Home Sale Law in New Mexico

Buying or selling a house can be an exciting but stressful time in a person's life. It also requires a person to make a large number of potentially life-changing financial and legal decisions.

Because of the complexity of these issues, most individuals in Los Alamos, New Mexico don't opt to sell real estate themselves, even though there are no laws barring them from doing so.

For that reason, it's normally best to buy and sell property through a real estate broker. This is a person who helps a person buy or sell a home. They assist as an intermediary between the buyer and seller, help sellers find buyers, and help prospective buyers. They also handle a great deal of the paperwork and other formalities involved.

In Los Alamos, New Mexico, brokers normally receive compensation in the form of a percentage of the sale price of the home.

Getting a Mortgage in Los Alamos, New Mexico

First and foremost, if a buyer asks any question of the seller relating to physical defects in the property, the seller must, under all situations, be as truthful as possible. In this case being "as truthful as possible" means answering such questions to the best of your knowledge, and making reasonable efforts to find the answers if you don't know them. Lying in this case is very bad idea, and will expose you to serious civil penalties

Additionally, most defects should be disclosed even if the buyer doesn't directly ask about them. Typically, defects which must be disclosed are those which are known to the seller, and which the buyer cannot be expected to find through a regular inspection.

Buyers, however, are not off the hook in this matter. If they ignore defects that they could have easily discovered, they probably won't be able to recover for them.

Typically, buyers have a duty to conduct a reasonable inspection of the property before buying it. Therefore, buyers normally can't recover for defects that could have been discovered via reasonable inspection, unless the seller actively conceals them.

Can a Los Alamos, New Mexico Real Estate Attorney help?

If you're in the process of purchasing a Los Alamos, New Mexico home, the advice of an accomplished real estate attorney can make the process much easier, and help ensure that no surprises come up. This will give you the peace of mind to actually enjoy your new home, rather than worry about it.