-After a while of gameplay, you start to figure out which house/building/structure to go to or not go to because you know which ones have loot and which ones doesn't. It's not truly random across houses (even if you were to travel to a different city).
-Loot on top of racks or closets aren't touchable. You can't grab them, you can't look up their info, and it won't show up in the inventory (when you press tab).