Most are charging near half...................hence a 1.5% commission if you just list it and someone else sells it(and they get 1.5%)

3%if you sell it and list it.................plus 2 percent to the title company.

I've dealt with many, many agents. None of them have ever known anything about minerals. Much less how to go about verifying reservations, depth severances, NPRI's, etc...

'Don't know a dam thing 'bout real estate transactions. So, the only things I'll add are...

1. "Transmission" or "distribution" line? Huge difference in footprint, what happens when they need to work it, etc.

2. I've done a fair amount of real estate transactions in my life. I haven't been impressed with a stupid title company once. Not one dam time. They're idiots that make all kinds of mistakes and get to charge a ridiculous amount of money, act all lawyer-like (the actual lawyers there make the BIGGEST mistakes), AND they look down their snoot at you like "you poor, dumb rube". Yep, I am, for paying for your BS.

No. None of that.

My wife does an 80:20 with her broker. It is capped at $10k for her fiscal year. After about 1.5M in sales, she gets 100% of the commission.

So every piece of property you are involved with you go to the courthouse and run the title on form sovereignty to present?

How much is she paying the brokerage company? I'm not arguing with you as many do it differently.

And a great agent is worth their weight in gold.............problem is there aren't many. They like to list property and wait like a cane pole fisherman

Man 1 maybe 2 houses in Rockwall and no more to the brokerage firm...............I need to do this.

Get an agent to represent you. As mentioned above, the 6% is all paid by the seller. 3% to their listing agent and 3 % to your buyers agent. The agent is there to protect you and knows all the ins and outs of the laws and will write the contracts where you have “outs” should things go wrong.

I’m not an expert, but have sold a few homes on my own when I used to rehab them full time. I’m currently getting my real estate license and have one more test to go. Just took my 5th one today. There is much more to it than I ever thought when I was doing FSBO. Since it’s not costing you anything, I would most definitely suggest you find an agent familiar with this type of transaction, so they can represent your best interests and walk you through all the ins and outs.

Good luck and I hope you get the place!

yall are making this much more complicated than it needs to be and now its reached a ridiculous point.


RedChevy, My advice is to enlist the help of a agent or at the least a knowledgeable land attorney. The attorney is gonna cost you out of pocket where the agent is not.

I'm assuming this property is something more investment oriented rather than a place to run a few cows....do your homework on what you can and cannot do development wise from the property, research the electrical easement and have an attorney look over the title commitment and explain the Schedule B items if you chose to forgo representation.

ITs the OT.....................it has to go sideways

Uhh...isn't that what we all hope for?

You go down to the county courthouse and look up old O&G leases and mineral rights conveyances?

Sounds reasonable to me....that's a pretty good deal for your wife.

Yeah. The guy that started the agency she works for is 43 and started it in 2014. He has 1200 agents now. Lots of appeal to agents. Win win. They did $730M last year.

An agent familiar with land transactions would or “should” have a conversation with you about what you are wanting to do with the property. If the place is currently Ag exempt, there are some things you should know up front that might make you second guess your desire to purchase the place. For instance:

Let’s say the place is currently Ag exempt and you buy it with plans of chopping it up into smaller tracts to sell off. When you do, you will loose your Ag exemption and have to pay what are called “Rollback Taxes”. No problem you are thinking, but did you know they will charge you rollback taxes on that land for the last 5 years? Even though you just bought the property now? They really stick it to you with this 5 years back thing when you change the use of the property. That could equal $50k + in taxes you might not have ever even thought of paying. You go to the mailbox and bam... there’s this huge bill you were not expecting. A good agent that specializes in land would for sure ask these questions and inform you of this. They would also be able to put you in touch with the correct people that can tell you exactly what those rollback taxes would cost you. There are realtors who specialize in farm & land transactions and they will be up on all of this.

A realtor has a fiduciary responsibility to THEIR client, meaning they should have your best interest in mind and always be protecting you. They will write the contracts giving you “outs” so you don’t get stuck.

Again, I’m no expert. But I’m learning and hearing of all kinds of horror stories in class to watch out for.

It sounds like an exciting time, and I hope all goes great for you!

These days you normally don't have to go down to the courthouse anymore to get info but If I see something fishy or suspect on a title commitment then I will certainly order the exception documents and any other pertinent info until I'm satisfied.

Again, on a House or Commercial deal this normally isn't warranted. But on a Land purchase depending on location and intended/future use it dang sure can make a big difference or no difference at all.


This is stuff pertaining to land deals 99% of the time

Excellent point

Wow yal are right it is the ot.

I am well versed on taxes etc. The plan is rural residence a few cows and a place to shoot. It does have development potential now and much more in the future but that’s not the plan for now.

It is the OT, but it’s also a good group of guys trying to help protect one of our THF brothers so they don’t make financial mistakes. It sounds like you know what you are doing, so you might not need anyone’s help. And that’s totally your call. I have sure sold some homes myself to keep from paying the extra 6%. So I’m sure not trying to harp on you and can totally understand where you are coming from.

No doubt good folks. Way I see it you can find someone who knows just about anything on here. Thanks to all.

Nice, redchevy. Where are you looking to buy?

I'd negotiate it on your own; sounds like you are more than qualified to do so. In my experience and opinion 90% of the real estate agents out there add zero value and just suck cash out of the transaction.

Then you're not verifying mineral title. You're hoping there isn't a prior reservation. That's all. You can't simply look at a title commitment and know if there is any type of reservation. The ONLY way to do it is to index every owner of that property both ways from sovereignty to present day and examine every single deed ever involved. There are no short cuts.