And in Arizona a lot of it is desert lots in subdivisions never built or just large tracts of land with little access.

I think your CL idea is on the correct tract but I get more of my responses from Zillow rental manager (hot pads, Zillow, Trulia, etc) than I get from Craigslist.  

. :)Home Possible has income limits by census tract, but that's based on data from the 2010 census when many areas were "underserved" by the mortgage industry (Great Recession and all)... local to me, that represents about 90% of Oakland, half of Alameda, swaths of San Francisco and Silicon Valley. 

Some (hopefully) helpful ideas:Familiarize yourself deeply with your community-Get to know your neighborhoods, styles of homes, housing tracts, and the people that live there.

A 120 acre timbered tract I called on was listed for $420k and I talked to the agent. 

my old partner in the timber business tried this.. many times when he / we bought a timber tract and that fact that it takes time to log and then put in the roads and pad and sometimes well.. and in ORegon get a building permit which can take 6 months to a year in rural acreage..if it went over a year he tried to cap gain it.. but alas that did not fly  as his/our model was to buy and flip.. you don't hold timber land for 12 to 18 months then sell.. there is no income.. you hold timber land for 40 to 60 years then harvest again.. pretty easy to see he / we were flipping dirt..

TWO  it will get read  who would not read a letter form a Law firmin this scenario were you have commercial type property you don't need the I buy houses fake out letter .. to the point business like shows your serious and capable.I had a 40 acre tract in Oregon that I had just logged.. and I got a letter like this from what turned out to be someone who wanted to go through the very rigorous land use process to get a building permit for one home and the offer was substantial and no BS.. that stuck with me all these years and I have used it many times when buying investment grade deals.

And of course speculating on land in the path of progress is not a  cash flow play but can have some very big upside.. so one could round out their portfolio buy buying a few of each asset class.One of my best investments ever was a 4 acre tract in Wine country Sonoma county city of Rohnert park.. it was on the edge of the city limits.. but it was cheap I paid under 30k for it in 1994 paid cash... and just paid the 300 a year in tax's all these years. 

Images of Mid Century ModernDefinition of Mid Century Modern Many of the tract houses with low slung roofs, exposed wood ceilings, brick, etc. built in the 50-60's were Mid Century Modern. 

A friend of mine through letters met an investor, no make that a new friend, who ended up financing many of his deals (we're talking tracts, subdivisions) and mentoring him for years.