Johann Frank / Getty Images
The house seemed like such a deal.
Daniel Cabrera, a house flipper for 15 years around San Antonio, TX, was excited to buy the five-bedroom, 2.5-bath property on Dahlia Terrace for $175,000. The woman living there was facing foreclosure and agreed to sell him the home.
At closing, he paid the woman her share of the sale money, which amounted to about $12,000. He also gave her a week to move out and hand over the keys.
At that point, the previous owner stopped replying to his texts and calls. When he drove by the house, he saw that it was still very much inhabited—and there was even a goat tied to the front porch.
“When I saw the goat, I’m like, ‘Oh, s–t,’” he says. “Keep in mind, this isn’t some oil town. It’s not the backwoods. We’re in San Antonio!”
Cabrera tried to approach the door, but the goat was not having it.
“It kept coming for me,” he says. “I’m like, ‘I better not get any closer.’ This is crazy. It was a very unique situation.”
Now that his name was on the property’s deed, the previous owner “was a squatter,” he says. “A squatter with a goat.”
The five-bedroom San Antonio, TX, home had a goat tied to the front door.
Daniel Cabrera
Daniel Cabrera knew he had to evict a woman and her goat.
Daniel Cabrera
Why squatters are so hard to get out
Squatting has become shockingly common in the U.S., with stories of people refusing to vacate properties they neither own nor rent. These trespassers are notoriously difficult to remove due to tenants’ rights laws and in certain states, squatters’ rights.
In New York, for example, any individual who’s lived in a property for 30 days cannot be evicted—even if they had no right to be there in the first place.
In one recent case, Adele Andaloro was even arrested after changing the locks to her childhood house, where she found squatters. (The squatters got to remain in the house.)
On Monday, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation aimed at making it easier for police to intervene if someone lives in a home without legal permission or documentation. The law states that “a tenant should not include a squatter.”
Cabrera, whose company, Sell My House Fast SA TX, has flipped about 200 homes, had never faced a situation like this before.
When the owner of the goat initially contacted him on the Fourth of July weekend, she was facing foreclosure within days. He thought the house would make a great investment, and he wanted to help her.
“She was in a bind,” he says. “And I’m a problem solver.”
He reached out to about 300 law firms to acquire a temporary order to stop the foreclosure. The only lawyer willing to work on a holiday weekend charged him $5,000 instead of the usual $1,200.
“I put so much time, energy, and money into the house,” says Cabrera. “And now she won’t leave and I’m stuck with her and her goat. And it wasn’t a little goat, either. It was a solid-sized goat.”
When a home’s inhabitant refuses to leave
In Texas, a squatter may be able to remain in a property if they’ve lived there and paid taxes for five years. In Cabrera’s case, an attorney who specialized in evictions explained that this woman would be considered a “tenant at sufferance” and had certain rights.
Whether Cabrera’s seller was technically a “squatter” also depends on whom you ask.
“We think of squatters as random individuals who simply move in and take over someone else’s property,” says Texas real estate attorney Keaton Frieberg, who works with Cabrera. “But it is possible to view the previous owner in the goat example as a squatter. In a Texas court opinion, it was mentioned that the ‘defendant’ neither owned nor rented the home but, in simpler terms, was a ‘squatter.’ In Texas, the term is used loosely.”
Regardless, it was abundantly clear to Cabrera and his attorney that the former homeowner had no right to be in the house. Nonetheless, forcing her and her goat out into the street wasn’t an option.
Cabrera’s lawyer posted a three-day eviction notice on the home’s door. (Thankfully, the goat was no longer standing guard.) Yet, the woman stayed.
The next step was for the eviction request to work its way through the court system. After two months, Cabrera’s lawyer attended the hearing for the verdict. Since the former homeowner did not show up, the judge ruled in Cabrera’s favor.
It took about three more weeks (and an additional $500) to get law enforcement to accompany Cabrera to the house.
On Nov. 29—nearly five months after closing on the house—Cabrera returned to the residence with two police officers. The woman wouldn’t open the door, which Cabrera expected. He had brought along a locksmith to open the door. Then he learned the goat was now living in the house.
“The goat butted one of the officers,” says Cabrera. “He said, ‘The goat got me good.’ The officers were like, ‘This is nuts in here.’”
The previous owner was living here with several animals, including a goat.
Daniel Cabrera
The home was also overrun with cats and dogs. Yet the woman was surprisingly friendly.
“Once the door was open, she immediately came over to us, saying what a nice guy I am and how much I’d helped her,” Cabrera recalls. “I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me?’”
Cabrera also had a moving crew with him—and they immediately started removing the woman’s possessions and placing them in the driveway. That’s when they realized the woman was a hoarder.
“It was a lot of trash,” says Cabrera, who also called animal control to retrieve the goat.
The woman refused to leave her house even after being paid.
Daniel Cabrera
“I assumed they were going to take the goat, but they didn’t,” Cabrera says. “I don’t think it’s every day they have to deal with a goat. They had no idea what to do.”
Meanwhile, to get the woman to leave, the police had to threaten to arrest her. She left, but only so far as the driveway, where she sat down on a mattress with a few of her cats.
Cabrera knew the woman had a boyfriend as well as children, but none of them took her with them. The woman’s son did show up for the goat.
The next morning, Cabrera returned to the house to begin renovations. He was stunned to see the woman was still on her mattress in the driveway.
“I feel terrible about anyone sleeping outside all night,” he admits. But by the next day, she was gone.
“I feel for her,” Cabrera admits, surmising that she had mental health issues. He also knows from experience that many homeowners facing foreclosure can become irrationally attached to their homes, holding onto them even when it is in their best interest to sell.
“You have people who are thinking, ‘I’ve lived in this home for 20 years, I raised my kids in this house. This is the first property my husband and I bought,’” says Cabrera. “There’s an emotional connection. Unfortunately, some people can’t accept they’re getting foreclosed on until the sheriff literally comes to the door and kicks you out of the house.”
Homeowners in tough situations like this are much better off selling, he says, noting that this woman “called me at the last possible minute, on a holiday weekend. She would have been foreclosed on in three days. I doubt any of the other local homebuying companies could have helped her. With me, she was given months to find another situation, and she walked away with some money versus walking away with nothing.”
Additionally, she now has no debt and no foreclosure on her credit report.
Evictions involving animals
Frieberg, a partner with Texas Suits who has done “hundreds” of evictions, advises investors to never pay the homeowner until the person has moved out, which can prevent situations like the one Cabrera faced.
If a squatter still refuses to vacate, Frieberg says it can be less expensive to do a “cash for keys” transaction. This is where the investor pays the squatter to leave rather than going through the court system.
“You can give the person money to leave or pick up their moving costs,” Frieberg says. “Investors don’t like to hear that, especially if they’ve already paid for the house, but it can be a lot less expensive and time-consuming than going to court.”
At least a quarter of Frieberg’s evictions involve animals.
“If I know there’s going to be animals at the residence, I call the local shelters,” he says. “Unfortunately, lots of times the shelters are so full, and they’ve got nowhere for these animals. So then I’ll put the animals on Facebook.”
Recently, he says, someone who was evicted left behind eight puppies. Frieberg posted them on Facebook and found them all homes.
If an animal seems dangerous, such as a vicious dog—or in this case, a goat—Frieberg recommends leaving the situation to animal control. However, he only calls the agency as a last resort because, he says, “I don’t know what happens to them.” (City animal control will often euthanize animals because the centers are so full.)
The cost to clear an illegally inhabited house
All told, Cabrera spent $7,500 on legal bills to remove this home’s former owner. He spent an additional $50,000 and two months cleaning up and rehabbing the house.
He quickly sold the house for $295,000, earning a $40,000 profit.
Cabrera transformed this home on Dahlia Terrace.
Realtor.com
The new goat-free front door
Realtor.com
The kitchen is new.
Realtor.com
“I should have made more, considering everything I had to go through,” says Cabrera. “But it was a solid investment. Earlier in my career, I may have lost money on this. But by now, I’m good at figuring out if a house will be profitable or not.”
Despite the drama with the house, he earned a solid $40,000 profit.
Realtor.com
The bathroom is transformed.
Realtor.com
Cabrera says this flip taught him a valuable lesson to never let his emotions sway his judgment. In this case, he’d felt sorry for the woman, which allowed her to take advantage of him.
“When you’re going to a closing, make sure you’re getting possession of the home. Don’t give the owners an allotted time to move out,” he says. “If they have to move out to collect their money, there’s far more incentive for them to leave.”
He tells this goat story as a warning to anyone looking to buy a property inhabited by someone in dire straights, whether due to foreclosure, the inability to pay rent, or other issues.
“A regular homeowner wouldn’t have known what to do. This is the difference between a regular homeowner and an investor,” he says. “I’m more accustomed to difficult scenarios—and this one threw even me.”
The post ‘A Squatter and Her Goat Refused To Leave My San Antonio Home—This Is How I Got Rid of Them’ appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.
