Can anyone explain in layman’s terms how selling the mineral acres works exactly? Our family has 10 mineral acres on a 659 acre section.
For example:
If we were told to lease the acreage its about 7k per mineral acre.
And to choose to sell them they would be roughly 20k-30k per mineral acre.
If we went the selling route. How does the company calculate what they would pay out to us?
What would be the approximate total?
And, there’s 8 of us who are the heirs to this. So at that point do we split that lump sum into 8 equal pieces?
Are there taxes, fees anything else that would be deducted off the top of the lump sum if we sold or leased?
Please break this down to me in the easiest way. We are newbies.
As always thank you all for your pateince and help!
Hi again Lauren:
To get you some idea of how your scenario’s would work, lets assume that your family owns 10.00 acres and that each of the heirs owns an equal part of 1/8th each of 10.00 acres, or 1.25 acres each. Having looked at your case earlier, that is not the case, but this will help you to work through the math yourself.
Next, assuming the company you are dealing with wants to lease each parties interest for $7,000 an
acre, the total “bonus” for the OGL would be $7,000/acre X 1.25 acres or $8,750.00. The OGL has a bonus paid up front, a royalty interest to be paid if there are hydrocarbons are produced that is negotiable and a term, usually 3 years.
Now, if you wanted to sell, based on your example of $20-30K/acre, multiply the 1.25 acres by the dollars per acre. 1.25 acres X $20,000/acre equals $25,000.00. The same equation for any amount per acre. The buyer would have you execute a mineral deed and then would pay you that amount. Each person or heir can do whatever they want to do, irrespective of what any other heir does.
Hope this helps.
Todd M. Baker
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THANK YOU!!! Finally we get it!!! 
If you sell, you may have to pay capital gains tax, so keep that in mind.
You’ve gotten good explanations. Might add that, depending where you mineral interest is located and how much mineral activity is going on there, you may be able to lease your mineral interest and then sell it. For example in Reeves County, Texas there are mineral interests selling for $20,000 to $30,000 per net mineral acre that are already under lease.
If you did that you would receive the bonus payment amount that Todd described above and also the payment for the sale of your minerals. The buyer would then be the one receiving any future royalty payments if the interest they bought from you was later included in a producing unit but you would have the bonus and the proceeds from the mineral sale.
Also, any family members interested in selling their net mineral acres wouldn’t necessarily have to sell all of it. It sounds like each of the eight members in your group own a fairly small interest and some buyers may have a minimum mineral acre amount they will consider buying but it’s worth asking, and if they are agreeable any of your group might consider selling part and keeping part of their interest.