[bluedino]

Abandonded houses are often stripped of copper, etc and have squatters, vandals, problems from not being maintained or lived in...

[Eumenes]

Abandoned? You know people own two homes and live in them seasonally w/o them being vandalized? Source: have a summer cabin that's never been rack sacked by vandals.

[esafak]

ransacked. Dictionary says it's from Norse: rann (house) + soekja (seek).

[wlonkly]

As perfected by the (Norse) Vikings!

[BearOso]

These are usually gated areas where it's mostly huge model homes and they since few live there, outsiders would be be obvious.