Offer a month’s free rent to a motorcycle gang—they will remove the squatter—probably in bits and pieces.
I was nearly in this same situation while purchasing a house.
The seller had regained the property after a prior sale due to default on the part of the previous owner. Unknown to the seller, the previous owner had taken out a third mortgage that showed up during the title search.
Having to pay off that mortgage in order to deliver title to me would have wiped out the seller’s equity. The seller threatened to simply squat in the property.
Lucky me.
Our local junior college teaches a real estate course. I purchased the textbook and schooled myself over a single weekend, The facts may vary from one jurisdiction to another, but here is what I learned.
First, conveying “title” includes conveying the right of possession. If there is no tenant, then the new owner has right of possession. The signature of the seller is his agreement to give up possession.
Second, title legally passes when the seller has provided a signed deed to the buyer or his representative. This complicated things because this meant that I was already the owner of the property legally. I could not unilaterally declare myself not to be the owner. It was my property despite any legal entanglements.
Third, I had decided that the posters above were correct. I intended to get help from a friend who was a very nice guy and built like a professional wrestler. He would move me in and the owner out. If the owner called the sheriff I would show the deed with the seller’s signature.
Fortunately for all involved, the holder of the third mortgage agreed to settle for $1000. The property was “over-encumbered”, meaning that there was insufficient value to pay off the debts. I suspect that the third mortgage was fraudulently obtained to provide a down payment so there were people somewhere who didn’t want this looked into.
I ended up directing my agent, prior to recording the deed, to take possession of the property, verify that nothing remained that belonged to the seller, and change all the locks.
All of the above just to own a vacation home.
Creative. Even just one "hired tenant" can take out a lot of trash. :)