Mineral and royalty appraisals, from people who write checks for minerals.

When an estate, a return, or a court filing needs a number for oil and gas interests, the professional handling it inherits a problem: minerals are the one asset on the inventory with no Zillow, no statement value, and no obvious way to defend a figure. That is the problem this service exists to solve. Berlin prepares written fair market value appraisals of mineral, royalty, overriding royalty, and non-operated working interests, and we prepare them the way we underwrite our own acquisitions, because we are also an active buyer who closes on these assets with our own money.

When professionals need a mineral appraisal

The most common assignment is the date-of-death valuation: establishing fair market value as of the date of passing for the estate inventory, for federal estate tax reporting where it applies, and above all for the stepped-up basis that determines the heirs' capital gain when the minerals are eventually sold. An estate that skips this step hands the heirs a tax problem years later, when reconstructing a defensible historical value is harder and more expensive than it would have been at the time.

The same work, with a different effective date, supports gift tax reporting, probate inventories and heirship proceedings, trust funding and accountings, marital dissolution and property division, conservatorships and guardianships, buyouts among family members or business partners, and internal fiduciary decisions where a trustee simply needs a documented basis for selling or holding.

Mineral appraisals for Medicaid qualification

This one deserves its own section, because the stakes are a nursing home bill. When a family applies for long-term care Medicaid, mineral and royalty interests are generally countable assets, and the application needs a documented fair market value for them. Two traps catch families here. First, guessing: an undocumented or lowballed value invites the caseworker to substitute their own, and delays or denials follow. Second, and worse, the transfer penalty: giving minerals to the kids, or selling them cheap to a relative to get under the asset limit, is a divestment inside the lookback period, and it can disqualify the applicant from coverage for months or years. Any disposition has to happen at fair market value, which means the value has to be established and defensible before anything moves.

We prepare the appraisal that documents the value for the application, and when the plan calls for converting the minerals to cash as part of a legitimate spend-down, we are also a buyer who can close quickly at a price consistent with that documented value, with paperwork an elder law attorney and a caseworker can both follow. Families in this situation are usually working against an admission date, and we treat those timelines accordingly.

How we value the interest

We start with what the interest actually is: deeds, division orders, and lease status, run against county records, because a surprising share of appraisal errors begin with a wrong decimal. We then value producing interests off actual production, checks, decline, and product mix, and non-producing interests off leasing activity, offset development, and what comparable interests have sold for. On comparable sales we have an advantage most appraisal shops do not: we are in the market ourselves, we decode recorded doc stamps into real transaction prices, and we see what buyers actually pay rather than what formulas predict. Every report states its methodology, its assumptions, and its effective date, so the number can be examined and defended rather than taken on faith.

What you receive, what it costs, and how fast

A written appraisal report identifying each interest, its valuation method, supporting production and market data, and the concluded fair market value as of the effective date, in a form CPAs and attorneys can attach to the filing it supports. Fees are flat, quoted up front after a short free scoping call, and scale with the number of interests and counties rather than the value concluded, because an appraiser paid on value is an appraiser with a thumb on the scale. Most single-estate assignments deliver within two to three weeks; genuine rush work is usually possible and priced as such, honestly.

The bench behind the number

The work is led by a career landman who buys these assets with his own money, and it does not stop there: we consult with petroleum engineers and geologists on reserves, decline, and formation questions, and we run industry-leading reserve and economics software in our evaluations, the same tools the engineering shops use. Straight answers being the house rule, we will also tell you at the scoping call when a matter genuinely requires something different, such as a formally designated appraiser for large charitable contribution deductions with strict qualified-appraiser requirements, or a particular expert profile for litigation. For the everyday work of estates, basis, probate, Medicaid, divorce, and trusts, a rigorous fair market value report built on real market behavior and real engineering inputs is exactly what the matter needs, and that is what we do.

For the professionals sending the work

Attorneys, CPAs, elder law practices, and trust officers who deal with us regularly should start at our professionals page, which covers the full desk: appraisals, title transfer, suspense recovery, and liquidations.

CPAs and enrolled agents get a defensible basis figure and a report that anticipates the questions a reviewer would ask. Estate and probate attorneys get inventory values, heirship-friendly explanations for the family, and a shop that already handles title transfer questions and suspended royalties when the estate surfaces them. Trustees and bank trust departments get valuations independent of any purchase, and a standing offer: if the fiduciary decision becomes a sale, our buying desk bids like anyone else, against the appraisal, not from it.

Send the interest list, or even one royalty statement and a county name, through the free valuation form with "appraisal" in the details box, or call or text 918-984-1645 and ask for Stephen. Scoping is free, the quote is flat, and the number you get will stand up to the person who reads it next.