Do most of you own the mineral rights you your place?

We're looking at making an offer on a place in TN. There's no mention of mineral rights. A REA friend (not connected with this transaction) suggested I look into mineral rights before making an offer.

So, while I wait for the relator to get back to me, what is the norm here? Own your rights? Someone else owns them that you do/do not know? No clue?

I have very limited knowledge/experience with this, but in many rural areas, you may own the land, but not the mineral rights, and may not know this to be the case.  My family went through this several years back following the death of my grandparents.  it was quite an eye-opener for us.

I would specifically ask about the land you're considering, & get an answer in writing.

David

I own the rights on my little spec of land because my great uncle talked my great grandfather out of selling them for pennies they were offering. It's a big game of what if.

The title search will determine the status of the rights

DO NOT!!!!!  purchase a piece of property without hiring a title attorney to research it and then provide insurance for you.  It is worth the fee.

You should really hire a good real estate agent too.

This.

This is BY FAR the single most valuable and useful thing you're paying for with all the other junk closing fees.

Ours disclosed that there was a $40,000 lien on the property from a roofing company....that would have a been a crummy surprise.

Listen title search companies are worthless.  Not all, but most.  The state law governing them is not the best so not entirely their fault.  Tennessee only requires that a title search or insurance for the title is only required to go back 30 years for residental searches and 40 years for commerical.  Now, if someone purchased the mineral rights in 1981 and the title search didn't happen to see it, they would not be liable for not disclosing this information if something is found latter.  Do you homework go down to the court house, run it back as far as you can or have someone do it for you.  That being said I would say most of the property maintains there mineral rights, but the rights get sold off in the most strange places.  The biggest mineral rights to be had in Tennessee are limestone, phosphate, coal and yes oil to a lesser extent sometimes they are spelled out, sometimes the are very vague.  Additionally, easements also pop up in strange places.  Loss of mineral rights and easements are not required to be carried forward on a persons deed so they get lost very easy, neither are covenants.  If you have an attorney run it back, be sure and ask about mineral rights, easements and covenants and then how far back they cleared the title.

Thanks, guys.

The place we're looking at is on a Karst formation (limestone bedrock) and not really in an area where getting rocks out would be easy, so I'm not worried about someone showing up one day to start 'mining' our limestone; I just want to be fully informed before we (try to) buy.