Sell My House Fast in New Mexico: We Buy Houses for Cash, As-Is, Any Condition

Before Any State Clock Starts: the Federal 120-Day Rule

Every state timeline on this page sits behind a federal one, and it is the single most useful thing to know if you have missed payments. Under Regulation X, 12 CFR 1024.41(f)(1), a mortgage servicer generally “shall not make the first notice or filing” required for a judicial or non-judicial foreclosure unless the borrower's mortgage loan obligation is more than 120 days delinquent.

That is roughly four months of missed payments before the state process is even allowed to begin. It is why a state sequence that looks alarmingly short on paper is usually longer in practice than the statute alone suggests.

The exceptions, because they are real. The rule does not apply where the foreclosure is based on a violation of a due-on-sale clause, or where the servicer is joining the action of a superior or subordinate lienholder. Small servicers are not exempt from this particular prohibition. Loan types and servicing arrangements vary, and some loans are outside Regulation X altogether.

So treat 120 days as the general floor rather than a guarantee, and work from the dates on your own paperwork. If a notice has arrived and you do not believe you are past that point, that is a question worth putting to a HUD-approved housing counselor or an attorney before you do anything else.

Nine Months To Buy It Back, Unless Your Mortgage Says One

New Mexico gives a homeowner something worth knowing about: a real right to buy the property back after the sale. Then it lets the mortgage take most of it away. Both halves matter and almost nobody is told the second one.

The default. Under NMSA 1978 section 39-5-18, after a sale under an order, judgment or decree of foreclosure in the district court, the property may be redeemed by the former defendant owner, or by a junior lienholder whose rights were determined in the case, at any time within nine months from the date of sale, by paying the purchaser what was paid at the sale with interest at ten percent a year, plus taxes, interest and penalties and anything the purchaser paid to satisfy a prior lien, with the same ten percent on those.

You can do it in either of two ways: pay the purchaser directly, or file a petition for redemption in the pending foreclosure case and deposit the money in cash with the clerk of the court, serving the purchaser and everyone who appeared. The purchaser then has thirty days to answer, and at the hearing “the judge shall determine the amount of money necessary for the redemption”.

And you go first. Section 39-5-18(A)(3) says “the former defendant owner shall have the first priority to redeem the real estate”. Junior mortgagees and lienholders only get their turn if you do not take yours.

Now the part that decides most cases. Section 39-5-19 says the parties to the instrument may, by its terms, shorten the redemption period to not less than one month. A great many New Mexico mortgages and deeds of trust do exactly that. So before you plan around nine months, read your own mortgage and find the redemption clause.

The federal rule above generally sits in front of this whole sequence. Free HUD-approved housing counseling is available before you commit to anything, including to us.

Official sources: NMSA 1978 §39-5-18 and §39-5-19

You Can Ask The Court To Put The Nine Months Back

This is the least-known useful thing on this page, and its deadline comes early.

Section 39-5-19 does not stop at letting the parties shorten the period. It continues: “but the district court may in such cases, upon a sufficient showing before judgment that redemption will be effected, increase the period of redemption to not to exceed nine months notwithstanding the terms of such instrument.”

Read that carefully, because every word in it is doing work.

• “Before judgment.” Not before the sale. Not after it. The application has to be made while the foreclosure case is still running and before judgment is entered, which is much earlier than most people start thinking about any of this.
• “May.” It is discretionary. Nobody can promise you the court will do it, and we are not going to.
• “A sufficient showing that redemption will be effected.” This is the hard part. The court is being asked to believe that if it gives you nine months, you will actually redeem. That generally means being able to show where the money is coming from, not merely that you would like more time.

What to do with that. If a foreclosure has been filed against you and your mortgage shortens the redemption period, this is worth raising with a New Mexico attorney now rather than after the sale, because afterwards the door has closed. It is also one of the few situations where a realistic plan to sell the property can itself be part of the showing, which is a conversation worth having with a lawyer rather than with us.

One thing that confuses people, while we are here. Lenders routinely “buy” houses at their own foreclosure sales without money changing hands. That is a credit bid, and NMSA 1978 section 48-10-3 defines it: a bid by the beneficiary in full or partial satisfaction of the contract, which may include what is owing with interest, amounts on superior liens still outstanding, other obligations secured, and the costs of the sale including the trustee's fees and reasonable attorney fees actually incurred. It is not a trick. It is how the arithmetic is done.

Official sources: NMSA 1978 §39-5-19 and §48-10-3

What We Could Not Establish, And What A Sale Costs

Every page on this site has gaps. This one has a large one and we would rather set it out than paper over it.

We cannot tell you which route your own foreclosure is on. Section 39-5-18's nine-month right attaches to a sale “pursuant to the order, judgment or decree of foreclosure in the district court”, meaning a foreclosure run through the courts. New Mexico also has a Deed of Trust Act. We read two of its sections and neither told us when a deed of trust may be used instead, or for what kind of property. So we are not going to tell you whether your mortgage puts you inside the nine-month right or outside it. That is a question for a New Mexico attorney, and it is the first one to ask, because the answer decides whether anything in the first two cards applies to you at all.

Two more we did not establish. We did not read a section dealing with a deficiency after a New Mexico foreclosure sale, so we are making no claim in either direction about whether a lender can pursue you for a shortfall. And we did not read one dealing with a surplus. On both, ask rather than assume, and be careful of anyone who gives you a confident answer without showing you the section.

What a sale costs you. New Mexico does not impose a state transfer tax on the sale, so that line simply does not appear in your arithmetic as it would in most states, where it can be a percentage of the whole price. We state that as an absence rather than citing a section, because we have not read one that establishes it, and we have not established whether any county or municipality charges a local fee. Recording fees and the title work still apply, and everything else at closing is set by your purchase contract rather than by statute, which means it is negotiable, so read yours before you compare two offers. On a sale to us there is no listing agreement and no agent commission.

Official source: NMSA 1978 §39-5-18