When Ryan Wagner began looking for a caretaker for his 76-acre glamping retreat in South Haven, MI, he decided to put up a post on LinkedIn offering not only a competitive salary, but free housing as well.
Within days, Wagner was deluged with applications.
“I was expecting some response, but I was not expecting anywhere near what happened,” he tells Realtor.com® exclusively. “I’m so buried.”
It’s not surprising. The new caretaker—officially titled “hospitality leader”—will get paid, receive a weekly grocery stipend, and live rent-free in a stunning double-geodesic-domed home in the woods, utilities included.
The caretaker will oversee the sprawling property, which hosts individuals and families in cabins and glamping tents, and specializes in corporate retreats, yoga retreats, and weddings.
“The job: be the face of the place,” Wagner’s LinkedIn post stated. “Welcome guests like old friends, keep the handymen and housekeepers on schedule, and make sure the grounds look like a postcard.”
In addition to earning a “competitive” salary, the caretaker will live in a six-bedroom, four-bathroom, double-geodesic-dome lodge built by the former owners. It has quick access to the beach on Lake Michigan, a charming downtown area, the towns of Saugatuck and Fennville, and “more wineries than you can responsibly visit.”
Those who do apply for the job will face tough competition, as well as some unique job quirks.
Buried in résumés
Wagner, along with his wife, Sara, and friends Ronny and Lisa Sage, purchased the glamping business, called Off Map, nearly three years ago for $1.3 million.
At the time, Wagner and his wife were living in Marin County, CA. When Ronny called him saying, “Hey, this is a deal that’s too good to be true,” and asked him to go in on the for-sale property, Wagner was reluctant.
“I must have said ‘No,’ three times,” he says. Wagner felt he was too busy with his role as vice president of hospitality for luxury brand Restoration Hardware.
But then life changed enough that Wagner and his wife, who ran weddings and catering at the Drake Hotel for a decade, decided a glamping resort might be a fun project.
The couple currently live in a Chicago suburb, and Wagner has a new restaurant consulting firm named So What Now What Hospitality Partners. The current Off Map caretaker is retiring, thus the need for a new one.
Wagner says he has received about 400 résumés, and they are still hitting his inbox “hot and heavy.”
“I did not farm it out to AI,” he says of reading through each one of the responses. “We’re looking for the human touch—someone who makes an extraordinary first impression and makes people feel welcomed and happy.”
The perfect candidate will not only be the point person for everyone from the bride who has booked her wedding on the grounds, to the chickens, which freely strut around the property when they’re not in their night coop.
“We have gotten people who have said, ‘Chickens? No, thanks,'” he says.
The perfect candidate
Ideally, the new caretaker will be single, but Wagner is open to a couple. A family with children wouldn’t work, as sometimes the caretaker needs to trade in the lodge for sleeping in staff quarters.
“If there is too many people, it can get complicated,” he says.
He says the interested parties have run the gamut, from those with plenty of hospitality experience to those with none.
There have been people who have sent heartfelt videos, and those who have sent only a few words in the subject header, but no text.
“They’ll write, ‘I WANT TO WORK WITH YOU CALL ME’ in all caps,” he says with a laugh.
Wagner has responded to about 90% of the inquiries, but there are a couple of candidates who already stand out.
“We saw her and were all impressed,” he says of one promising respondent. “You could feel her warmth in the video, which is hard to do. The kind of person who makes you feel at home.”
The caretaker will oversee a small staff of handymen and cleaners as well as 15 Safari King tents (no electricity, no plumbing), five deluxe tents (with electricity and plumbing), and five brand-new luxurious Scandinavian-inspired cabins for year-round stays.
The cabins boast kitchenettes, air conditioning, electric fireplaces, and bathrooms with private outdoor showers.
Then there is the atrium store with a glass ceiling, where guests can pick up beverages, snacks, coffee, clothing, merchandise, and camping supplies. The barn-lobby has sofas and five full bathrooms with showers.
The right candidate needs to be someone who “lives and breathes hospitality” and can care for wood-burning stoves, occasionally clean restrooms, gather fresh eggs, and get along with 10 chickens and one rooster, named Rufio.
The caretaker won’t be “cutting grass or mending fences”—there are handymen to do that—but some “physical handiwork” should be expected, Wagner says.
Additionally, the job may be only seasonal—April through October. But there is a chance that the caretaker could stay year-round as the new cabins are built to withstand harsh Michigan winters.
“We’re going to learn a lot this year,” Wagner says, noting it will be the first year that Off Map will remain open during winter.
Housing crunch fuels overwhelming response
Asked whether he thinks the current housing crunch and high housing costs fueled the massive response to the job, he says, “I’m certain that was a factor.”
The median home list price for July 2026 is $428,950, according to Realtor.com data. The housing affordability crisis has states scrambling to come up with various solutions, including doing away with property taxes, implementing a pied-à-terre tax for second homes valued over a certain amount, and easing restrictions on tiny homes and accessory dwelling units.
Wagner says some of the responses showed a deep need—not just for an exciting job, but for attractive, cost-free housing.
“There were even some people who were like, ‘I’ll move away from my family,'” he says. “We had one person willing to make a three-hour-each-way commute.”
The avalanche of responses came from all over the world—spanning the U.S., Europe, South America, and India
The foreign candidates may not get far in the process as Wagner is unable to sponsor an employee who isn’t already authorized to work in the U.S.
Wagner says that he has hired hundreds of people over his long hospitality career, but has never received this much enthusiasm for a position.
“A lot of people said they just want a slower pace of life and to escape the rat race,” he says. “For the right person, this is the dream job.”
