Hello,

I have been vacationing in SW CO and New Mexico since the early 70's and now think its time to buy a vacation spot, tired of dragging the camper around.
Any advice you can give me on good real estate websites? We are looking for small acreage, anywhere from 1 acre on up to place a shed or build a small cabin.
Some questions I have;
Is there a minimum amount of land you have to own to be able to shoot?
Where can I read up on septic and water well rules/regs?
I am looking for any place in Northern New Mexico, that's the area we like and the closest area for us to reach from Western OK.  I want to be able to escape the brutal Ok summer heat so higher elevation is a must.
thanks,

PS I put this same post on the Colorado hometown forum as we are considering SW CO as well.

For raw land, I like Landwatch.com.   Be advised, some land is only good for rattlesnakes and rodents.  A forested plot can supply all the lumber needed for a cabin.

To avoid pissing off your neighbors, I’d suggest a minimum 20 acres for shooting, especially if your cabin will be unoccupied for weeks at a time.   If you are trying to stay small, look at the adjoining properties to see if your cabin will still be far enough away from existing homes, and that there is a home on each property, which will lessen the chances of someone building close to your cabin.   If you get just one acre, your shooting will be very limited.  When I last researched the state regs, it only prohibited shooting closer than 300ft to an inhabited dwelling, or at dwellings/vehicles/people etc.

I believe the ordinances for utilities are county specific, with rural areas being less restrictive.   The poorer counties often don’t have the resources to enforce them, and people with land do as they damn well please, building codes be damned.   Most everyone is armed, so most govt employees, including police, are reluctant to stick their nose in other people’s business.

Lots of counties will stick you with fees for trash pick up and other services even if you never use them, and if you don’t pay they slap a lien on your property.  Usually, as soon as you get any sort of utility hooked up, that company notifies the county, which starts billing you for trash and other services.   If you stay off the grid, you might escape their fees.

You can get beautiful weather in the central part of NM,   The east mountains enjoy a southern latitude with high altitude, which creates a fairly mild climate, without the extremes of nearby Albuquerque.

If OP is curious about this area, he can hit me up.

If i was looking for just a vacation home, I'd buy land in the Roy/Moscero/Logan area. That's where free men live. The people are old school. Just no work for a guy my age/profession.

Another thing to note OP is that in general its rare to find pure private land in the county that isn't encumbered with some type of horseshit 'subdivision' that was put together hastily in the 70s to sell dreams to Floridians in magazines.

Most aren't a big deal, maybe a $100-$200 year private road maintenance fee.  Some are a nightmare, and are run by wanna be HOA presidents.

If you can, get land that is just that, land, without any BS attached to it.

Although rare, it is also possible to get grandfathered 'in-holding' land that is surrounded on 2-4 sides by national forest or BLM, which can make your effective property size endless as far as neighbors are concerned.  But its typically expensive, doesn't come up for sale often, and frequently gets passed down from generation to generation.

As for room to shoot, theres no minimum as already mentioned, but you just want to be far enough away from your neighbors and not have any town/county ordinances to deal with.

Most (if not all) NM police departments follow the Fish and Game guidelines for shooting here residences. Something like a minimum of 150 yds from an occupied structure.

Thanks for the info guys.  What is this area you all refer to as East Mountains?

My mistake.  I knew that, but for some reason got lost in the 'get enough land' portion

Oddly enough that rule isn't really enforced in Valencia county to my knowledge.

When looking at a map of NM, find Albuquerque, go about 25 miles south, then about 25 miles east.   The Manzano mountains are the big swath of green that runs north-south.   A good chunk of the mountains are Cibola National Forest. The east side of these mountains have plenty of land parcels for sale.   Fairly mild climate, neighbors are sparse, prices as low as $700/acre, big city of Alb is 1 hour away, interstate 40 and routes 337 and 217 are well maintained, very little govt interference, do whatever you like with your property. Avoid Santa Fe and Bernalillo counties, because they are big enough and rich enough to screw with you.  You can heat with wood, no air conditioning needed, harvest rainwater, and live pretty cheaply.

One suggestion.   If you want a place of peaceful relaxation, avoid any land that is in a Land Grant.   These are areas given to Mexican nationals in 1848 when Mexico sold America the western half of our country.  They are spread all over the southwestern states.   Many of the descendants consider themselves sovereign citizens and lots of local govts agree with them. Even though land grant acreage has been legally sold over the past 172 years, some pueblos are still fighting to take the land back.   Every year they put in requests for big state money, to hire lawyers to sue people that lawfully bought land within a grant area.

Just my $.02 about an area I'm familiar with.

This sums it up pretty well. Especially about Santa Fe county and Bernalillo County.

I'll add that from the East Mountains all the way to Texas is where free people live.

Not enforced here in Torrance either. Unless someone calls the police. But my neighbors can't here me shooting

I like our cabins on our property inside the national forest. Half the time its closed which leaves it all to me