Quick answer
To hire a house manager, define the role and weekly hours, set your budget, then either vet candidates yourself or work with a household staffing agency that sources and screens for you. Agency placement typically takes 4–6 weeks and includes background checks, reference verification, and a trial period. Pay varies by hours, experience, scope, and location.
Hiring a house manager comes down to three decisions: what you need handled, what you can spend, and whether you vet candidates yourself or bring in a household staffing agency, like Sage Haus to do it for you. Below is the real cost picture, a realistic timeline, and the specific things worth checking before you make an offer.
What a house manager handles (and when you need one)
A house manager owns the running of your home so you don’t have to hold it all in your head. They keep vendors booked and actually showing up, the fridge stocked, the calendar and the budget in sync, and the standing to-dos moving without you having to chase them. When the dishwasher gives out, they’re already on the phone with the repair tech.
When you’ve got people coming over in three weeks, it’s handled. Day to day, the work spans everything from managing household staffing and appointments to running errands and catching the small stuff before it turns into the big stuff.
Most house manager roles run around 20 hours a week. If your list is shorter — a handful of errands, some light admin, a couple of standing tasks — you probably don’t need a full house manager yet, and a family assistant at roughly 8 to 10 hours a week is the better fit.
You’ll hear the work called other things, too: some families say household manager, others say personal assistant. The title matters far less than getting the hours and the scope right for the way your home actually runs. (For the full breakdown of what a house manager does, start here.)
What it costs to hire a house manager
Pay depends on several factors, not one flat rate. These five move it most:
| Factor | How it moves the rate |
|---|---|
| Weekly hours | ~20 hrs/week (house manager) vs. ~8–10 hrs/week (family assistant) — more hours, higher total cost. |
| Experience level | Running a complex or multi-property household, or overseeing other staff, commands more than light scheduling and errands. |
| Scope of work | Vendor and budget management, staff oversight, and travel coordination sit above basic admin and running errands. |
| Location | Pay tracks local cost of living and market demand. |
| Hiring path | Hiring direct means you cover sourcing, screening, and payroll setup yourself; an agency builds vetting and placement into the rate. |
Here’s where Sage Haus placements currently land:
Typical pay — family assistant & house manager
$25–$45/hr
The range spans both roles — family assistant work (~8–10 hrs/week) sits at the lower end, house manager roles (~20 hrs/week) toward the top. Pay also varies by state, experience, and scope. For current openings and live ranges, see the Sage Haus jobs board.
How long it takes to hire a house manager
On your own, the timeline runs as long as it takes to write the posting, screen applicants, interview, and check references — often a couple of months when you’re fitting it around everything else. Through Sage Haus, placement typically runs 4 to 6 weeks from your first call to your house manager’s start date.
Step 1
Intake call
We map the role, hours, and budget to your home.
Step 2
Sourcing & vetting
Background checks and reference verification before you see anyone.
Step 3
Interviews & trial
You meet vetted candidates and confirm the fit in a trial.
Step 4
Placement
Your house manager starts and settles into how your home runs.
Typical timeline: 4–6 weeks from intake to start date.
What to look for in a house manager
The strongest hires have run a real household before and can show it. Before you make an offer, check for:
- ✓Relevant household experience they can describe in specifics
- ✓Verified references you actually call
- ✓A completed background check
- ✓Systems sense — how they’d organize vendors, budgets, and schedules
- ✓Communication style that matches how your home runs
- ✓A trial period before you commit
Skills get someone in the door; references and a trial confirm they can actually hold the role in your home.
Hiring on your own vs. through an agency
You can absolutely hire directly — post the role, screen candidates, run your own background checks, and handle payroll setup. The trade is time and risk: every step is yours, and a mis-hire means starting over. A household staffing agency carries that load for you.
Sage Haus has placed house managers and family assistants for more than 8,000 families. Every candidate is vetted before they reach you, and if the fit isn’t right, we rematch. For most households, that’s the difference between hoping a hire works out and having real peace of mind that the home is covered.
| Step | Hiring on your own | Through Sage Haus |
|---|---|---|
| Sourcing | Write the posting, run the ads, sift applicants. | Done for you. We interview 20–100 candidates and present your top 2 fits. |
| Vetting | Your own background checks and reference calls. | Background checks and references handled before you meet anyone. |
| Timeline | Often a couple of months around your schedule. | Typically 4–6 weeks. |
| If it doesn’t work out | Start the whole search over. | If the fit isn’t right, we rematch. |
Start your house manager search
Tell us about your home and what you need handled, and we’ll map the role, hours, and timeline with you on a group info call. From there, sourcing, vetting, and matching are on us. Every placement is backed by a 60-day match guarantee — so you can hand off the running of your home with real peace of mind.
Book a group info call
Frequently Asked Questions: How to Hire a House Manager
Pay depends on weekly hours, experience, scope of responsibilities, location, and whether you hire directly or through an agency. A house manager role at around 20 hours a week costs more than a family assistant at 8–10 hours. Agency rates fold sourcing, vetting, and placement into the cost.
Hiring on your own can take a couple of months once you account for posting, screening, interviewing, and reference checks. Through Sage Haus, placement typically runs 4–6 weeks from your first call to your house manager’s start date.
A house manager runs the operational side of a home at around 20 hours a week — vendors, budgets, maintenance, and scheduling. A family assistant handles lighter, more transactional work like errands and admin at roughly 8–10 hours a week.
Hiring direct gives you full control but means handling sourcing, background checks, and payroll setup yourself, with a longer timeline and more risk. An agency vets candidates for you, places faster, and backs the match. Sage Haus placements come with a 60-day match guarantee.
Look for relevant household experience, verified references, a completed background check, strong systems and organizational sense, a communication style that fits your home, and a trial period before you commit.
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