How much should I pay for attorney fees to sell?

Law & Legal
1

Hello. Can anyone tell me the going rate of attorneys for selling Howard County mineral rights? Is the fee per tract? Thanks.

2

If the attorney will prepare or review the deed and contract, he will charge an hourly rate. You can use a texas oil and gas attorney and he does not need to be in the particular county. There are attorneys who will charge flat fees or a percentage. Be aware of what the differences amount to. You are paying for expertise. Are you selling 100% of one or two tracts or everything you own in the county. Do you know the NMA of all your interests? Do you own surface and are you keeping the surface? Are you selling only a portion of the minerals? Use no warranty or limited warranty language. Be sure to understand your transaction. Do not hand over a signed deed without the money. I see that many buyers immediately flip the minerals. You can only pursue the 1st buyer if there is a problem.

4

Good advice, TennisDaze.

5

The buyer of the minerals will send you some sort of contract whether thats a PSA (Purchase Sale Agreement) or a LOI (Letter of Intent) depends on the buyer. You should have your attorney review the language in the contract to make sure you are not making promises and warranties you shouldn’t me making etc. The buyer will also send along a mineral/royalty deed along with the contract for review as well. Have your attorney look over both documents and fully red line and edit both the contract and deed before the contract is signed. The attorney will most likely charge you just his hourly rate for the services. Usually the mineral owner does the negotiating on price, every once in a while I see the attorney get involved with that, but the vast majority of the time the attorney is just reviewing and red lining contract and deed language for the seller. Hope this helps.

Cam

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6

Thank you for the excellent advice. Very much appreciated!

7

I would not suggest a landman to prepare a deed unless it is a simple, selling everything, no complications transaction. Maybe jaded here, but I see too many costly mistakes in deeds.

8

In Oklahoma the preparation of a deed by somebody who is not a party (grantor or grantee) to the transaction is the unauthorized practice of law. Also consider that most scrupulous attorneys carry liability insurance.
Also never mail deeds without payment.

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