Hi friends,
September has been a month of slowing down, reflecting, and figuring out what comes next.
After a summer that gave me more time to travel, spend time alone, disconnect, and let my team take the lead, I’ve come out of it with a clearer sense of what I want more of: creativity, travel, meaningful time with people I love, and complicated work that keeps my brain engaged.
There’s also been a lot happening behind the scenes, from new projects and real estate problem-solving to finally creating a space to share some of the stories and lessons that have come from more than 20 years in this industry.
Here’s what I’ve been working on and thinking about this month.
Listings & Investment Updates
Featured Listing
141 Old Woman Springs Road, Yucca Valley
$65,000 | 1.11 Acres | Commercially Zoned
A rare commercial opportunity in Flamingo Heights, just north of Yucca Valley. This 1.11-acre vacant parcel sits along the Highway 247 / Old Woman Springs Road corridor and is zoned HV/SD-COM, offering potential for a future commercial use in one of the Morongo Basin’s growing desert communities.
With highway frontage, mountain and desert views, and established destinations nearby including La Copine and Giant Rock Meeting Room, this property offers an opportunity for an investor, developer, or business owner looking to establish a presence in the area.
4444 29 Palms Hwy, Joshua Tree, CA
Now Offered at $125,000
2.5-acre parcel in Panorama Heights with iconic boulder views. Includes working well, completed perc test, and full geodesic dome home plans (2-story, 2BD/2BA, 1,592 sq ft + 364 sq ft garage). Cash-only sale.
Highlights:
- Iconic desert scenery & boulder views
- Full set of architectural, MEP, structural, grading & septic plans
- Prime opportunity for STR, custom build, or long-term hold
- Minutes from Joshua Tree National Park & downtown amenities
1564 Luna Mesa Rd, Yucca Valley, CA
Offered at $498,000
Beautifully renovated 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom property on Yucca Mesa with sweeping 360-degree mountain views stretching from the Joshua Tree National Park ridgeline to snowcapped San Jacinto.
Currently operating as an active short-term rental generating approximately $77K gross income in 2025 (buyer to independently verify).
Designed with a clean modern desert aesthetic, the home features oversized black metal windows and doors, polished concrete floors, a fully renovated chef’s kitchen, updated bathrooms, and natural light pouring through every space while framing the surrounding desert landscape.
Outdoor amenities include:
• Fully decked above-ground pool
• Jacuzzi
• Outdoor BBQ kitchen area
• Shaded gazebo
• Multiple concrete patio + lounge areas
• Mature landscaping + numerous Joshua trees
• Fully fenced property for added privacy
Positioned approximately 15 minutes from Downtown Joshua Tree, Yucca Valley, and Pioneertown, this property offers strong rental appeal while still feeling deeply private and connected to the landscape.
Ideal as a short-term rental investment, second home, or personal desert retreat.
0 East Dr, Morongo Valley, CA
Offered at $849,000
Rare land development opportunity positioned within one of the High Desert’s most scenic and protected corridors.
Set across 27.5 acres in Morongo Valley, the property is surrounded by the preserved landscapes of the Sand to Snow National Monument with expansive views stretching toward the San Jacinto Mountains from multiple areas throughout the site.
Just across Highway 62, the Big Morongo Canyon Preserve contributes to the area’s open-space character, protected wildlife habitat, and quiet desert setting.
What makes this opportunity especially significant is the amount of pre-development and due diligence work already completed by current ownership, including:
• Surveying + mapping
• Preliminary engineering
• Utility research
• Environmental + biological review work
• Fire hydrant flow testing
• Tentative Tract Map preparation + submission materials
The property is currently involved in ongoing county and CEQA-related review processes, offering potential buyers the opportunity to step into a project already moving through early-stage planning and evaluation.
Located approximately:
• 20 minutes from Palm Springs International Airport
• 20 minutes from Joshua Tree National Park
This is a rare combination of accessibility, scale, larger acreage surroundings, and protected desert character.
Ideal for investors, developers, or long-term land visionaries looking to explore opportunities within one of the High Desert’s most naturally significant landscape
63251 Chickasaw Rd | Rice Ave & Chickasaw Rd
Prime Joshua Tree land featuring iconic boulder formations, elevated terrain, and panoramic desert views with flexible parcel options ideal for investors and developers.
This highly desirable pocket of Joshua Tree includes four parcels on both sides of Chickasaw Rd, offering multiple development or long-term investment strategies.
Unmatched Views Include:
• Joshua Tree National Park
• Little San Bernardino Mountains
• Seasonal snow-capped Mount San Gorgonio
• Expansive high-desert valleys
• Golden sunsets, city lights & world-class night skies
Purchase Options:
• APN 0604-051-40 | 5 Acres | $300,000
• APNs 0604-051-60 / 051-58 / 051-57 | ~6.5 Acres | $249,000
đź’ˇ Why investors love this:
The southern parcels deliver that true boulder-forward Joshua Tree aesthetic, ideal for a high-design custom build or retreat, while the northern parcel allows for separation, flexibility, or phased development.
Perfect for a custom desert home, STR strategy, or long-term land hold in one of Joshua Tree’s most sought-after settings.
3786 Alta Avenue, Yucca Valley
$175,000 | Yucca Mesa Development Opportunity
A rare opportunity in Yucca Mesa with significant pre-development work already completed.
Formerly a single 5-acre parcel, this property has been through the subdivision process and is now a recorded 4-parcel subdivision, creating four legal parcels ranging from approximately 1.1 to 1.43 acres.
Located in one of Yucca Valley’s desirable high desert areas, this offering provides investors and developers a unique opportunity with a major head start compared to purchasing raw land.
Completed groundwork includes:
• Recorded 4-parcel subdivision
• Parcel mapping and boundary surveying
• Topographic surveying
• Fire flow analysis
• Joshua Tree survey and report
• Percolation testing and septic investigations
• Staking and additional planning efforts
A residential development concept has also been prepared, providing a strong foundation for future development possibilities.
With approximately 5 acres, available utilities, and completed due diligence, this property offers flexibility for investors, builders, or anyone looking for a strategic land opportunity in the High Desert.
Get Interviewed | Heather Roma Wicks
Some people become the thing you somehow always knew they were going to be.
For this edition of Get Interviewed, I’m sharing the story behind Heather Roma Wicks, @wadingwhitehorsewoman, and the world she has built through Sacred Woman Collective Hi Desert, Lupasamama, Beer Burros & Brands, and Morongo Valley Ranch.
Heather and I met more than a decade ago as two entrepreneurs in West LA. Back then, we were throwing wellness events on a huge Malibu property filled with animals, a yurt, a teepee, and all the things.
Heather always seemed most at home with the animals, the land, and the ranch life.
Fast forward a decade and we somehow both ended up in the Morongo Basin. Heather now has a 10-acre ranch in Morongo Valley with kids, rescue burros, women’s circles, retreats, wellness, multiple businesses, and an entire community growing around her.
And honestly, it makes so much sense.
The woman at the center of it all is the same one I’ve known all along.
A Summer Well Spent
This summer looked a little different.
I spent more time by myself, traveled, danced it out in places with no cell service, soaked, floated, got massages, ate really good food, and disappeared from social media a little more than usual without feeling like I needed to document everything while I was living it.
Every summer in the desert, I try to slow way down. It’s hot, everything moves slower, and this year, in a lot of ways, I did too.
And eventually, I kind of got bored.
Not bored with summer. Bored with the pause.
I started thinking about what I was doing before this and, more importantly, where I wanted to go next.
Turns out, the answer is more creativity, more travel, more dancing, more really good food and places, more time with people I love, and more complicated work that makes my brain light up.
I also watched my team execute while I traveled and worked from beaches, lakes, hotels, and Airbnbs.
Sometimes slowing down gives you enough space to figure out what you actually want to move toward.
The Curated Real Estate Fixer
After more than 20 years in design, construction, development, real estate, permitting, and project management, I’ve accumulated some stories.
And apparently, some methods for surviving them.
The polished version of this work is the finished house, the closing, the approval, or the project finally moving forward.
The version I’m more interested in is what actually happened, how we fixed it, what I learned, and where I went for sushi afterward.
So I finally made a place for that.
The Curated Real Estate Fixer is now on Substack.
It’s part field notes from the projects, part lessons from years of fixing complicated real estate problems and managing the humans attached to them, and part everything I curate around a life spent doing this work.
Including The Put It in a Box Method, because sometimes the construction problem is not actually the construction problem.
And yes, the stories will be scrambled enough to protect the guilty.
Welcome to a real estate cinematic universe.
Real Estate Fixes | Episode 01
The Code Enforcement Lien That Almost Stopped a Closing
This is exactly why I always say the cheapest time to deal with a real estate problem is before it becomes one.
But real estate is real estate, and sometimes you don’t find the problem until you’re already in it.
Then the fix becomes less about finding the cheapest option and more about figuring out the best path forward with the time, money, and options you actually have.
This is Episode 1 of Real Estate Fixes: real properties, real problems, and the sometimes very unexpected ways we’ve gotten them fixed.
And trust me, I have stories.
More episodes are in the queue.
If you own, invest, build, or work in real estate, save this series because we’re getting into permits, STRs, code enforcement, construction, land, development, and transactions.
Looking Ahead to November
November will be another opportunity to keep sharing the work, stories, lessons, and ideas coming out of the High Desert.
I’ll continue exploring real estate problems and solutions through The Curated Real Estate Fixer, sharing more from the projects and experiences behind the finished work, and continuing to highlight the people and communities that make this place what it is.
There’s plenty more to unpack, and I’m looking forward to bringing you along for it.
Thank you for being here, following the work, reading the stories, and being part of this community.
Until next month,
Jessica
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xx
Jessica Cure
Planning Commissioner | Real Estate Consultant | STR Strategist
www.curedesigns.com | @cure.realestate
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