1. The following terms, wherever used or referred to in this chapter, have the following meaning unless a different meaning clearly appears in the context:

(a) “Buyer” means a person or other legal entity acquiring title to any estate or present interest in real property in this State by deed, including, without limitation, a grantee or other transferee of real property.

(b) “Deed” means every instrument in writing, whatever its form and by whatever name it is known in law, by which title to any estate or present interest in real property, including a water right, permit, certificate or application, is conveyed or transferred to, and vested in, another person, except that the term does not include:

(1) A lease for any term of years;

(2) An easement;

(3) A deed of trust or common-law mortgage instrument that encumbers real property;

(4) A last will and testament;

(5) A distribution of the separate property of a decedent pursuant to chapter 134 of NRS;

(6) An affidavit of a surviving tenant;

(7) A conveyance of a right-of-way; or

(8) A conveyance of an interest in gas, oil or minerals.

(c) “Escrow” means the delivery of a deed by the seller into the hands of a third person, including an attorney, title company, real estate broker or other person engaged in the business of administering escrows for compensation, to be held by the third person until the happening of a contingency or performance of a condition, and then to be delivered by the third person to the buyer.

(d) “Land sale installment contract” means any agreement between a seller and a buyer of real property located in this State pursuant to which the buyer gives and the seller receives the consideration paid in multiple payments during a specified period and the seller retains title to the real property that is the subject of the agreement until the full contract price is paid, at which time title to the real property is transferred by an instrument in writing from the seller to the buyer. The term does not include a deed of trust or common-law mortgage instrument that encumbers real property or an option to purchase real property.

(e) “Seller” means a person or other legal entity transferring title to any estate or present interest in real property in this State by deed, including, without limitation, a grantor or other transferor of real property.

(f) “Value” means:

(1) In the case of any deed which is not a gift, or a land sale installment contract, the amount of the full purchase price paid or to be paid for the real property.

(2) In the case of a gift, or any deed with nominal consideration or without stated consideration, the estimated fair market value of the property.

2. As used in paragraph (f) of subsection 1, “estimated fair market value” means the estimated price the real property would bring on the open market in a sale between a willing buyer and a willing seller. Such price may be derived from the assessor’s taxable value or the prior purchase price, if the prior purchase was within the 5 years immediately preceding the date of valuation, whichever is higher.

(Added to NRS by 1967, 1759; A 1985, 515; 1989, 1503; 1995, 438; 1997, 1583; 1999, 1067; 2001, 1591; 2005, 2055; 2009, 1109)