What did the Santa Fe County assessor and probate filings show about the sale of Jeffrey Epstein’s New Mexico property?

1. County assessor records: a new owner on the public roll

Public property records maintained by the Santa Fe County assessor list the new owner of the Zorro Ranch as San Rafael Ranch LLC, a company that registered with the state’s secretary of state in late July 2023, providing a visible chain-of-title update in the local assessor database that sparked media attention ^{[2] [6]}. Those assessor notations are the clerk-and-assessor trail reporters used to identify a recorded ownership change rather than to disclose private sale terms ^[2].

2. The estate’s position in probate filings: sale confirmed, price withheld until accounting

An attorney for the Epstein estate publicly confirmed that the estate sold the New Mexico property and that proceeds would be used for estate administration and to pay creditors, while also noting that the sale price and buyer remain confidential but will be disclosed in the estate’s next quarterly accounting to the U.S. Virgin Islands probate court — in other words, probate filings will eventually show the transaction details even if they were temporarily withheld from public announcement ^{[1] [2]}.

3. Asking the assessor or clerk for records: what’s publicly accessible now

Santa Fe County’s official sites point users toward the assessor and county clerk portals for property and probate documents — the county clerk’s public-records guidance even instructs users to use ClerkTrackWeb with a public login to access probate sections — indicating that while initial sale secrecy existed, interested parties have procedural avenues to review eventual probate accountings and recorded deeds through county systems ^{[7] [8]}.

4. Pricing history and market context reflected in reporting

Multiple news outlets and the estate’s statement noted the property’s market history: initially listed in 2021 for $27.5 million and later reduced to $18 million, figures reporters used to frame expectations around the undisclosed sale price even though the actual sales sum remained confidential pending probate disclosure ^{[2] [6]}.

5. Title irregularity that preceded the sale: the 2020 “mysterious deed”

Local investigations uncovered that a deed filed in October 2020 recorded portions of the ranch as transferred from Epstein’s company, Cypress Inc., creating a brief title cloud that county assessor staff flagged and that prompted prosecutors and the estate to treat the document as potentially fraudulent — a development reporters tied to earlier cases of fake deeds affecting Epstein properties ^{[4] [5]}. That episode underscored why county records alone can show a recorded instrument without guaranteeing its legal validity until clarified by court or prosecutor action ^[4].

6. Competing perspectives and implicit agendas in the record

The estate’s insistence on confidentiality over buyer identity and price, framed in statements to KRQE and other outlets, reflects a common estate-administration stance to protect negotiation leverage and privacy until probate accounting requirements compel disclosure ^{[1] [2]}; by contrast, local officials and victim-advocate voices pressed for transparency and even government seizure as compensation for victims, illustrating competing agendas between private estate management and public-interest demands ^[5].

7. What the records prove and what remains to be seen

Taken together, Santa Fe County assessor entries and reporting show a recorded transfer to San Rafael Ranch LLC and a confirmed sale by the Epstein estate, but the precise sales price and buyer identity were kept confidential by the estate pending disclosure in U.S. Virgin Islands probate accountings — documents that county portals and probate procedures indicate will eventually make the transaction details available to the public ^{[2] [1] [7]}. Reporting also documents earlier title fraud attempts that complicated the record and required legal follow-up ^{[4] [5]}.