A man has explained how he helps fund his digital nomad lifestyle by reporting empty properties.
Mikhail Chekhrinov, 30, has earned nearly £5,000 in vouchers and cash from YouSpotProperty.com, which pays people to flag abandoned homes in England. If the property you find meets the eligibility criteria, then you will initially be awarded a £20 voucher for M&S or Amazon.
But if YouSpotProperty goes on to purchase that home, then you get a 1% share of the property value, up to £10,000. Mikhail, a former map editor and data researcher, discovered YouSpotProperty during a year-long stint in the UK, while researching for ways to earn extra money while working on a tomato farm in Birmingham.
He was initially sceptical, but decided to give it a go to help cover the costs of his many plane tickets. Mikhail is currently based in Turkey but is living and travelling across Europe - and is still an active “spotter” by using Google Maps.
He said: “My feeling was that although the proposition of the company didn’t seem real, it could do no harm putting it to the test, so I decided to walk around my neighbourhood looking for houses in a poor condition to report. I submitted a few houses and finally received my first voucher.
“My trust for the company suddenly came alive. Submitting houses to YouSpotProperty quickly became my hobby and as a result, I was able to explore remote parts of the city this way. Some days I walked 20km because I enjoyed the fun of it all. One time I covered 100km in one week.”
Mikhail has received 168 £20 vouchers to date, worth £3,360 in value, and £1,400 in cash after he reported a derelict house in Balsall Heath, south Birmingham, which YouSpotProperty went on to buy for £140,000.
Mikhail said: “I bought quite a lot of much needed gear for my extensive travelling and used these vouchers towards a high-end backpack, hammock and camera. Although I’m travelling constantly these days I'm using my skills to earn vouchers now and then by working with Google Maps.”
In order to be eligible for an award, the property you spot must be privately owned, not up for sale and no planning permission applied for recently Between 350 to 450 properties are reported to the firm on a weekly basis and on average, YouSpotProperty pays out seven 1% reward fees each month.
There are more than 250,000 estimated long-term empty and derelict homes around England and Wales. YouSpotProperty founder, Nick Kalms, said: “There is no single solution to solving the empty homes crisis as we have come to learn over more than a decade of trying to alleviate the problem. Councils around the country have houses which are known to them and exist in this state, and many that sit idle under the radar, often for many years.
“The most common reason we’ve uncovered as to why houses get locked up and fall into a derelict state is often down to drawn-out and complicated probate, the mental health of the owners, childhood homes inherited years after individuals have lived in the property, and owners who live overseas. Many houses are hoarded with rubbish and require extensive clean up operations before any refurbishment can take place.”