Financing/Sales options on a home w/ a squatter

[Jeff Deville]

I’ve found myself in a bit of a jam. It’s a bit of an interesting story has to how I wound up here, but where I am now is this:

I just took possession of a property via deed in lieu of foreclosure, but it has a squatter in it. Because of the squatter, I haven’t been able to actually see this property (which is out of state), and haven’t gotten it appraised. I have no idea how long the eviction process will take, but NY seems to move slowly w/ everything else, so I’m expecting something like 60 days. The problem is that this has been a long process, and the money I borrowed to finance this acquisition is about to come due (my original intent was for this to be a month-long bridge loan).

Goals

I never intended to take possession of this property. I'm open to making it my first rental if that makes sense, but my preference would be to just part with it and get my money back. If it would be a rental, I would require even more additional cash for whatever repairs are required.

Questions

1. 1. What are my options, from a financing perspective? If it's relevant, I picked this thing up with cash that I borrowed off of a credit card (it was only supposed to be a month long loan, and I had 0% interest for a year, so I thought I was relatively safe). I own the title w/no encumbrances, so I assume I could borrow against that equity, but I can't get an appraisal done til the eviction is completed. Conventional mortgage? HML?, Peer-to-peer lending?
2. 2. What can I do right now to either refi this place into a rental, or sell it? I’m pushing my lawyer to be as expeditious as possible w/ the eviction, but is there anything else I can do now? Seems like wholesalers are supposed to be always building their buyers list, and I suppose that’s kind of what I’m doing, but is it worth it to put ads somewhere for a property no one can get in to see? Any suggestion on how to build these lists in a particular geography? (Buffalo, in this case)

Thanks all!

[Steve Vaughan]

Hard to evict if the squatters name is unknown. When the sherrif comes it can be someone else in there and have to start all over with squatter #2.

I would use the carrot and stick approach. I'd waive a carrot of 10 $20s outside the window. Work it out and secure the place.  If that doesn't work I'd call in my friend Big Tony and a stick to reason with him. Gotta be some big Tony's in NY. Seriously! Get the bum out of your house!