We have surface land in Reeves county and we’re looking for a lawyer in the area that can assist with the sale or lease of this land. Would anyone be willing to recommend someone?
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Wade Caldwell he’s excellent
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Wade Caldwell is my recommendation. Good luck!
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I agree…Wade Caldwell knows the area.
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Wow! Thank you’ll for your quick replies.
Attorneys are very expensive. In this case, who you need is a good landman that you trust-- someone in your family likely knows such a person-- that landman will need to have your best interests and have put together leases in the past and thus be familiar with the terms and conditions favorable to a landowner such as yourself. The lease terms (bonus consideration and royalty perecentage) will need to have an addendum and make specific requirements of the operator to abide by. Do not accept a form lease from an oil company-- not robust enough to protect your interests.
I meant to add this-- But if an oil and gas attorney is what you want and feel like you must have-- then Will Farrar in Dallas is your guy.
Thanks Drake, I have been contacted by a land man that has worked with our family in the past but he isn’t interested in the whole 90 acres and we don’t want to be left with property we might not be able to access or use. He will of course take all the acres but at a much lower price.
Lawyers are expensive and it would be much easier to deal with the landman but I don’t think it’s in our best interest to split up the property. I’m also thinking that an appraisal will give us a better idea of what it’s worth today.
Trying to manage this long distance is a challenge so I appreciate all the help folks here are willing to give.
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Oil and gas attorneys are well worth it if you are going to lease. I would only lease for 3 yrs with no 2 yr option Since Reeves County is a hot area, no telling what the future holds. May get $50K nma for leases in the near future. Why sell with the oil reserves that rival Saudi Arabia? Excellent attorney I use is Nicholas Miller, GDHM in Austin, Texas GDHM is Graves, Dougherty, Hearon & Moody. Use him for all our leases. Contacting one landman is not enough. Many more will give you a good indication of what your land is worth. But, I say never sell unless you’re desperate.
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Maybe I’m missing something here, but if you are saying you only own the surface and you are interested in selling or leasing the surface you need a real estate agent. The suggestions about landmen and oil leasing wouldn’t apply if you don’t own minerals. In Reeves County I’d condition that though by saying, due to all the drilling and production activity, the highest value use for your surface interest (depending on it’s location) may still be related to the oil business. So you need to be sure the real estate agent you list it with knows how to price and market land for those uses and also understands water rights, since they potentially go with ownership of the surface. If you already have a potential buyer you are negotiating with then it may be logical to hire a lawyer to review the contract, but not to market your surface interest.
We started our journey with a landman who contacted us to tell us we we owners of mineral rights we knew nothing about. With due diligence we leased the rights, got paid and watched as the first well was started. Got paperwork as to volume of well at start and then waited after signing stipulation of interest. Turns out the rights were contested unbeknown to us. After over a year, we were finally told what was happening. Of course I had spent the money rcd. So watch out! They do not follow up on actual ownership til it’s too late.