Nevada desert tracts: why water rights make or break a purchase agreement

In Nevada, land without water is land without use. Desert tracts look affordable on paper, but purchase agreements that don’t mention water rights often leave buyers holding dry ground. Unlike other states, Nevada treats groundwater as a regulated resource — and rights are allocated, transferable, and sometimes already over-appropriated. A generic contract won’t capture that.

Buyers near Reno, Elko, or Nye County typically demand clauses about existing water rights permits, well drilling allowances, and whether rights can be assigned at closing. Even if a parcel has an old well, the right to pump may not come with it. Agreements that skip these details leave buyers gambling on a future approval that may never come.

In Nevada, the land itself is simple — sun, sand, and sagebrush. The paperwork isn’t. The strongest agreements treat water as the first line on the deal, not the last.