Got an Unsolicited Offer?

A letter arrives out of nowhere offering to buy your mineral rights, and the first thing worth noticing isn't the number on the page, it's whether the letter actually describes what you own.

Unsolicited mineral offers are a real, ordinary part of this industry; companies track courthouse filings, division order changes, and probate records specifically to identify owners and send offers before anyone else does. That doesn't make every offer letter accurate or fairly priced, and the details worth checking before responding aren't the same details the letter is designed to draw your attention to.

The Real Tell: Does the Description Match What You Own

Offer letters are frequently generated from a database built off courthouse index searches, and those searches can pull the wrong tract, an outdated fractional interest, or a legal description that doesn't match your actual deed, particularly for owners with interests scattered across several tracts or with common surnames in the county. Before anything else, compare the legal description, section, township, range, or the metes-and-bounds description, and the stated fractional interest against your own deed or a recent division order statement. A mismatch doesn't necessarily mean bad faith, database errors are common, but it does mean the offer as written may not even be pricing the interest you actually hold, and signing something that misdescribes your property creates its own problems later even if the price seemed reasonable.

Offers describing the wrong depth, all depths versus a specific formation, or omitting a Pugh clause or reservation that exists in your actual title are other common mismatches worth catching before signing anything, since the deed you'd be asked to sign typically mirrors the offer's description exactly.

Why a Mailbox Number Doesn't Reflect Bidding Competition

A single unsolicited letter is, by definition, one buyer's opening number with no competitive pressure driving it toward what the market would actually bear. Some buyers price fairly on the first offer; others intentionally lead low, expecting most recipients to either not respond or not push back. There's no way to tell which is happening from the letter alone, which is exactly why benchmarking against your own production history, or against a second opinion, is worth the modest delay before responding.

This is also where recent local activity matters: an offer that would have been reasonable two years ago may be stale if drilling activity in your county has picked up meaningfully since, or conversely a generous-sounding number on a tract with declining nearby activity may be pricing in optimism the current environment doesn't support.

What to Actually Do Before Responding

Confirm the description matches your title, pull your last few division order statements or royalty checks if the tract produces so you have your own numbers to benchmark against, and don't feel pressured by any deadline language in the letter, legitimate buyers who want the interest will generally still be interested a few weeks later. Getting a second read on the offer, whether from another buyer, a landman, or simply comparing notes with other owners in the same unit if you know any, costs little and directly addresses the core problem with any single unsolicited letter: it's one number with nothing to compare it against.

None of this means unsolicited offers are inherently suspect; many are entirely legitimate and fairly priced. It simply means the letter itself isn't enough information to decide, and a few days of checking rarely costs you the opportunity.