The New Mexico Purchase Agreement

I now have a license to sell real estate in New Mexico. Some of the procedures in the Land of Enchantment were surprising to me. 

In Arizona, the purchase price of a property is public record. You may not be able to find out who owns a property if the deed is recorded in the name of a trust or LLC, but you can look up the sale price history. This seems important, so real estate professionals and the public know whether a seller has priced his house appropriately, based on recent sales of nearby houses. 

In New Mexico, sale price information is not available to the public. That's one of the reasons I want to get a real estate license. I want to buy a house in Silver City, and I want access to the sale data, which is available to real estate professionals. 

Typically property taxes go up, not down. In Arizona, the tax can go down if an owner-occupant buys a house that was owned by an investor, who pays higher property tax. The tax paid on a registered historic property will be lower than the taxes on a similar, nearby property that does not have historic designation. Governments can pass bonds that are funded by property tax, which will cause the tax to increase. When houses in a particular part of town sell for high prices, the property taxes on all houses in the area will increase. Whatever the taxes are when we buy a house, we can be pretty sure they will be different the following year. 

In New Mexico, prior to accepting a purchase contract, the listing agent or seller is required to give house buyer an estimate of what their new property tax will be, based on a non-binding calculation done by the county assessor.  

Another thing that surprised me is the paragraph in the Purchase Agreement that states, "Buyer warrants that prior to entering into the Agreement, he has thoroughly investigated the neighborhood and the areas surrounding the property, to include, but not be limited to investigation of the following: the existence of register sex offender or other person convicted of crime that may reside in the area; and the presence of any structures located businesses operating or activities conducted in the area that, in the Buyer's opinion, affects the value and/or desirability of the property. By entering into the Agreement, Buyer represents he is satisfied with the neighborhood and surrounding areas."

How and why the buyer can be expected to investigate all these issues before making an offer is something I'll need to learn as I practice real estate in New Mexico.

In Arizona, the homeowner association has 10 days to provide the buyer with the homeowner resale disclosure. The disclosure has important information that may cause the buyer to decide the homeowner's association is not right for them. Maybe there are restrictions on pets, or vehicles in the driveway, or home businesses. Maybe the HOA is in a lawsuit, or is financially unstable. Maybe the property is subject to an assessment that the seller didn't mention. The property may be in violation of HOA regulations due to disrepair, an unapproved porch addition or paint color. If the disclosure has information that is unacceptable to the buyer, in Arizona, the buyer has five days to cancel the contract and get his earnest money back.

In New Mexico, the HOA has until seven days before closing to deliver the HOA disclosure to the buyer. Then the buyer has seven days to approve the HOA disclosure or cancel the purchase contract. So yes, a sale can fall apart on the day it is supposed to close.