I made this mistake. When we bought our second parcel in 2003, the agent handed us a summary sheet saying the property had 'water rights included.' I didn't dig further. Took me two years and a water court filing to untangle the mess — the rights existed on paper but hadn't been used in over a decade, and a junior appropriator had quietly been filling the gap.
In Colorado, water rights don't automatically transfer clean just because the deed changes hands. You need the actual decree numbers, the priority date, the adjudicated use type, and a call history from the State Engineer's office. A real estate agent isn't equipped to interpret any of that. Neither is a general real estate attorney, frankly.
Before you close on any rural property in a prior appropriation state, hire a water rights attorney or a certified water rights engineer to do a standalone audit. It will cost you $800-$2,000. It will save you your operation.
Anybody else out here been handed a 'water rights included' assurance that turned out to be vapor?