Few people living on less than minimum wage can say they spend time living in mansions with home cinemas and swimming pools.
But that’s the reality for 55-year-old Gavin Neate, who estimates he has saved £40,000 on household costs, including rent and bills, by living as a full-time house-sitter for the past three years.
Mr Neate, who is the chief executive of tech company WelcoMe, travels across the UK to live in people’s houses and look after their pets while they’re away.
“I turn up at these houses and the fridge is full of food and I don’t have to pay rent,” he told i. “I don’t have to pay for Netflix, I don’t pay for WiFi. A lot of these houses let me use their car if they have a second one.”
He spends less than £1,000 a month but has stayed everywhere from a mansion with 100 acres of land to homes in the Scottish Highlands, Buckingham, Northumbria, Surrey and Kent, to name a few.
The arrangement allows him to pay himself less than minimum wage while he tries to make his company a success.
“It’s a bit like when you go all-in in poker. You know if you lose the money you’re out of the game, and I’ve got used to being in that situation permanently,” he said. “I’ve kind of gambled everything.”
His company helps disabled people communicate with the venues they visit so they can avoid discrimination and have a better experience.
Mr Neate launched the business in 2019 but said it was “really tough” to begin with as companies thought they didn’t need the service.
“They thought disabled people are all elderly and just at home, and of course that’s not the case,” he said.
He knew he believed in the company but it was going to take time and money, so he sold both the houses he owned.
Mr Neate began renting a home in Edinburgh for £1,100 a month but he wasn’t able to take any money out of his company and was living on his savings until they ran out.
Around this time, his sister fell ill so he moved in with her for three months to take care of her. Then a friend asked whether he would look after her cat and dog while she was away for a few days.
It sparked an idea for Mr Neate, who was an RAF police dog handler for 10 years and had also trained guide dogs.
He found himself on TrustedHousesitters, a site where people can arrange for others to stay in their home while they’re away – often to look after their pets. He pays an annual fee of £199 which gives him a a year of unlimited sits, in return for caring for pets and homes.
Those looking for someone to house and pet sit also pay an annual fee.
The businessman started house-sitting in July 2021, and he’s not lived in a home of his own since.
He said he gets “great reviews” as he’s helped train people’s pets and often leaves a loaf of homemade sourdough bread for his hosts.
“People will generally come back and their dog won’t pull on the lead any more, it’s got really good obedience, it won’t snatch food,” he said. He even once trained a cat using clicker training.
Mr Neate said he has stayed in “amazing places” all across the country, usually staying for two to three weeks or more.
In Northumbria, he was living in a mansion and looking after five cats. In Stirling, the huge house he was staying in had 100 acres of land.
One place had a home cinema with a screen that came down from the ceiling. “I watched all the Batmans again and some of the football there,” Mr Neate said.
Another home had a heated indoor swimming pool, so he took advantage by taking a dip every day during his five-week stay. Others have been close to the sea, and one house was in an old waterworks.
“I know how to use pretty much every household appliance now,” Mr Neate joked. “I turn up and the person says ‘let me show you how to use the washing machine’, and I say oh that looks like the new 7253, I know how to use it already.”
Not living with anyone else has been lonely at times, but he has a system to keep him occupied: with each house he visits, he tries a new hobby inspired by the owner.
One lady he house-sat for was a baker, so he began baking sourdough bread. Another was a singer so he took singing lessons.
At the home of a European taekwondo champion, he kept himself fit on the exercise machines.
He’s also tried mountain biking, pottery, piano, kayaking, wild swimming, voiceover work and rollerblading – with some of his new hobbies perhaps more daring than others.
Mr Neate doesn’t have many possessions any more – he got rid of almost everything when he began house-sitting – but the things he does have are kept in a motor home he bought about a year and a half ago.
The motor home means he has somewhere to sleep in between house-sits, as before he would have to rely on sleeping on a friend’s floor.
“Now I’m waking up with any view I want,” he said. “I could be on the side of a loch in Scotland, or in the middle of nowhere in the forest in the snow.”
He doesn’t get much post any more, but what he does get is sent to his sister’s home.
One of the only things he pays for is the internet, and his small number of possessions include a wetsuit, keyboard, bike, clothes, technology – and his sourdough starter.
“I’m living my best life,” he said. “I’m not earning much money, I’m earning a fraction of what most people do, but I’m embracing the life I was forced to live because of having this passion [for WelcoMe].”
Despite this, Mr Neate admits there are some aspects of full-time house-sitting that have been challenging – not least trying to stay on the dating scene.
“A lot of people who want relationships want somebody who’s hanging around so I’m not necessarily a catch,” he said, although he does go on dating apps and meet up with people.
He also knows his arrangement is “not for everyone” and that everything relies on making WelcoMe a success.
“The only way I can get out of the situation I’m in is by having a successful company. I can’t get a mortgage now,” he said.
As he gets older, he also worries more about his health and how it could affect his ability to keep travelling across the country – but in terms of how he feels now, “I could do this until the day I die”.
“I go to these houses and they have a 50-inch TV in every room. There was one house where the person had at least 20 cars and he never drove them – they were just things. The owner was working all the time still. They have accumulated stuff but have no joy from that stuff.
“I have accumulated stuff and got rid of it all and I get joy from having no stuff. Admittedly, though, I do get to enjoy other people’s 50-inch televisions.”