5 Times I Was in Danger as a Real Estate Investor – part 2: 500 Tire Eviction

I have been in real estate for 20 years as a real estate agent, broker, and investor. Over those years I have had some crazy experiences as many people see on my YouTube channel. I have dealt with evictions, squatters, foreclosures, break-ins, meth labs, stolen vehicles, wanted murderers, and more. Luckily, I am still here to tell the stories (knock on wood) and hopefully, I will be around a lot longer to keep telling them! I don’t want to turn people off from real estate because this is not the norm for most people. I get myself in some situations because of the type of real estate I was involved in and the properties I buy.

This is part 2 of this series. You can find the first story here.

The 500 tire eviction at the complex

I bought a property called the complex a little over a year ago. This property had 7 units that consisted of a 5-unit apartment building that used to be a roadway motel and 2 houses. I paid $550k for the property, which was an amazing price but there was a reason it was so cheap. About half of the units were vacant and unlivable and the others were way under-rented and close to unlivable as well.

One of the houses was occupied by a tenant who never paid rent. We left notices and tried to get in touch but he never responded. This was in 2021 and he may have thought he didn’t have to pay rent thanks to covid. We filed for eviction and while we were waiting for the court to issue the eviction order, the gentleman was evicted from his tire shop as well. After being evicted from his tire show, he moved about 500 tires onto the property overnight. Imagine my surprise when I saw those at the property one day!

The tenant tried to talk his way out of an eviction

When the eviction was scheduled the tenant received a notice and all of a sudden was easy to get a hold of. He was calling us and stopping by the office. He said he would pay rent and wanted to stay. The kicker was he still never paid one dime of rent. He also never mentioned the tires that were stashed behind another part of the property.

We told him the only way to stay was to pay all the back owed rent and fees per the eviction notice. He never paid and the eviction day quickly arrived. At the eviction, I had my crew there to move all of his stuff out of the house and all of the tires. The tenant was there and he tried to delay or avoid the eviction again but we told him no and that his tires were being moved too. I don’t think he had realized his tires were getting evicted too.

He kept talking and said he could pay one month’s rent, not the four he owed (and who knows how many months he didn’t pay before I bought it). I told him no, the eviction was today and he had to be out. Another lady was there with him and was begging us to not move the tires because it was how they made money. I mentioned they had weeks to move them and had not moved any but actually moved in more. They still insisted if we gave them a week more of time, they would move all the tires out. I had heard this story before and we were all there with the sheriff so we went through with the eviction.

How would we get rid of the tires?

Our plan was to load up dumpsters with the tires and then take them to a dairy that would use them to hold down silage tarps. This was my project manager’s genius idea. I did not want to sell them to a tire shop or give them to anyone the tenant might find because I knew the tenant would go looking for his tires and cause problems. We would load up the dumpsters and then have the dumpster company drive them to the dairy.

The eviction time came closer and the tenant still made no effort to move any of the tires even though they were supposedly very valuable to him. Finally, it was time to start and we set up a line of people to roll tires from the back of the property to the dumpsters and filled up a couple of large dumpsters pretty fast. We waited for more dumpsters, loaded them, and left some of the tires sitting right by the dumpsters.

We also moved the few belongings he had in the house to the dumpsters as well. When he saw all the tires going into the dumpsters he was not happy but still made no effort to move the tires. We had to leave the items there for 24 hours per Colorado law before we could remove them. I assumed he would get a bunch of the tires that night but we came back the next day and we saw all the tires still there. Along with the tires was a guy standing around looking very menacing.

We had to wait for 24 hours from the eviction start time before the tires could be removed. The previous tenant and some guys finally showed up an hour before that time. They took their time loading up a ratchety trailer as high as they could and then they just sat there. The previous tenant also had another older lady with him, his wife. He had her moving tires too and was filming her moving tires to make us look bad. We never did see him move one tire.

How to invest in rental properties.

The police had to be called in again

Technically the tenant and his crew had to be off the property 24 hours after the eviction but that time came and went and they were not leaving. They stood there next to the truck and trailer and randomly yelled things at us. We were standing just off the property trying not to cause any problems but tensions were heating up. The dumpster trucks had not shown up yet to take the tires so there was not much we could do except wait.

Another hour or so passed and the dumpster trucks still were not there and the previous occupants were not leaving either. We called the police and gave them a heads up we may need them soon. The sheriff performed the eviction but the local police help with any other manners after the eviction. My crew was with me just in case there was an issue and we may have to move more tires if the previous tenant didn’t take the ones that didn’t fit in the dumpsters.

I noticed my crew started to get nervous. Some of my guys speak Spanish and I guess the previous tenant and his friends were saying all kinds of threatening things in Spanish to us. One guy from my crew said it was time to call the cops as they were saying more and more stuff. They accused me of stealing one of their cars and said they were calling more guys to come over.

I felt mostly safe because there were a lot of people around and we were not really close to the guys but they sure made me angry. They had all this time to move their tires, never did anything, and then got mad at us!

Another 30 minutes passed and they still had not left so I called the cops again and told them we needed them. They showed up in a few minutes and talked to the previous tenants for 15 minutes and had to threaten to arrest them before they agreed to leave. The cops were super pissed at them too and said they had many issues with these guys. Some of the cops or sheriff had said they were at the tire store eviction too (a different landlord) and that was a huge mess too.

They finally drove their crazy trailer off the property, which was missing a wheel and looked like the least safe thing I have ever seen on the road. A few of the guys stuck around the property but not on it since the police told them to leave. Eventually, the dumpster trucks came to take the tires away. The people who stuck around the property were waiting for those trucks so they could follow them. However, we had some people strategically slow drive behind the dumpsters and in front of the cars trying to follow and the previous occupants never found out where the tires went.

Was I in much danger?

I did not feel I was in immediate danger but my crew certainly did based on what they were saying and the cops said we should be careful with those guys as they knew them well. I was waiting for months for someone to show up at my office but no one ever did and luckily we never heard from them again. I did hear that the previous tenant was going to tire shops looking for his tires. I am glad we didn’t sell them to a shop and cause drama with them.