What’s the best way to approach a lease offer on 1.25 nma. I have used a lawyer on larger mineral interest but this one in Jones county MS is only offering $100 per acre. I can’t really justify the cost of a lawyer to help me. I appreciate anyone’s help.
If your previous lease was in Mississippi, then the same rules would generally apply. If in a different state, then you might need to get some help.
Know nothing about Mississippi but my suggestion, particularly when the interest you own is small, is find out what other folks around you are doing on leasing before you accept an offer.
If your 1.25 NMA is an undivided mineral interest in a larger tract research who owns larger interests in your same tract and see if they will share information and possibly agree to negotiate as a group.
How do I research other owners in my tract and how would I find out how to contact them?
Sorry the system didn’t alert me to your question.
Like I mentioned earlier, I don’t have any experience with Mississippi, but in Texas I would start researching the owners that were around my mineral interest through the records of the county tax accessor or county appraisal district. That won’t necessarily tell you who the mineral owners are, since the minerals may have been reserved in prior sales, but it’s a place to start and should provide the current landowner’s mailing addresses. If you want to call them you can do a free search on sites like www.advancedbackgroundcheck.com to find phone numbers that go with those names and mailing addresses.
You can also try deed record sites like www.courthousedirect.com that appears to cover some counties in Mississippi. If they cover the county you are interested in there is no charge to look at their grantor index’s. If you have the names of adjoining landowners you can check the index for their names to see if they have ever signed oil leases.