Did your ship come in?

I have been reading the old posts on here and I noticed phrases like, "waiting for my ship to come in", "waiting for the big day", and "my share".  The tone of the older discussions seem to be ones of anticipation and excitement.  So tell me, did your "ship come in"?  How do you feel about the choices you made with the proceeds?  Was it life changing for you?  Looking back, do you wish you would have done something differently either with the money or with the lease?  Are royalties everything the landman promised?  

Personally, I inherited mineral rights from my grandparents that I didn't know about until the landman contacted me - so it is basically snowflake money.  I have less than 10 net acres total over a couple of different counties but the bonus I received for leased acres alone was a life changer for me.  With it I was able to pay off debt (and some bad decisions :) ), put some away in an emergency fund and take a little (much needed) vacation.  I think I have made the right choices so far but only time will tell.  None of my leases have turned into wells yet, and I am ok if they don't because if they are going to be drilled, I'd rather wait until prices come up.

I hope this isn't too personal or intrusive, I just like hearing other people's stories.

-EM

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Permalink Reply by rmc on November 1, 2015 at 2:12pm
Sure no problem I'll help in pretty much anyway I can.
I am close to Majorsville wv
Leased the Utica with the Marshall county group to Tugg Hill.
Permalink Reply by Tom Brian on November 2, 2015 at 4:51am

Well ships come by with small packages,We  have some small pieces of property (5) with approximately 100 acres combined, All are leased to G/O Company's some 3 times, still no unit or production but has made life a lot better over the last years starting in the 1990's . We feel blessed and way ahead of the game if it just stops here, At this time looks like this is going to go on for our lifetime 

  Life has been good........

Permalink Reply by williet57 on November 4, 2015 at 9:39am

I can see the ship off shore,just waiting for it to come in. Might be a few months or weeks.Who knows

Permalink Reply by Trapper on November 4, 2015 at 12:17pm
.......or years.......or decades......or never.....
0ym9x5ag7ury2Permalink Reply by 0ym9x5ag7ury2 on November 4, 2015 at 11:31pm

My ship is coming in....I can see it on the horizon... wait,   wow it's a massive Battle Ship!

Permalink Reply by M.A.B. on November 5, 2015 at 6:44am

we signed a lease 3 yrs ago. we are not getting royalties.. we paid our taxes on the lease money, then paid our mortgage and our bills off..if nothing else ever happens we still thank God for the blessing..

hey Mike...you might want to order some humble pie with that steak you are eating!!

Permalink Reply by Sherre Boyanowski on November 6, 2015 at 3:13am

Yes.

Permalink Reply by HilltopHome on November 6, 2015 at 4:33am

  I'd have to say "yes" to this. We own 40 acres in southern Monroe County, OH, though we don't live there; just "get-away" property. We fortunately owned the minerals and got into the leasing later in the game (actually were quite late even learning about the O&G activity) and so signed for $6,500/acre. A fair bit of money that we had never expected. Even after taxes it allowed us to eliminate our debt, a wonderful feeling, purchase a couple newer used vehicles, and still have leftovers for emergency funds. That was about a year and a half ago. We've now, quite recently, been contacted again about a possible well pad site and being unitized. This is obviously a difficult decision because we know how much "alteration" there will be to the beautiful landscape we've loved for over 18 years now; it will never be the same, and a small cabin we built by hand will either need to be moved to a nearby awkward location with a view of the proceedings, or we let them buy it out and it gets razed. We of course can say "no", I put a 500' setback from buildings into my lease, but then we have a significant risk of them abandoning the area, and/or not being included in the unit, in full or part. I'm admittedly a bit of a tree-hugger, but I try to be practical. My wife and I aren't getting any younger, like anyone else, we can use the $, and I want our daughter to have a nest egg as well, especially in case either of us isn't around for her later. Plus, as I said, we don't live there, and I figure it's maybe better for us to allow the damage (and be compensated) vs other nearby landowners who do live there. They may be able to reap the benefits of royalties without having to have a well pad in their backyard. Of course I know that the landman could be "snowing" me about our parcel being the only one that will work; between topography issues, which O&G holds which parcels, road access concerns, etc.; but so far I believe he's being up front and not trying to hide anything significant. They are a smaller operator in the area, Eclipse, and I've not heard any negatives about them thus far. They were reasonable to deal with when leasing (I had an attorney also), and paid the up-front promptly.   So back to the original question, yes it has been life changing thus far. And quite likely in the next year and a half, assuming we agree to the pad and the production goes well, it could do so once again. Build a much needed garage, maybe add a room on our small house, college money; lots of thoughts.

Permalink Reply by Erik V. on November 7, 2015 at 7:52am

You sound like a pretty cool person HilltopHome.  Good for you to keep a humble perspective and look out for others.  Money isn't everything for sure.  Too much greed and boasting on sites like this sometimes.  Hope everything works out for you. 

Permalink Reply by HilltopHome on November 11, 2015 at 12:25pm

Thank you. We got out to the property this weekend to see where they've surveyed and just kind of enjoy it a bit before it all changes. We're meeting with their rep (landman) in a few days to discuss details and $ some more, but we'll likely decide to let the cabin go down. I know it'll tear me up when I see it, but yes we're doing it for the cash, plain and simple. Once we talk more we'll know if much open space (for camping, transplanting some trees, I'm like a squirrel sometimes) will remain or if the topsoil piles and pipeline ROW will take what the pad doesn't). It's quite a long drive for us and always a struggle to maintain the place, plus mowing, cleaning, keeping mice out, a really horrible access road in.  We'll still have a good bit of untouched forest at least, just the higher lands, the old hay fields, will be heavily altered.   I don't mean to groan too much, we are extremely fortunate that this place has turned out to be a surprise investment we never anticipated; it's the right decision for our family, but it just messes with my head.

Permalink Reply by michael j wallbrown on November 6, 2015 at 10:40am

I am in the same crowded boat that you are in, my landman said since it has wet gas they WILL drill it just hope i'm not dead before they do

Permalink Reply by David Allen Lilly on November 11, 2015 at 2:01pm

I worked hard and thought I made it when we bought our home and 30 acres in 2006. The house was a shambles but I worked on it when I could and made it pretty nice.

The first leasing agent offered $10 an acre. I declined but they pursued me until I told them to their faces in my driveway to not contact me again or I would file a restraining order.

I don't know why they wanted us so badly, they had thousands of acres around us, including most of my neighbors who had large parcels.

I joined a landowner group when the money got to $5000 an acre but that was a bust. Our guy butchered the thing, Carrizo jerked us around for a year and then dumped us, REX came in and made a ridiculous offer and many of us left the group.

Many of us were up and down thinking we would never get leased, Oxford had things around here kind of bottled up, they had not been bought out yet.

Finally we all got paid, those of us who held out the longest got the best deals. Antero made us an offer and some promises that I doubted they would keep but they came through for us like they said they would.

Sometimes folks who work hard and play by the rules get a break, we made enough money to set things up very well for ourselves and to be able to reach out to others.

We have favorable lease terms and 12.5 acres in a unit drilled but not fracked, Chesapeake is readying the pad as I write for fracking and we are told it will go into production in April or 2016, which I seriously doubt. I would rather wait another year anyhow for prices to improve like some say they will.

This has been a tremendous blessing but it has also had its problems. The traffic here is not bad most of the time but it certainly will never be the peaceful place it was before. I had some very real and serious problems with the pipeliners and the bigger trucks for a while and ended up getting a visit from 3 sheriffs deputies.

We have decided to sell our place but keep the royalties, we will leave the home and property far better than we found it and we will be far better off for having been here.

Not perfect, but a Godsend none the less.

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