My wife and I had talked to our agent about homes under 30000 and got a list of approx 25 houses. On our rounds we were looking for a vacant home across from a church. In the notes section of the print off it said “possible squatters in process of running off”
So we played it cool and I got out the baseball bat. I was checking the windows to see if there were any people inside. MY wife had walked up and was looking at the door. well she pushed it and it fell in. We heard a voicestart yelling “whos there who is it” we promplty responded with we are here to look at the home the listing said it was vacant. This homeless squatter tried to set up an appointment to show us the house.
Well needless to say we wen tot the police stationa dn reported it and asked if we could be accompanied to the home the next day. The police hd no problema nd said they would send someone over that day to clear it out and then ride with us the following day. Every thing should go good.
Well next day arrives and we call and notify police we are going ot the house and want to go through it. 3 police cars are in front of the house with sirens going and everyting when we pull up. Immediately our stomachs hi the floor like what the heck did we get ourselves into.
We pull up and start to ge tand the police stop us for exiting the vehicle. after a lengthy 10 min conversation with the cops. We find out that this squater has been squatting for so long that he has in his police file that this vacant home is his and we can enter the home with out his permission until we prove that he is not the owner. Very easy I pull out the tax assesors paper and prove it well the homeless dude says that is his grandmother and he refuses to let anyone in. Unsure of what to do we drove away and marked that one with a big WTF. The most info the police coudl give us was buy the house give him a 30 day eviction notice and then call them. Once again WTF Thought I would share that one with the boards. maybe some of you can share your funny stories here to.
I bought a home from a nice little old lady that decided that she wasn’t moving out after closing. I ended up having to evict her. I didn’t fint it very funny. >:(
Good reason to starting carrying concealed!
Story 1: I bought a seemingly vacant house a while ago with both a crawl space and a below grade basement. The crawl space portion must of been an addition from a while back. There was several man sized holes between the 2 to install and service the plumbing in the addition I presume. About mid-way through the rehab, the plumber runs upstairs and says “There’s a dead body in the crawl space!” Of course I have to see for myself and sure enough there is a body in the crawl space. I point an infrared thermometer at him to see if his body temperature is low enough to be dead and it read like 80 degrees F. Since I don’t know what the hell the normal skin temperature is, I decide to call EMS to get this dead body out of the house. When EMS arrived and starting moving this body, it groaned to all of our surprise. They strapped him down to their stretcher and loaded him in the ambulance. The man was alive, apparently he took a little too much of his drug of choice the night before, snuck under this house (he’d probably been there before) to go to sleep.
Story 2: A property owner called me and asked if I would buy her house that was sitting vacant. I said “No problem, but I’ll need to take a look at it first. When can you show me around?” She lived 3 states away so tells me to just unscrew the board over the front door. I get there, unscrew the board, open the front door and walk in. Of course this place is as dark as can be with boards covering the windows and doors so I’m scanning the room with my flash light, then writing down what I see needs to be fixed. I walk upstairs to continue and the first room I enter has sun light in it. I take 1 step in the room and there are 2 guys running towards me. One had a baseball bat, the other had a 2x4. I immediately pointed my pistol at one who was closer and they both stopped dead in their tracks. The sun light in the room was from a second story door going to a deck which they had removed the board from. They grabbed their stuff they had accumulated while living in the house and exited through the back door. No one said a word during the event. When I go into a vacant house without the owner, the “flashlight” I carry is really a rail mounted pistol light from SureFire. Glad I had it with me that day!
Reminds me of a situation when we rented a house for a one week vacation in the Poconos.
We live in NYC, and always thoought of buying a place out there for a summer home. The wife said, why not rent a place out there, try the area out, before we buy.
A friend heard about it, and knew her boss had a house that they rent out. Gave us a good deal, so we drove over to spend the week.
They mailed us the keys, so in we went. BUT, it seems someone was living there, the refigerator was filled with food, leftover food, milk, soda etc. The place looked like someone just stepped out for a moment to go shopping.
Called the owner, told us she heard from neighbors that squatters lived there, it’s not the owner’s food, its probably the squatters food. Told us to throw it out.
We were afraid to do that, since we don’t know who the squatters are, and if they are violent. As luck would have it, the refigerator broke that night, and by morning, all the food spoiled anyway and had to be thrown out.
Called the owner again, and she told us it’s an old fridge that she’ll replace it instead of repairing it, and if we won’t mind spending the day in the place to wait for Sears to deliver a new fridge.
Long and short of it, we stayed in the place waiting for Sears, but hoping the angry squatters won’t come back, and beat the cr@p out of us.
And with premonition, I bought my toolbox with me, and the wife said “what on earth would you need a toolbox on vacation”. As luck would have it, the screendoors from the bedroom to the porch broke, won’t close, and I spent the afternoon repairing it, so we won’t be eaten alive by mosquitos flying in.
It was one of the longest days we ever had, and we decided maybe we won’t buy a summer home in the Poconos after all.