My mother inherited 3.87% royalties on three wells in Lewis County, and rather than split the few-dollars-a-month three ways the heirs want to sell.
I’ve already done a bunch of research and know exactly which wells, used the old “25 poles to a black oak on a rock” description to find the land, and found deeds going back to at least 1869 before my 3rd great-grandfather bought it in 1872 (I’m a genealogist, digging into old records is what I do for fun).
Now my question is, should I hire a landman first, or a lawyer first, or look into both at the same time? I’m in California, so doing anything in person is not an option.
My concern is that the cost of a landman or lawyer will exceed the value of the minerals. You mentioned the production only yields a few dollars a month. It may be more pragmatic to seek a buyer, or to perhaps donate the mineral interest, instead.
Hi @ljwolfe. I would recommend you explore a few buyers in WV and compare their offers, I know of a few, but just to set your expectations, wells in production will typically get you 3 years worth of payments from many buyers.
My concern about trying to find a buyer myself is that currently the rights are (I think) in a trust, which I don’t know if that complicates things, and even if they’re not worth much I don’t want to get ripped off by being a clueless noob.
Who would one donate to, and how would one go about that? I might be able to get the other two heirs to agree depending on who we’re donating to.
Depends on the type of trust and the other assets in the trust.
You can donate the rights really anywhere. Church, foundation, etc. A lot of people choose to donate the rights to a cause that was important to the deceased.