What to do with dilapidated garage filled with junk

[Shawn Loftis]

I bought a class C 4-plex (2 duplexes) in Feb. 2015.  There was a lot of deferred maintenance that I'm trying to catch up on through rent payments.  

There is an old 2 car garage with electricity ran to it and a mechanic's pit inside of it. The garage is filled with junk (not sure if it is old tenants junk or current tenant's junk).  I get a text from a tenant asking if I've rented out the garage.  I say "No - the garage should be condemned and it is too big a liability for me to rent out."  His response is - "Well, I think there are 3 people living in it."

The police take over and make sure that the trespassers know they aren't welcome on the property and need to move themselves and their things out.  All of the junk that was in the garage is now outside of the garage so I need to do something.

I know that I need to eventually have the junk hauled away and the building torn down.  I would just rather fix the roof on one of the duplexes first and do the garage next summer.  Is there a good way to board up / lock up the garage to keep people from using it for storage or a living space?

Also - My original plan when I bought the property was to take down the existing garage and build 4 single car garages and try to rent them out for $100 a month.  First quote was $25k for that.  Are garages just a headache with leftover junk i'm going to have to haul off every time someone moves out?  Have people had success in building garages for class C properties before? Too much headache for the trouble?

I live about 45 minutes away so I don't get eyes on the property but once a month.

Thanks for the advice,

Shawn