Can you turn off utilities?

No. You don't give him the cash until he leaves. You meet at the house with a locksmith and a large friend, inspect the house, get him to sign a release agreement, and then hand over the cash.

i was thinking the same thing, shut off power and water asap

That is probably illegal.

Not if you can’t pay because you didn’t get the rent that is supposed to pay it.

Florida Statute 83.67 says a landlord cannot directly or indirectly cut off any utility service, including water, heat, light, electricity, gas, elevator operations, garbage collection, or refrigeration — not even if the landlord is paying for the service.

Ah, I thought so.

In the ‘good old days’ my dad would physically throw a very unreasonable person out and all their belongings on the lawn and tell them to go sue him.

I miss the "good old days".

Does the tenant leave to go shopping? ie, can someone watch the house and then when the tenant leaves, the locks can be changed?

sucks and the biggest risk to the landlord, always

That sounds good to me, but it would an illegal eviction under Florida law. The landlord could be sued by the tenant and it wouldn't turn out well.

Landlord and a few of his best friends move in?

Agree. I would not have the law on my side. The tenant would then burn down the house probably, who knows! :(

That is actually not far off from my new plan!

Well, I wouldn't count on the Sumter County cops for help. They refused to even help me evict a burglar.

Yesterday, I drove straight to my new turn-key rental property, from the closing that deeded everything but the toilet paper to me. I discovered the prior owners in my new living room, helping themselves to my new TV. They had already stolen a chair and various wall decorations, including an expensive wall-mounted grandfather clock, all of which I'd discovered and documented during the walk-through that morning. The closers were no help in recovering my stolen property, and it would have cost $10K to cancel the deal. So after signing, I raced to Lowes and then to the property, to change the locks as quickly as possible. The sellers beat me there.

I called 911, and after numerous attempts to get through, the moment I mentioned that I'd just bought the house, they refused to get involved and told me to "contact my closer".

After a lot of shouting (and insults to my Southern heritage), the burglars finally left without my TV, claiming they had only invaded my property to get the cable box. How that makes it OK, I guess you'll have to ask a non-hillbilly. In any case, the only thing they left with was some piece of furniture in their trunk that I hadn't seen until they they were driving away. Whatever it was, it wasn't in my pictures from the prior inspection a couple of weeks earlier, but there was a flattened place in the bedroom carpet.

They could have had all of it, if they'd just asked, instead of stealing it. I didn't buy the house for the furniture.

But the most alarming thing I learned is that our cops apparently refuse to get involved in burglaries where they might be called upon to break up a fight. That doesn't bode well for your problem of evicting a squatter.

I guess this is a moment for a gun and the home is my castle defense.
The Castle Doctrine in Florida | The Firearm Firm

defenseless guy