Hoping someone can help. This is the story. My family has land with a producing oil well. Family members have varying percentages of ownership. The land is undivided. I am considering selling my portion and retaining the mineral rights my main question is does the land have to be divided? If it is not divided what issues does this pose? Land is in Lee County TX Thanks for your comments
The simplest way is sell it to one of the family members.
You can sell an undivided interest. No real issues except whether family will be upset if they don’t get a chance to buy.
You are free to sever your minerals and sell an undivided interest in surface. Question is value of undivided surface interstate and who, besides family, would want it. Depends on gross acres and your interest (5%? 30%? 75%). Does surface have commercial or other use value? If outside buyer got sufficient net acres, he could demand the surface be divided out so his acreage is separate. This is not necessarily a simple process if there are many owners and tracts have to be relative value per net acre - so one owner does not get all road frontage and another gets only quicksand. If owners cannot agree then a court would decide. There is no requirement that surface and minerals be owned identically within your family so it is simplest to sell your surface to one or more family members. Back to value question. A 5% surface interest in 100 acres is generally worth less than 100% of 5 acres because there is no control of property. (Not so with minerals.)