It appears that my deceased father owns/owned a royalty interest in Yoakum County. Is the “assessed value” as per the Yoakum County Appraisal District website a ballpark place to start in determining a market value? Any helpful rules of thumb? So far, I have no info on whether wells have been drilled or on production.
Thank you.
If what your father owned was a royalty interest and there is no production the appraised value you are seeing should be based on only the surface value of the land rather than the mineral interest. The mineral interest isn’t taxed until there is production.
Thank you, Dusty. There may (or may not) be production … but my father passed away in 1981 and I only recently did a property search and found the ownership link via the assessor’s site. I’ve never seen any production statements or other paperwork but it looks like the property tax hasn’t been paid.
I’m not sure how to do a search to find out anything more about wells, production, etc. Any thoughts/suggestions would be welcome. I could post links to the property on the assessor’s site (links to the specific property & assessed values) … don’t know if that’s dumb or wise. 
If you can just post a legal description, abstract number or block and section where that mineral interest is located, someone on the forum should be able to help you determine if there is production in that area.
One can use to see section by section what is happening: http://gis.rrc.texas.gov/GISViewer/index.html?api=50136922
As near as I can tell the legal description is “Section 401, Block D, John H. Gibson survey.”
On the Yoakum County Appraisal website, I am also seeing descriptions (as association with my father’s name) like:
.000732 RI CUSTER & WRIGHT OPERAT B1100 BEN #02H 1606 D 416
.000732 RI CUSTER & WRIGHT OPERAT B1101 BEN #03H 1606 D 416
.000732 RI CUSTER & WRIGHT OPERAT B1102 BEN #04H 1606 D 416
Thank you.
Thank you, L_J_L, That map is very interesting and is helping me get a better picture of the property. It looks like there are four horizontal oil wells that originate in Section 416 and terminate in Section 401. The Yoakum county website shows tax assessments for my father’s property, with legal descriptions like .000732 RI CUSTER & WRIGHT OPERAT B1100 BEN #02H 1606 D 416 (also #03H and #04H).
I suppose the “416” portion of the description relates to the surface origins of the wells?
An investment firm approached me with an interest in buying the mineral interest in “Section 401, Block D, John H. Gibson survey.”
Based on the legal descriptions on the county website, I’m guessing that my father owned .000732 of the royalty interests of at least three wells: Ben 02, 03, and 04. Would a mineral interest owner typically have the same ownership of all other leases in the same section? I’m asking because the map you linked me to, appears to show other wells besides the four “Ben” wells.
Thanks again … the inputs from Dusty and yourself have been super helpful in me starting to get my head around what all of this means.
You need to check Texas Unclaimed Property. I see a person with your last name has quite a bit of money there from mineral rights. I know my dads went there until I got ahold of the company and got the name changed to me. Check it out. Do you know or are you related to Judith (same as your last name)?
Thank you s549bs. The names are from a different branch of the Lortschers but I have a couple of email addresses and will let them know and tell them to give thanks to s549bs!
Any ideas on how I might be able to do a Yoakum County deed search remotely from San Diego? I would like to know the specific description of the royalty interest my father purchased. I’m guessing the he made the purchase back in the 1950’s or 1960’s … possibly the 1970’s and a remote possibility it was in the 1940’s. I would like to understand whether the rights cover the entire section or if it is partial (e.g., northeast quarter … or however it would be described).
Many thanks to all.
Here’s a site where you can search and print documents from the Yoakum County deed records at no cost. https://yoakumcountytx-selfservice.tylerhost.net/web/us
If for some reason it doesn’t produce what you need try TexasFile.com or CourthouseDirect.com. Those sites require setting up an account but searching the grantor/grantee indexes is free and printing documents costs a few dollars.
Thank you, Dusty1! I gave those sites a try but came up empty handed. I am guessing the problem is that the property acquisition occurred when the records were still entered manually (pre 1980’s), probably back in the 1950’s. But thanks again for the suggestions … very much appreciated.
Hi Everyone. This morning I spoke with the landman at Custer & Wright Operating, Inc, which is leasing the Ben wells. He was tremendously helpful and I think I’m on the right path to getting answers to my remaining questions and in getting the ownership issues clarified and sorted out.
Thank you to all of you who helped me along the way. I truly appreciate it.
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