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Updated about 11 hours ago on . Most recent reply

Trespassers caught but will they return and become squatters?
Today I encountered trespassers on the property I was showing to my clients. The story is that my client and I stopped at a house with a For Sale sign in the front yard. I called the selling agent to make sure it was okay to show and that there weren't any showing restrictions. The agent said "it was vacant and to "go and show". The first red flag I encountered was when I tried opening the front door, it was being blocked by some object and could only open about 6 inches. I put my phone on video record function to record behind the door so I could see what was blocking it. I saw a closet rod on the floor between the wall and door, so I reached in and pushed the object away. Once in, I announced loudly that "I'm a real estate agent coming in to show the property"! As I inspected ahead of my client, I noticed a frying pan on the stove with the remains of a recently cooked meal and some fresh ingredients on the counter and meat in the refrigerator. I opened the oven door and found it stuffed with a backpack and a bunch of clothes. As I checked the garage I found the garage door unlocked and in the back yard I could see missing fence boards and the opening leading to an alley. Putting all the clues together, it appears that a homeless person had taken advantage of a vacant house with all the utilities on.
My client wanted to go get her contractor and bring him back to the property. So I locked the house up tight including the garage door and we planned on coming back in an hour. Upon our return with the contractor who was giving estimates for repairs, we walked the house again and made our way to the garage door and opened it to find 2 obviously homeless individuals, with a shopping cart full of junk, trying to enter through the garage door, which I had locked an hour earlier. I asked "what are you doing here" he replied, " I'm doing work on the house" my reply was, you're trespassing and you need to leave the property. His reply was "no I'm working on the house" as he stood his ground and approached closer to me. I gave him a clear warning that he was trespassing and if he didn't leave I would call the police. I could also see right behind him a larger section of the fence had been knocked down even more so they could get the shopping cart in the backyard. With him arguing with me, approaching closer to me and my clients looking shocked, I decided it was best to call the police. I told my client to get back in the garage and we closed and locked the door.
In about 15 minutes the police arrived, proceeded with their investigation, and of course the 2 homeless individuals were long gone.
I always knew I would eventually encounter a situation like this and today it happened.
So what's your experience with trespassers, squatters or sketchy situations while showing property?
Most Popular Reply

@Brandon Campbell, great story!
I've had a few stories with trespassers and squatters, but I'll share this one.
Several years ago I was buying a foreclosed house through an auction website. After getting the property under contract, I went to the property a few times to develop my scope of work for the rehab. About a week before closing, I went to the property and it had clearly been broken into. I wasn't sure if anyone was in the house so I called the police to check the house and to document everything in a report. Since I didn't own the house yet and didn't know if there was any damage that might affect the sale that seemed like the best course of action.
Nobody was present and the police left. As I went through the house and investigated further, I found that someone had hauled IN a used gas boiler and had begun INSTALLING it to replace the old boiler that apparently didn't work. I also found that someone had popped the electric meter and removed the plastic plug so that they could steal electricity.
It would have been so much easier to just heat the house with electric heaters or install some electric baseboard than to install a gas boiler. I figure they were setting the house up to be a marijuana grow house and needed all the electricity for lights and ventilation.
Later on after speaking with some neighbors, I found out that one of them saw the guys who broke in and had called the police. Apparently the police had interacted with the guys as they were breaking in and hauling that boiler inside! The guys told the police "If we were breaking in, would we be hauling this gas boiled INTO the house?!?" The police bought the story and left them to continue breaking into the house!
After that, I had no further problems. I wanted a brand new boiler in that house, so I traded the used boiler the trespassers had left to the plumber towards some of the work. He wanted that boiler to install at a relatives house. So, I was able to seamlessly get some value for it. So, in the end I actually gained something of value from this minor ordeal!