De Latorre said her in-laws, who bought the house with settlement money from a personal injury claim, have challenged the sale and have a court date set for Wednesday. But they’re not sure what will happen next.

“It’s been very confusing. There’s not a lot of help out there,” she said.

For investors who have already bought a problem property, that’s true, said Shane, the attorney.

“You’ve got to win the war before the first shot’s fired,” he said. “You got to know what you’re getting into.”

In Makedonsky’s case, he didn’t know enough about Florida’s landlord-tenant laws, which favor the occupant, said Shari Olefson, a real estate attorney and the author of Foreclosure Nation: Mortgaging the American Dream. Occupants can delay and delay because evicting someone from a home requires a sheriff — in this case the Miami-Dade police — and a court order.

“The burden is on the landlord to dot their I’s and cross their T’s, and a tenant who is savvy can take advantage of that,” she said.

Until the case is resolved, Makedonsky is splitting his time in South Florida between a friend’s El Portal house and a North Miami Beach home owned by Swacarioca, an investment company that buys foreclosed houses. He and his mother are listed among the owners of the company.

Meanwhile, his mother, JoAnn Makedonsky, is living in an Arizona retirement community. She said most of her belongings are packed up in boxes or have been sold off to make the move to Florida cheaper — whenever that happens.

“It’s ridiculous,” she said. “I never heard of such a thing, that you buy a house and then people don’t want to leave.”