It’s a Royal Life out There

Royalties. It’s a word we associate with wonderfully creative people, those who’ve written a book or a song that keeps on selling. It’s a nice addition to regular income, money that keeps flowing in. Most of us realize our artistic limitations and believe that "royalties" is a word that will never apply to us.

Yet there are royalties that apply to millions more average Americans. Among the many types are those for mineral rights. You may not have produced anything that people will continue paying to use, but your land might. Or even the land your great-aunt Julia left you in Bison Gap, Oklahoma! We live in a land rich with possibilities, and, literally, a land that is rich.

Swaths of land across the country hold the potential for producing oil and gas natural resources. It is not particularly difficult or unusual for a person to turn this unexpected richness of land into personal profit, either through selling oil and gas royalties or completely selling mineral rights to the land.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have some extra income? It’s highly unlikely any of us will have Jed Clampett’s luck, and wind up living the high life in Beverly Hills, but few of us would turn down regular checks generated through mineral royalty interests.

You may be sitting on top of a veritable mine of potential, or better yet, may hold ownership of land that you never thought to put to use (especially if you never really considered moving to Bison Gap).

Mineral content varies across the country, and one tract of land may hold more than one type of mineral. You can easily get a geologic survey that will determine your land’s potential.

If it does hold potential, there are different directions you can take. You should consider whether you want to lease the rights to all the minerals to one company, or the rights to varying minerals to different companies. You can also sell the mineral rights but keep the land, or sell the property while retaining the mineral rights.

The possibilities vary widely, but the end result is this: your land may well hold potential you never expected. And you could become one of those Americans who add royalty checks to their regular income.