Texas land agent

vanity | April 17, 2017 | Aria

[Aria]

I inherited mineral rights to some acerage in Texas. I've been told that I need a land agent to find out if there is value to these rights. I just realized that Freepers probably would know how to go about finding an agent. I didn't get very far googling - only came up with real estate agents.

[ARA]

You need to find a Land Man who for a small fee can research the parcel and surrounding area. Also, if you know the legal name of your land, you can search online to find out there is any existing production on or near you land. Do you have 100% of the mineral rights? Typically, if an oil producer is interested in your rights, a land man will contact the rights holder and make an offer. Then they will lease the mineral rights for a small fee and if there is production, you would be entitled to a royalty from the production of the oil. It’s all pretty straight forward.

[Repulican Donkey]

Go to the local tax appraiser’s office and ask if any “land men” have been active in the county. The reality is that your mineral rights value is an unanswerable question until a driller starts surveying. If that happens, a land man will approach you and offer a three year lease. Then the oil company starts geological surveying and you would receive a cash payment to allow that on your property. A second round of surveys happens - really interesting because helicopters drop off and retrieve echo transponders. Based on that data the driller plans horizontal drilling. The closer your property lies to the frack line the more oil is under it. Once drilling starts your income all depends on oil price.

[Repulican Donkey]

Chesapeake is selling off all of is undeveloped leases under pressure from Carl Ichan who is a board member. The former CEO was financially irresponsible. The business is constantly changing,but if you get a production share from a well it is always yours unless you surrender it.

[Repulican Donkey]

Also, go to the website for the TX Railroad Commissioner. You will find a link to oil exploration by county. It is a bit clumsy to use but it is helpful. If you know your land’s description in the county survey books you can determine if any drilling is going on around you. If there’s development going on the land man will find you. He found me while I was on my tractor mowing.

[Jane Long]

Repulican D’s answer is one of the best posted, so far.

[deport]

The value will come if they start to drill in the area. I think but am not sure that
mineral rights are not locked in to the surface acreage but are owned separate. Just
make sure your name is on the ownership that should registered in the county.
JMO and could be in error.

[outinyellowdogcountry]

One other consideration is how the leasing rights will be handled. Surface land owner has some rights to be considered and will get paid for damages. In case they put a horizontal drill pad on that land the land owner should get hefty compensation. So there may need be collaboration. I don’t know since our land and mineral rights are joined. But if I owned the surface, I would be picky.

[free-n-TX]

My cousin is a land agent in North Texas. Let me know if you want his information. His name is John Curlin.

[Aria]

Thank you - I am calling on Monday. I went to the RR commissioner and didn’t see any drilling going on in Beaumont but will be checking anyway.

Thank you so much for your advice. Freepers are THE BEST!

[Texas resident]

If you start getting letters from companies that purchase mineral rights, that will be a good sign that you have something of value. They send letters offering to purchase your rights for a certain amount. They are lowballing the value of those minerals. Also, they send out those letters when they believe that the price of oil is about to rise so that they can cash in on the uptick.

My grandfather told me once “Never, ever sell your mineral rights”.

[Aria]

Thank you...and we will follow your grandfather’s words.

[liberalh8ter]

Hi. We have mineral rights in Texas that have been in the family for generations. We had a family member who was a land man (he's since passed) so we had a little information from him. Texas mineral rights are confusing, while you have many acres they will only pay for a certain amount in the "pooled" tract. What we've done is waited for a lease offer and then hired a good attorney to broker the deal. You'd be surprised at how little it costs and will end up being paid for by the signing bonus (with much left over). We felt it was more important to protect our interests on the back end than up front. This last go around the company that wanted the lease actually threatened to sue us for millions because we wouldn't sign a lease unless they agreed to our terms (we were the last lease of the tract). The lawyer we hired quickly dispensed with that tactic.

I'm no expert by far but just wanted to put it out there that you can hire an attorney to help you with a lease offer. I can get you the information on the attorney we used. He was great!

[Rebelbase]

Interactive GIS map with oil well locator.

Search Jefferson County then choose the i on the toolbar for wells.

I’m on a chromebook at the moment and can’t get it to work but maybe it does in Windows.

http://wwwgisp.rrc.texas.gov/GISViewer2/