Mineral Rights (Parker: leases, attorney, house)

[Smurphy]

Does anyone know how to find if you own the property rights?

Any on line help would be appreciated.

Thank you

[i_catch_tree_bass]

While I realize this isn't particularly helpful, I would suggest that if you don't know, you probably don't own them. My anecdotal knowledge seems to indicate that most individuals own only the surface rights to their property, not the mineral rights.

[Richard Boswell]

The only way I know is to go to the county courthouse and pull the records on the property. My wife and I were told we didn't get any mineral rights with the property we purchased 4 years ago. After doing some iinvestigation I found out that we do own the rights. Made a big difference due to the fact that the oil and gas companies are always looking for leases. Now we have a lease and get a check every month. It is worth the tiime to check and see if you own the rights. It was worth 500 a month to us!

[Roma]

Yes, I agree with all the above. We also have mineral rights. Do you have all the paper work that you signed when you bought your property? It might be in there. We have bought 3 properties in the last 2 years and all three had paper work for us to sign regarding mineral rights. Like the others have said, go to the court house and research it. With the $$$$ signing bonus you get and the monthy checks it will all be worth it. Hope you have some, if not all the rights, Best of Luck!

[loves2read]

Mineral rights for property--especially property that has been bought and sold several times can be amazingly complex and not necessarily as easy to discover who owns what as another posted indicated.

Most suburban lots in a city--especially any property turned into development with the past 10-15 years or so--99.99% of the time have no mineral rights with them ---that info probably would be noted on the contract and deed to property...
Older property and raw land which has not been developed has more likelihood of having at least some mineral rights with the property but it is only on a case by case basis that you can determine ownership. Sometimes people think in all good faith that they are buying mineral rights with property only to discover on closer inspection that someone else owns them--

It is possible for someone to own mineral rights only for certain depths of geological strata--like rights to the Cotton Valley depth. It is possible for someone to have ownership of 100% of all mineral rights or just to have 25% of .02%--that is right 1/4 of 2 percent--not much is it---depending on how the interests have been transferred and divided over the years....

Rright now-- because of the interest in the Barnett Shale oil/natural gas drilling in Tarrant and Parker and neighboring counties---people are much more interested in what they never cared about before...and there are lots of people who are checking title to land trying to determine who owns mineral rights where oil companies might want to buy leases---frankly some of those people have little experience and don't really know what they are doing...
Oil and gas leases and mineral rights ownership are very complicated issues and not something that an average person is really qualified to interpret without some training and experience---even then people and even companies make mistakes about royalty/lease/ownership control issues---

While anyone can go to the court house and check the land records for property in a particular county, determining who owns what is complicated and time consuming---and before you actually spend money to buy mineral rights you should ALWAYS have an oil/gas attorney to verify ownership---called having a title opinion run...

[normanj]

Do you know if there is specialized training on how to research mineral rights? I have been hearing that gas companies are paying big money to have people research mineral rights. Do you know if this is something you are trained to do once you are hired or if you can learn it somewhere ahead of time? Is this mainly done in law offices? This is called a title opinion (per the most recent post?)

[LovelyBoston]

Originally Posted by normanj

Do you know if there is specialized training on how to research mineral rights? I have been hearing that gas companies are paying big money to have people research mineral rights. Do you know if this is something you are trained to do once you are hired or if you can learn it somewhere ahead of time? Is this mainly done in law offices? This is called a title opinion (per the most recent post?)

Yes, it's done in law offices. This is an attorney's job. Property law is extremely complex, and adding in issues with mineral rights and energy concerns, it is even more so. So the training is the 3 years of law school.

[scruffy's mom]

Look in your deed. If a landman has contacted you - you own your mineral rights.

[i_catch_tree_bass]

Originally Posted by normanj

Do you know if there is specialized training on how to research mineral rights? I have been hearing that gas companies are paying big money to have people research mineral rights. Do you know if this is something you are trained to do once you are hired or if you can learn it somewhere ahead of time? Is this mainly done in law offices? This is called a title opinion (per the most recent post?)

There are companies out there who hire individuals to do title research, I have a friend who got into that field about six months ago or so. The pay is reasonable starting out, but I was told it literally takes years to learn the ins and outs to where you would be in position to make significantly more. Like most jobs, training is on the job, my friend had never done it before then. Like much oil and gas related work, it's FAR easier to get one of those jobs if you "know" someone, by which I don't mean it's some club you can't crack into, but those types of positions aren't in the classifieds. You have to run into a fella at a bar, network, that kind of deal.

The work itself can't be too difficult, but I suppose it might get a little boring sitting in the same courthouse all day long for days or even weeks just poring over legal minutiae. Another nifty tidbit: the company my buddy works for bills another company directly for his (my friend's) services, so he is a contractor and he had to wait about 90 days before he first got paid, but after that his paychecks come in consistently.

[ShelTX]

I found this site by searching for info on mineral rights.

They just started putting a rig in directly behind our house...they are dozing the trees down now and getting it all cleared away....just started that yesterday.

They've given us a couple of checks before while surveying. I'm curious to know if we'll be getting money...do we need to contact them or do they automatically contact us?

We're currently getting ready to sell our house...wondering what difference this will make.