When a mineral owner reaches out to us for the first time, whether through the website, a referral, or an inbound call, our first response is almost always the same. We call back. We ask what they have. We listen.
It sounds obvious, but it is a choice, and one that runs a little against the grain of the broader mineral acquisition business. Here is why we do it the way we do.
What the first conversation actually is
The first conversation is not a pitch. We do not arrive with a prepared offer. We do not have a number in mind until we understand the situation. We ask what the owner has, how they came to own it, what questions they are trying to answer, and what they have already looked into on their own.
This takes time, usually somewhere between fifteen minutes and an hour. Longer if there is a lot of paperwork to walk through. That is fine. Most of the time we are not trying to accomplish a specific outcome in the first conversation. We are trying to understand whether we can be useful, and if so, in what way.
Why we bother
There are a few reasons we do it this way.
The most practical one is that we cannot give an owner a useful number until we understand the tract. Every analysis we do is specific to the minerals in front of us. Generic offers based on a legal description and nothing else are almost always wrong in one direction or the other. A fifteen-minute conversation usually gives us more information about a tract than a week of back-and-forth letters would.
A less obvious reason is that not every conversation leads to a sale, and that is okay. Some owners just have questions and want a clearer picture of what they own. Some are not considering selling at all. We still answer their questions. Some of those people come back to us years later when their situation changes. Some of them refer us to family members. Most of them do not become clients, and that is still a fine use of our time.
What we do not do
We do not send unsolicited letters with lowball numbers. We do not use artificial deadlines to pressure decisions. We do not treat the first contact as a negotiation position to anchor the eventual number lower.
This is partly because we have seen enough of those tactics in the industry to know they leave owners frustrated, and partly because we think the reputation of a small office is built on conversations that could have gone either way and went honestly.
What we try to leave behind
After the first conversation, our goal is that the owner has a clearer picture of what they own than they had before, regardless of whether they end up selling to us. If we have given them something useful to take to another buyer, or to a family member, or to their own decision-making, that is a good outcome.
Some of those owners come back. Some do not. We do not count it as a loss either way.
If you are thinking about reaching out
If you own mineral rights and are trying to figure out what you have or what to do with them, we would be happy to talk it through. No pressure, no obligation, and usually a call back within the same day.