Suppose you are lost in the Mohave desert and dying of thirst.

They look like they are in deserts usually.

Lastly what you will see is that civilization has come out to these places when you drive by and see some desert rat in his or her Mobile home stuck in the middle of no where that 95% of the time is on one of these old platted lots.. some areas Like some of the Lake co California areas town actually grew to them sewer and water and paved streets put in and houses builtBut for instance above Lucerne there are 7 thousand platted lots and I think 3 homes.. lots are 5 to 7k sq feet.. it was uncanny how they surveyed and platted them way back when .. this terrain is quite step but the road follow correct grades although some lots even with today techniques would be near impossible to build on.. 

I have had clients purchase in 29palms, riverside, palm desert, Bakersfield.

Not sure if the rental property is in the same location as your location tag but if it is the high desert more or less rides or dies with the overall RE market, you have a lot of owner occupants out there now because they can afford to buy reasonably nice homes out that way but not on the other side of the mountain. 

I’m guessing this Property is in one of our adjacent desert areas?

DESERT RAT BABY!!!!

There is a group that gets together about once a month at Majerle's in Desert Ridgehttps://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/542036-real-estate-investing-networking-event-phoenix Travis Shelton was very helpful (this is the link from the last event) 

Specifically, he took his girlfriend's car and tried to dump it in the desert to collect on the insurance.

As a matter of fact, the house has been deserted for at least 4 years.So I looked into the history of the sale records.