How I Handled Squatters in My Rental Property 🚨

Oh, all right. Oh, what's going on, everybody? I know why you're here today. You're here because it's Nathan Payne's Wholesaling Real Estate Storytime, Tales from the Trenches, where I tell you about what it's really like to wholesale and start a real estate business. The ups and the downs, the goods, the bad. I'm laying it all out here for you guys. You know why? Because it's important to know the truth. Everybody wants to share their wins. Everybody wants to share the good, the good side on social media. But what I'm doing is I'm giving you guys the raw, the real, everything. So you guys know exactly what it's like. And I'm going back through my journey. I started wholesaling real estate, started my real estate journey about 5, 6 years ago. So there's a lot of crazy things that have happened over the last couple of years. And I have a crazy story for you guys today. It's about how a robber broke into my house, into one of my rentals, left his ID, left some yogurt, left some needles, left a bunch of stuff in my house. I got it all, and a chocolate muffin as well. I got it all and I put it in the trash can because I said, hey, you don't live here, buddy. And, uh, I left a note on the door. We'll We'll get into the story anyway. It was kind of crazy. I had to call the police because I thought they might come back and I might have to fight them. Who knows what was going to happen? But anyway, we're going to dive into that story right now. First, I got my Polar seltzer. Okay, now it's water, sparkling water. You know why? Because while I tell these stories, I get a little parched. So I need it. I need to be able to stay hydrated during these stories. Okay, so if this is your first time hearing this, I've done a couple episodes so far, and this one is about how one of the properties that I ended up purchasing subject to that went sideways, where I actually had to go to court because the paperwork The seller didn't want to get out of the property. I let him stay in it. It was like a year-long process of having to deal with that. I was new. I didn't know what I was doing with the contract for deed paperwork. Anyway, this is the rental property that I own now, and this is what happened. So let's dive into this story, everybody. So if you remember the time that I went to court because I bought a property on subject to, let the guy stay in it, actually contract for deed subject to, but I let him stay in it 4 months. He doesn't want to leave. When it's time for him to move, when he knew he was supposed to move, I say, hey, you got to go. He won't. So I got to evict him. He fights it. We go to court and I eventually win. So they vacate. Now I have this empty property, I have this empty house I need to rent out. So I start doing work on it and we eventually get renters that are going to rent the property. So we pick renters, we find them, they qualify, everything's looking good. And when we pick the renters to go into the property, we give them the keys and they say, hey, we're not going to move in until next week, but we're going to drop some of our stuff off at the property. So I was like, great, okay, good. So I'm driving, right, doing Driving for Dollars, or I'm working, and I drive past the property and it looks like someone's there. So I was like, oh, let me go see if, um, they're home, you know, or let me go check on it to make sure there's no problem. So I go in there and the door's open, and the side door, and I'm like, why is it— okay, the door's open. And I look around, and they said they were going to move some of their stuff, so I saw some candles, I saw some stuff, but I, I saw needles on the ground, I saw cigarette butts, and, uh, I'm like, uh-oh, did we just rent this place out to some crazy people? And, you know, I keep looking around, there's like chocolate muffins on the ground. I'm starting to get a little worried. I'm like, I don't know, this is kind seem a little kind of weird. There's an ax on the ground, and I see there's a wallet on the ground, and, um, just a bunch of different stuff laying all over. It didn't look pretty. I'm looking through the house, and I get the idea, and I'm like, this idea is not of the person who is going to rent place out. I'm getting, you know, that feeling where you're like, oh, this is kind of weird, there's something going on here. I call my wife, and I say, hey babe, uh, is something going on right now? Like, I'm looking at the house, and I think maybe our new tenants that said they were gonna move their stuff in, maybe they're like, you know, tweakers, they're doing some— because there's some crazy stuff in this house. And what ends up happening is And she's like, no, they just left a couple candles. Whosever stuff that is there, obviously it's not them. So I'm like, oh my gosh, well, someone broke into this house. And I wasn't very familiar with squatters at that moment. I didn't really know what squatters were. A squatter to me back then is a robber, someone that just breaks into your house and stays in your house. That's a robber in my opinion, like a thief. Someone that's gonna go into your house and just break in, that's like not okay, right? That doesn't make sense. So I called the police. And I'm like, hey, police, I'm at one of my houses that I own and I think someone broke in and is— yeah, someone like robbed the place or broken in and they got all their stuff in there. And again, I didn't know what squatting was. I didn't know that was really a thing. So what happens is the police come, you know, I'm just waiting outside, like waiting for the police to come because I'm not trying to get, you know, anything crazy to happen. And actually, I did mess up a little bit in the story. I actually did not go into the property, like to fully search it until the police came because I didn't want to get stabbed. All right, so everything that I've told you was after the police came. So the police come, they come with their guns pulled. They're like, hey, someone in this house? And they're like, everybody evacuate the house if someone's in there. So they bust in and, uh, there's no one in there, obviously. That's when I was able to see everything. I just— I misspoke. But anyway, the police go in there, they clear it out. They're like, yeah, they're probably just squatters. And I was like, well, here's the ID, I just found it. Can you go chase this guy down? They're like, nah, there's really nothing we can do about it. They were like, hey, we can't really do anything to these squatters. Like, that's what they said. We can't really do anything about it. I was like, it sounds kind of interesting. It sounds like a bunch of thieves that just go around the house, the neighborhoods, and just go and break into homes. That sounds like a robber to me. Anyway, they are like, yeah, whatever. So anyway, I take all the stuff. I get the chocolate brownie. I get all the— I don't touch— I don't think I touched the needles or whatever, but I get everything and I put it in a bag. And they haven't come yet. So I put a note on the door and I say, hey, you broke into my house. I wrote this on like a piece of paper. You broke into this house. Don't come back. The police are notified. They're patrolling the area. Like, don't come back. And sorry about all your stuff. I went to like a Walmart parking lot threw away their stuff on a garbage can. I kind of felt bad. I feel like I should have given them their stuff, but at the same time, like, they broke in. Like, why? Why don't leave your stuff in my house? Anyway, so I threw it away. Again, like, feel a little bad. Oh man, maybe they need their stuff. They probably don't have a lot if they're squatting. But anyway, so this all happened in this property that I had that I got through a contract for deed subject to that ended up sending me to court. And then we end up renting it out, and then we have problems with people breaking in, squatters. And now we're renting it out, and it's been rented out for the last several years. It cash flows, it's doing well. But hey guys, there's ups and downs, baby. There's ups and downs in this business. And I just want to let you guys know that there's a lot of ways to go and not face a lot of the issues that I had about going to court. You just got to do paperwork right. You got to make sure you're doing it the right way. You got to structure the deal. About having squatters in there, I honestly, I'm not really sure what you can do to get rid of those squatters. Like, we locked the door, everything was locked in the house. They just got in somehow with the axe. They didn't break anything, so maybe they just wedged it with their axe. I don't know. And by the way, today I actually took their axe as like a trophy. I was like, nah, I'm gonna keep that. You're gonna come into my house and rob me or squat? I'm keeping your ax. So my— I keep the ax as a trophy. I probably should actually just put it on one of my shelves just to remember that squatters don't mess with me. And, um, it's in my garage. I actually have used it a couple times for chopping stuff randomly. But anyway, I should put it— bring it in here. That'd be cool, kind of trophy for my, uh, be like, hey, this is an ax I got from a squatter. But anyway, I wanted to let you guys all know that that was the time that I got a rental, and what ended up happening is the squatters came in and, uh, called the police. We got all their crap, I threw it away, and then left them a note saying don't come back please. And yeah, that was it. And so I hope what you guys can all learn from this story is make sure if you get a rental, get it rented out ASAP. Why not? You know, you don't want to mess with people coming in seeing that it's vacant. All right, and I've seen a lot of people put cameras up in front of like the, the house just so it looks like a camera that is very visible so people know like people are watching. Also, you can tell the neighbors. This is what I did next. I said, hey neighbors— I went to the neighbors, said, hey, if there's anyone, there's squatting in that house. There was someone that got in. If you see anybody that's in there, you know, let me know and give them your number. That's something else that we've done so they can be like, hey, there's someone out there. And then we know that's not someone that we— we're not renting it out. There's no one that should be over there. So that's a good idea. So learn that lesson. If you're gonna have a rental and it's not occupied or you don't have a tenant for yet, let the neighbors know to hit you up if someone's going in so you can do something about it. You can call the police or you can go do it. Now squatting, I've dealt with some squatters since then. Really depends on what state you're in, but really I just don't get the squatting thing. Like, why are you allowed to go go into my house that I own and just sit there and I can't do anything about it. That's not how it works. That's not how I think it should work. I should be able to go in there and say, get out of my house. Like, what are you doing? This is not yours. Anyway, if you have any thoughts on squatting, let me know. I think the ultimate way to get a squatter out in these places that are not letting squatters stay in is to squat on a squatter. Like, so for example, if someone's staying in your house, it's vacant, we'll just go in there. You own it. Just squat with them. Well, yeah, I mean, you're not squatting. You own it. Just go squat or send another squatter in there and just be like, hey, man, I'll pay you. To squat until you get these guys out and then you need to leave. And that might backfire on you 'cause they might not never leave and then you got another problem. Anyway, I want to hear what your thoughts are. I think squatting on a squatter is probably a good effective way to get squatters out. But most of the time I call police and they can get it done. So anyway, hope this Nathan Payne's Wholesaling Real Estate Storytime has been beneficial, been helpful, been entertaining as we talk about tales from the trenches. And if you want to hear more of these stories, if you want the edited videos, if you want the resources that come along with what we're doing, we give away a lot of free stuff. Just go to painlessflipping.com, painless, P-A-Y-N-E, painlessflipping.com. Subscribe, we give you some free stuff. We give you free stuff all the time because we care about you. We got some really cool stuff coming up with the Painless Flipping Academy that I'm going to tell you guys about. Anyway, I gotta go, my wife's calling me because we're going to Idaho. Wish me luck, we're gonna drive, we're gonna have a good time. Have a great weekend, peace out everybody. Hey everybody, what's up? It's Nathan Payne, and for the first time ever, we just released this insane training bundle that has literally everything that I've learned from doing a combined 4,000 deals in real estate, all from starting with absolutely no previous business background experience. Or any real estate experience. 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