deming new mexico property (for sale, attorney, best deal)

[tomcat]

Iam looking at property in Deming new mexico, or on the surrounding area. as this is desert property in sothern new mexico,water is inportant of course. I find a lot of property for sale dont have water rights. How do water rights work,and how do water rights effect a sale. can and dhould water rights be bought. can anyone explain? Thankyou Tomcat

[Crackerjack]

Tomcat, I am sure others will may want to add to this but I can tell you that water rights in the west is basically your right to use your water and there are different rights so the best is absolute water rights, which is your water alone and usually it well water as I understand it. First water rights, is you have the first shot at water and then it goes down the line so say there is a water ditch, if you have first rights, you get that water first, so if there isn't much water, you get it first. So I would ask for absolute water rights for well water and ideally, first water rights for water passing though your property. Conditional water rights can cause some fights. I know someone who got shot over it. They had first rights and their neighbor didn't so when a drought came, he got the water and his neighbor didn't so the neighbor shot him, he survived. Just make sure you have the water in your favor. I'd hire an attorney to make sure I'd got the best deal. Most attorney's know about water rights and will help you so you don't get stuck with less than favorable results.
New Mexico follows old Spanish laws and you can read more at:
www.earthscape.org/p1/boc01/boc01_1.html (broken link)

[tomcat]

Thanks crackerjack your information is very helpfull tomcat