Is there anyone out there who is actually receiving royalty checks for drilling in the area? I am considering signing a lease with a drilling company and would like a general idea of how much per month I might make... is this something that might just cover a a snack each month, or will I make enough to pay for my child's college...?
I just don't have a good idea of what type of money we are talking about and I'd like to be as informed as possible before signing anything. The drilling company says I could make between 50-600 dollars per month, but that's a pretty wide range and I don't even know if I can trust them or their estimates, so if someone wouldn't mind giving me an estimate of what they are making/ have made I'd feel a little more knowlegeable about this.
We got ours. You want atleast 25%, no lower. We got 26%.
I would suggest getting involved with a neighborhood group, and getting all of your neighbors to hold out and get a better rate, thats what we did. My neighbor signed a year before us and only got $2k, we waited and got involved with the neighborhood group and got $6k.
There is power in numbers when you are talking about negotiating the most profitable deal. I live in Arlington and was part of the CATS 'deal'. We signed with Titan/Caffey and got $25000/acre on a 3/2 lease with 25.5% royalties. While we received our 'bonus' check about 2 months after we signed, we will likely not receive any royalties for at least a year or two. I have been told that the royalties might be as much as a couple of hundred dollars a month. Band together with your neighbors is my best advice!
This whole mineral rights things is very confusing to me. I'm so glad that a few from our neighborhood took the initiative to handle this as a "group". The little that I know, though, is that you cannot go through the actual gas/oil company to ask very many questions. They aren't honest for the most part and try to pressure sell. They want as many owners as possible to sign as low as possible even if it means stretching the truth or leaving very important details out completely. I would talk to the neighbors. The amount all depends on the size of your property and whether or not your can negotiate as a group. I know someone who signed up early without the group and got a $300 sign on bonus and is making $55 per month. In the same neighborhood, someone else got a $3,000 sign on bonus and is making over $200 per month. My husbands works with someone who made a $9,000 bonus and is getting a few hundred per month (not sure how much) in their neighborhood. It's funny because this thing is all about making deals. There is no certain amount. If you jump in, just know that you will not get nearly as much as you would if your neighborhood negotiates as a whole. I feel so bad for those in my neighborhood who accepted $350 just because of a pressure sale. Good luck!
We've signed on with Dale Resources, which is a part of Chesapeake. I did a lot of research on this before signing. I got our attorney to look over the lease and explain things to me. We don't have a neighborhood association, however I tried to get a group from our street to meet with them, however only a few neighbors showed up. We tried to negotiate a higher rate, however they wouldn't budge. We went ahead and signed cause we didn't know of a group in our neighborhood and didn't have the time to set one up.
At the informaional meeting put on by our City Councilwoman, we learned that the royalties won't be a whole lot. They said we won't get rich of the monthly checks. It will be like having extra money to pay on one or two of our bills-electric or water. I was told around $75-$250 a month. It depends on how much gas is pumped out and how much they get when they drill. They don't know until they get drilling, all they are doing is estimating for you what your payment might be. This will be extra money you will be getting each month. We got a $1500 signing bonus! We have a 1/2 acre. We haven't received our monthly check, we got our bonus within a month of signing.
Over time, this will help out on your child's education, if you put it into an appropriate account for saving and not dipping into it. It takes a long time for them to drill and actually get the gas. We signed in Dec 2006 and they are drilling, we pass by the drill site every day. They said it would take a 1 1/2 to two years or so to get going for them to drill and get the gas and then we eventually get our check.
If you have neighbors that are involved in a group, do that to get a higher rate. If you don't have a group, you could start one yourself, however it will take a lot of time and effort to get one going. Otherwise, settle for a lower rate and go with that. We had to settle for a lower rate at 22.5%
Hope this helps you. Good Luck
