Emily, you have way to check if you still have some hope to get your belongings back or not. Landmarks in the inventory keep SIM name only for informational purpose, but for real search they keep real name of the server where your SIM is holding. If you point to LM for your home in inventory and click "Map", upcoming map will try to locate server by its name. If map will show you "Invalid location" or place without any SIM, you still have some hope to get it back online for a while, but if it will point at the SIM with different name then was your's, it will mean a new setup, and that old SIM and it's inventory has gone for ever.
Peggy, all these people has rented their homes from a person they knew well, and only his fault was his inexperience with the ways of 3rd world's wild business, that lead him to his property been stolen by well known inworld company. A gold rule for every world- never trust ANY big business, behind every big money is a lot of blood.