3 Years Empty

[Marlene May]

We're looking at a house in St Louis that we're told by a neighbor has been empty for about 3 years. According to zillow, it has been listed for sale off and on since 2008, and is now bank owned. The bank listed it a few days ago at 140K
There is a big above ground pool that is covered. Don't know if there's water in it or not.

Another, and nicer, house a few blocks away in same subdivision, same size, slightly smaller lot, is listed now at about a thousand less. DOM for it is almost 5 months, and they have lowered the price by 20K since first listed.
A smaller nearby house sold for 166K in July, (not a fixer) and one same sized for 140K AS-IS last month, after 100 DOM, down from initial list price of 157K.

The house is a fixer upper. We would be living in it at the same time, with expectations to sell in a couple of years. I've heard that vacant houses deteriorate faster than those that are occupied. It does need work that we can see, but what other --maybe hidden--things should we be looking for?

Thanks,
Marlene