Buying and selling real estate in New Mexico

	Linda DeVlieg
	Associate Broker eTeam Broker Coldwell Banker Legacy 505-440-7200  mobile 505-213-0494   fax CRS, ePro, Allen Hainge Cyberstar®, Previews, EcoBroker®http://www.realestateinabq.com/	Tweet

Buying and selling real estate in New Mexico has been my passion for 15 years. Helping people buy a home in New Mexico and assisting them to sell a home in New Mexico offers unique challenges to both the consumer and the broker.
In New Mexico, brokerage relationships with consumers have changed over the years. We are now what is known as a “Transaction Broker” state, meaning that the legally defined term of ‘agent’ was modified to refer to real estate practitioners as Brokers. This definition defines the real estate professional as working for the buyer or seller without an agency relationship, but preserving the Duties set forth in the Basic Licensee Duties of Honesty, Compliance with Local and State laws, Performance of agreements, Accounting for funds, Assisting the client in the process of the transaction, Disclosure of adverse material facts, and Confidentiality. By removing the “Agency” provision, the factor of vicarious liability was removed from the transaction. Vicarious liability means that the client/customer could be held responsible for the wrong doings of the Broker. In my experience, removing the agency duties has not at all affected how we ethically and professionally move within the real estate transaction and represent our customers.
In New Mexico the real estate transaction is closed with title companies, with an attorney’s review of the closing documents. The buyer and seller will close separately, usually the same day, and funding occurs within 24 hours of the signing of the legal documents by buyer and seller. In New Mexico, it is customary to give possession of the property only after funding – which is when the documents have been recorded, and the final review has taken place by the funding underwriters. As soon as the funds have been released and dispersed to the parties, then legal funding has taken place. It is important to remember that you may not get your keys to your new home at the moment you leave the title company.
The majority of real estate is sold through the MLS systems of each region. The Albuquerque area is serviced by the Southwest Multiple Listing Service, and is used as a marketing tool for brokers to market their property with cooperative agreements with other brokers. Most properties are sold by using showing instructions to the buyer’s brokers, and using a lockbox system which allows for properties to be shown by the buyer’s brokers with notice to the occupant of the home. Other regions in New Mexico restrict showings of properties to strictly appointment basis. While you are getting ready to shop for a new home, or sell your existing home, it is helpful to find out what is customary in your new area.
The New Mexico market has been a healthy market from the standpoint of never being ‘too hot or too cold’, what I like to call the Goldilocks Market. In a market like this, you don’t get large fluctuations of pricing and deep market crashes as seen in other markets. While some of the neighboring states have suffered 50-60% foreclosure rates, ours has stayed rather moderate with a foreclosure short/sale rate of between 7-12%. Our values have also not succumbed to the large drops in price, so most areas have been a slight decrease in values of 8-10%. We are on a five year cycle of bottom to top in values. It is advisable that anyone waiting for the ‘market to recover’ to sell their home would want to study past trends to see where the recovery will be. We believe that we have ‘hit’ the low point of the swing in New Mexico and are seeing trends that a recovery is on the way back with more inventory selling, albeit at lower prices than we experienced 3 years ago.

New Mexico, and Albuquerque in particular, enjoys a nice inflow of relocations from all around the country. Our economy enjoys the employment with Kirtland Air Force Base and associated military and scientific laboratory affiliations. This produces a good turnover of homes every 4-5 years. Our properties will usually sell at 93-98% of list price. Great location, great staging and condition and perfect pricing will come together in a successful sale.
If you are locating to a new area, find out what the sales customs are with the new area. Closing costs, for instance, are different in New Mexico than other states. In the Albuquerque area, it is customary for the seller to pay the title company closing fees, and the buyer to pay for all of their loan fees. This usually calculates to about 2% of the closing costs for a seller will be in closing fees, with the additional brokerage fees added to that. Gross receipts tax is also included in the brokerage commission, which is calculated at the sales tax rate for each county. For the buyer, their closing costs will depend on their lender’s closing costs, and mortgage fees.
One of the most interesting aspects to real estate in New Mexico is that we are a ‘non-disclosure’ state. What this means to a consumer is that the only parties with knowledge of real closed (sale) prices of homes are Realtors® with the documented MLS information. The tax assessor does not publish sale prices of properties and there is no record of them in recorded documents on file with the County Clerk’s office. The tax assessor estimates their assessments on an individual basis, and until 2006 was really estimating taxes based on market conditions. At present the buyer/seller sign an affidavit at closing which discloses to the tax assessor the price that the home was purchased for – assisting the tax assessor to estimate the next year’s taxes. This is the reason that in New Mexico real estate estimate companies like Zillow and Trulia have had a hard time in giving accurate estimates of property values because they don’t have the real information on the sales. The MLS system only offers the actual sales prices to Realtors with MLS access for the purpose of customer market reviews.
When you are ready to look for properties, my website offers the consumer a great place to easily review the homes for sale without having to register their information. The website home search reflects the MLS inventory on a daily basis, so you get up to date information on all of the real estate for sale in the Albuquerque and Northern New Mexico area. When you are ready, my team of professionals is ready to assist.