You got an offer in the mail. Here's what to do.

If a letter offering to buy your minerals showed up in your mailbox, the first thing to understand is why it exists: the sender believes your minerals are worth more than the number in the letter. That is not cynicism, it is arithmetic. Buyers do not mail counties for charity.

That does not make every mailed offer bad. It makes every mailed offer a starting point.

What the buyer already knows

Whoever sent that letter has looked at public data you may not have: the wells producing around your property, new permits, recent completions, and what interests like yours have traded for. When there is a spike in offer letters, it usually means something changed nearby: a new permit, a pooling application, or a completion that beat expectations.

So the letter itself is information. Someone did homework on your section and liked what they saw.

Questions to ask any buyer, including us

Ask how they arrived at the number, and expect specifics: which wells, what decline, what activity. Ask whether they are buying for their own account or flipping the contract to someone else. Ask who pays closing costs. Ask what happens if title needs curative work. And ask for the offer's reasoning in writing. A buyer who will not show the work is telling you the work does not favor you.

A draft or contract with a long option period deserves extra caution: some outfits tie up your minerals for months while they shop the deal, then renegotiate or walk. Read for words like "option," "assignment," and lengthy "due diligence" periods, and get help you trust with anything you do not fully understand. Whether that help needs to be an attorney is a question we have weighed in on; with a buyer who shows the work in writing, many sellers find the answer is no.

How to check the number

Get a second valuation from a buyer who shows the reasoning. Ours is free and comes with the math: the wells, the decline, the activity, and the multiple, in writing, whether or not you sell to us. Compare it against the mailer. If their number is better, we will say so plainly, and you should take it.

That is not a marketing line. It is how a small Tulsa company competes with mass mailers: by being the second opinion that turns out to be worth getting.