilagan warns that you need to be diligent about paying off the card and looking for fees as that is when you lose any benefits. You also need to make sure you don't take out too many credit cards because you can look credit hungry to the credit card companies and this lowers your credit score. 

To help reduce their travel fees, they also bought an RV which sits in storage in Texas when they want to travel farther away. They drove the RV when they traveled to Mexico in December 2021 and got engaged, and again in April 2022, when they got married on a sandbar in Belize. They are currently driving it in Costa Rica, where they will spend the next four months looking after two dogs and ticking off those goals they created.