About 30 percent of my friends are in school for something they arent even interested in , just doing it for the partying and to make there parents proud.About 20 percent of my friends are in school for teaching, business, professional courses.About 50 percent of my friends are working 9-5 at tire shops, resturants, retail stores making minimum wage asking me what I'm doing this year and I say "traveling to europe, going to mexico, going to visit my home town, etc" and I ask them and they say," just working and taking care of the kids, we have no money"

I would not invest in states like New Mexico that have a gross receipts tax. 

Does New Mexico follow Arizona?  

I would use desert grasses to  landscape, like mexican feather grass (Nassella or Stipa tenuissima), and  plant a few New Mexico Privet trees for height if you can find a spot.

How can I get comps for land in NM?
I live in NY but have a seller who is eager to part with the land she had.

I'm an active duty Army officer who is getting moved to New Mexico (Cannon AFB).

In some places like New Mexico it can be 3 or 4 years before tax liens are enforced.  

By the way, we are in Mexico currently, and three months ago, we were in SE Asia! 

Going South you hit Mexico. 

I was first stationed in Virginia and did 9 deployments all over the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic, and Pacific on a 270' Cutter for 2.5 years doing drug and migrant interdiction. 6 months of aviation maintenance school followed and afterwards, I transferred to my first and final aviation unit in Cape Cod, MA on H60 Jayhawk Helicopters.