have thought about the pre tax sale route, but it's not really an option for me, as I am not local to the area I invest in, and tracing owners can be hard - most tax sale properties have been abandoned for a while, for whatever reason.

Hi, so I have a home that I found vacant and abandoned.

There is a home in our neighborhood that has been abandoned for over 20 years.  

In California, the foreclosure process can happen very quickly (3 months) if the owners do not fight it, so it is very likely that the owners abandoned the house. 

I saw a big Victorian home, that is obviously abandoned, while driving the other day.

After aquiring property, looks as though one unit was trashed and abandoned.

We manage it long distance and just rehabbed it because the tenant abandoned.

When finished with a rehabbed property in a low income/distressed community, and before the house has been occupied, what ways are helpful to keep the property from being broken into, vandalized, looted, etc.I hear from time to time and have seen the abandon and vacant properties become destroyed this way, and I have also heard of being 90% done with a rehab, and it gets broken into again.

They even found one in a prime location which was abandoned by the owner at the dawn of World War II.

To mitigate in the future ask for a conditional waiver together with his invoice before you issue a check, and unconditional waiver together with your transmittal receipt with (guarantee that he paid all subs and suppliers) of the check.For him not to put a lien, call his contractor's bond company, let them know that the contractor abandoned the project and you would like to file a complaint and want to know their procedures.