Squatter Nightmare

[Johnathan Cannon]

Squatter Nightmare

So, I wanted to make people aware of what happened to me with a house I purchased for investment, so that you don't make the same mistake. The moral of the story is do your homework, and if it seems to good to be true it probably is.

I decided to buy my first investment property in my Hometown of Tacoma, WA. 1410 S. 56th Street. The process was easy enough and I got it for a song! I bought the house, only having viewed it from the outside, as a foreclosure/Auction from the bank, but given the low price I was sure I had make a good choice even if the inside was in bad shape. A few short weeks later we closed escrow, I went to the house I found an entire small community of squatters living in it. I told them get they hell out, and they called the cops on ME! Turns out you can just squat in any abandoned house and you all of the sudden have a ton of rights to stay there. It cost me thousands of dollars to get them evicted some time later. They took out their anger on the house, and cut into the supporting beams before they left. The ceiling was sagging and the plumbing had some type of glue in it. I got three estimates for repair, all of which were over $100K!!. The crazy thing is that the house is barely worth $100k even if it was in great shape. I quit paying the mortgage because I couldn't afford to have it fixed. The same bank that sold it to me was carrying the note, and they foreclosed in a short time because I wasn't living thier. On top of all of this they are trying to sue me for damages.

In the end I am out almost $50,000, I am being sued, and I have nothing to show for it. You have to love America. Knowing the underhanded bank they will try to resell the property, hell the squatters probably work for the bank now that I think about it. 1410 S 56th Street Tacoma, WA I will not miss you one bit.