Help- Bought a foreclosure property & previous owner won't leave.

[Seth Bryan]

In June I purchased my first investment property through Auction.com (yay!) never knowing how truly difficult it would be to evict the previous owner (boo!). I have a lawyer friend (that doesn't specialize in real estate) who has started the eviction process by writing up a complaint in ejectment (which took 3 weeks to be served because he avoided the sheriff from serving him) but the guy has hired an attorney and is fighting this to buy more time. The craziest thing is that the guy no longer lives there and sublets the house to other people. So to me I don't think I need to follow through with the whole process which could take 6-9 months because the guy no longer lives there and just deal with kicking these people out of the house through the police cause they came after this whole thing started. Are there any Pennsylvania real estate attorneys out there that could help with this matter? I know I can't change the locks but can I ADD locks? Someone mentioned that since he has abandoned the property that I don't need to evict him. I am also worried these people staying in the house will wreck it before they leave and that will just add to this already terrible situation. Any help or encouragement would be greatly appreciated!

Seth Bryan, 267*450*4832