It's a nice house with a lot of brown grass and 3 shrubs in front. It might not look so odd, if you had something ekse in your yard or a more natural shape to the middle one. I'd plant a tree in the yard. I could give you good advice if you were in NNE, iinstead of pretty much the opposite. That said, I think I've admired some CA native manzanitas, which I think might be drought tolerant.

I like the ides of a tree or focal point in the middle, thanks. We love manzanita trees, too, they grow naturally around our home. I might actually look into transplanting one or something, we have several on our property.

NEVER count on renters to do yard work, even if it is in the lease!

You will probably want to do gravel or stones with some drought tolerant plantings/succulents with drip irrigation and very little maintenance.....unless you are prepared to do it!

We had some neighbors who were an exception. They did all of the labor, only asked the landlord to pay for the sod, created a lovely yard (which can be difficult in wind whipped horse country) and maintained it for 8 years.

When they moved, they sold us all of their potted plants, but still left a lovely yard.

6 months later it was a big trashy overgrown yard and is still, now 5 years later!

Being a rental I would plant some nice aloe and jade plant in the two tiny beds left and right of the front door and call it a day. If that is a drought tolerant lawn, let it be green when it rains or however much the person who pays the water bill and for mowing is willing. Otherwise - it's a rental. What is protocol?

Another vote here for keeping it simple: cover the yard with gravel, plant succulents in the beds adjacent to the house.

Don't count on renters to do yardwork, mowing, watering, etc. And you may lose potential renters because they will balk at the idea of doing yardwork themselves, especially in the summer when it's hot.

When the plants are young, you may have to stop by (or have someone stop by) and water them until they get established and can survive on available rainfall.