Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Time for a review of your CLE training. If you act as a RE broker out of your licensed state, you'd be violating the DRE rules, and be subject to legal action. However, a client can hire anyone to be an expert or consultant, as long as you charge a consulting fee for personal advice and not a commission. The client would be pro per in the deal. You do realize you are trying to tweak the rules, right?

You need to ask this if a New Mexico lawyer as well. Their laws and regulations governing real estate professionals may differ and may have been set up in anticipation of just this kind of "tweaking" of the rules. You should also bear in mind that unless you are up to speed on New Mexico real estate leasing laws and regulations, even if you don't violate a licensing rule in California or New Mexico, you may commit professional errors and omissions in California that would expose you to liability. It is also possible that your E&O insurance has an exclusion for errors committed by practicing "out of state" under any guise.

Negotiating the terms of the lease sounds like a broker function to me, not a consultant function, and would be cause for concern to me whether you are paid a commission or otherwise.