First Time Buying Property

I can't speak to the specifics of water rights/NM property, since I've never lived there.

However, I will suggest that you contact and have a buyers agent represent you. By law, the realtor has to do their best to help the seller, and they are out to get the best price for the seller. Good realtors will try to balance this, but it is an inherent conflict of interest to have a realtor, whose job it is to try to sell a house for the best price, also try to help you buy a house.... A buyer's agent is a licensed realtor that only represents buys and does not ever list houses for sale. A good buyer's agent in NM should be able to assist you with your questions and concerns and help you find you need to make a decision, and they will only represent you the buyer. We used a buyer's agent for buying our home, and were very happy we did.

Best of luck with your decision.

The first thing you need to do is call the Division of Water Resources (a state agency within DNR) in the area that you are buying. That is the agency that will KNOW who owns the water rights for that property and/or if there are any. Water rights are separate than the property, and the Realtors SHOULD know, and at least know how to find out, but they frequently don't. Their interest is in selling the property. The DWR in that area will be able to answer your questions about what the state laws say and what is currently going on for that property. They also can't give legal advice, but you should at least be able to determine if you need it by talking to them.

It sounds like you're not in San Juan County, but I know there, we owned the land, but not the water rights, but we were allowed to use the water if it was turned on. We never planted a or garden, so never tried the spigot. When we sold, we had to disclose that. You definitely want to know. Chances are that the water rights are not included, which means at anytime, you could be cut off from use of the water. Do you have your own realtor? I know several great ones in Farmington area, and could also get some references from friends who deal in property quite a bit. In fact, I think she may have gotten her license for similar reasons. She has dealt with gas and water rights a lot! I'd love to put you in contact if she'd be of help. She's also in San Juan County, if that's of help to you. GL! We never fought the fight as we weren't charged enough for the house to feel the need to know, and sold in a down market, so it really wasn't a selling point at that time. Hope you get some answers! Just a thought, have you tried getting their purchasing papers to see what they were sold? If they weren't sold water rights, they can't sell them to you. You would need to find out who owns the water rights. We did that by going back through previous owners, which we were able to find pretty easily. I never did get an answer in all my work regarding our rights to the gas that ran under our property. We were supposed to be getting royalties for that, but I could never make it happen. FYI, it was only about $25 a year, so not worth a lot of work. GL!

If this is a house you really like and want, then see if you can find an attorney through legal aid, or maybe find someone in SCORE who can help you.......but you should get an attorney.........it's better in this case to be safe.........I agree, the Realtor should be able to help some, but they are not an attorney and can't tell you exactly what might happen.

If you find a real estate attorney, you might find one that gives free consultation.......that might be all you need.....

Good Luck and take care.

The realtor is not allowed, by law, to give you legal advice. The realtor may have an opinion on it, but realtors are not allowed to tell you their opinion. They could lose their license for doing so.

In our area, there are water rights issues, and all I can tell you is that you need to go talk to a lawyer about this. If you buy this property that may or may not have water rights, you could be out a lot more than a few hundred dollars if the water source dries up or is diverted. There are ranch owners around here that didn't take the step of talking to a lawyer before purchasing their properties. Things were fine for years, but now that we've been in a drought for several years, suddenly their water district has cut them off and their fields are all sitting empty. It's like a giant dust bowl; their farms are being foreclosed on, whole towns are unemployed... now, this may just be your home, but still it would be the same - are you willing to take the chance that you'll have to get a big water tank and have all your water delivered via a truck if your water supply is cut off? Water rights are not glamorous or exciting, but it is definitely worth the investment to speak with a knowledgeable property law attorney prior to purchasing this property. Just my two cents!

In CO mineral and water rights are separate from land rights. Water/mineral rights are deeded just like property rights. Meaning you can own the land, but Conoco can own the oil underneath you and Farmer Joe can own your water. A title company should have the information on what is deeded for the plot/land. But, yes, I think your realtor should be able to get all this info for you. If they aren't savvy in water rights issues (huge out here in the west!!!) then find someone who is. They should be able to explain how water rights in NM work, how they get deeded, etc.