Got an Unsolicited Offer?

A letter offering to buy your mineral rights arrived without you asking for it, and the number on it tells you almost nothing about whether it is fair.

These mailers go out by the thousands, generated from county ownership records, often with no idea whether your interest is producing, leased, or worth a fraction of what a well two sections over is paying. The number is a starting bid, not a valuation.

Before you sign anything, it is worth knowing who you are actually dealing with. A meaningful share of unsolicited mineral offers come from assignment shops, companies that lock up your interest at a low price with the intent to resell the contract to a real buyer before closing, pocketing the spread without ever holding the asset themselves.

How to tell an assignment shop from a real buyer

Ask directly whether the company buying your interest is the same company that will show up at closing, or whether they intend to assign the contract to another party. A legitimate direct buyer will answer that plainly. An assignment shop often deflects, or the purchase agreement itself contains assignment language buried in the fine print that lets them transfer the deal without your further consent.

Other signs: a price that seems disconnected from any explanation of how it was calculated, pressure to sign within days, and a closing timeline that keeps slipping past the date they originally quoted, all of which suggest they are waiting on a buyer of their own before they can close yours.

Why the spread matters to your side of the deal too

When an assignment shop resells your contract before closing, the difference between what they paid you and what the end buyer actually pays is money that came out of your interest's real value, not out of nowhere. If your interest is genuinely worth more than the mailer offer, that gap is the assignment shop's margin.

A direct buyer who holds the interest does not need that spread, so the number offered can reflect the interest's actual value more closely, without a middle layer taking a cut before the deal even closes.

What to do before responding to the mailer

Pull your most recent division order or royalty statement if you have one, note the operator and well name, and get a second, written offer to compare against. You are not obligated to respond to the mailer at all, and there is no cost to getting a comparison number from us before you decide anything.

If the mailer's price and our written offer land close together, that is useful confirmation. If they are far apart, that gap is worth understanding before you sign, whether it means the mailer was lowballing or our own number needs a closer look at your specific interest.

If you already signed something

Many purchase agreements include a short rescission or review period, check the document you signed for that language before assuming the deal is final. If the window has passed, we can still tell you whether the price you agreed to was in a reasonable range, which is useful for future reference even if it does not change the current transaction.

If the agreement you signed includes broad assignment language allowing the buyer to transfer the contract to another party without further notice to you, that is worth flagging to an attorney even after the rescission period closes, particularly if the closing has been repeatedly delayed past the date originally promised.