Certified title abstractors nationwide since 1995
When it comes to real estate, understanding mineral rights is essential for property owners, buyers, and real estate professionals. Mineral rights can significantly affect property value and use, because they determine who owns and can reach the resources underground. AFX Research searches the county land records against your parcel and reports the mineral conveyances, reservations, and leases found of record, with a copy of every recorded instrument attached.
The Short Version
Mineral rights are ownership of resources such as oil, natural gas, coal, precious metals, and other minerals found beneath the surface of a property. These rights can be distinct from surface ownership, which means you might own the land itself but not the resources below it, or the reverse.
The split happens through a severance: a deed that conveys the minerals to someone else, or one that sells the surface while reserving the minerals for the seller. Once that happens, the two estates travel through separate chains of ownership, and they can be sold, leased, and inherited independently for generations.
A severance is created by a document recorded in the county land records. That is what a mineral rights search reads.
Our Services
Every report is drawn from the county land records by a certified abstractor and returned with the recorded instruments attached, so the reserving language itself is in front of you rather than somebody's summary of it.
A certified abstractor searches the county land records against the parcel and reports the mineral conveyances, reservations, and leases found of record over the term you select, with a copy of each recorded instrument attached so you can read the granting language yourself.
Where a deed reserved the minerals or conveyed them away, we look for the instrument that did it, so the question of whether the minerals travelled with the surface can be answered from the record rather than from assumption.
Copies of the recorded deeds, reservations, leases, and assignments referenced in the report, pulled from the county record so the exact language and the recording date are in front of you.
Know What You Are Looking At
Subsurface ownership divides first into the mineral estate and the surface estate, and then into the interests carved out of the minerals. These four come up in almost every search.
The mineral estate is ownership of the oil, gas, coal, metals, and other substances beneath a tract. It is real property in its own right, and it can be owned, sold, leased, taxed, and inherited entirely separately from the ground above it.
A severance is the act that splits the minerals from the surface, either by a deed conveying the minerals to someone else or by a deed that sells the surface while reserving the minerals for the seller.
Surface rights are ownership of the ground and everything built on it. Where the minerals have been severed, the surface owner holds their tract subject to the mineral owner’s right to get at what they own.
An oil and gas lease gives an operator the right to explore for and produce minerals for a term, in exchange for a bonus payment and a royalty. It creates an interest in the land, not merely a contract.
Why AFX
AFX Research is a trusted leader in property records and title document research, searching land records nationwide since 1995. Three decades of practice, attention to detail, and a commitment to getting the record right are what set us apart.
With nearly three decades in the industry, our abstractors know how mineral reservations get buried in the granting clause of an ordinary warranty deed, how separate mineral indexes work where counties keep them, and how recording practice differs from one county to the next.
We go into the county and municipal records rather than querying a national database, because mineral instruments are frequently indexed under individual grantor names rather than against the parcel.
Whether you need a 20, 30, or 50 year term, you pick the window that fits the parcel and the question, rather than paying for depth you do not need.
Every instrument we report carries its recording date, book, and page, with a copy attached. Nothing in the report asks you to take our word for it.
How to Order
Ordering online takes a few minutes. Here is how it works.
Enter the street address, city, county, and state. An APN (Assessor's Parcel Number) is not required, but it removes any ambiguity about which parcel to search, and it helps most in rural counties where tracts are described by metes and bounds rather than by lot number.
Pick a 20, 30, or 50 year term. The longer terms matter more here than on almost any other search, because a mineral severance written into a deed decades ago still controls who owns the minerals today.
Submit the form and a certified abstractor begins the search. Standard mineral rights searches are completed in 2 to 3 business days, and rush service is available when a closing or a lease deadline is close.
Your report lists what was found of record with recording dates, books, and pages, and it comes with copies of the recorded instruments attached, so you can read the reserving or granting language rather than a summary of it.
If the tract is large, described by metes and bounds, or the question is narrower than a standard term search, tell us what you are trying to establish and we will scope a custom search before anything is ordered.
The report covers what was recorded against the parcel in the term you select. Mineral interests fractionalize through inheritance, and an heir's interest often is never filed in the county where the land sits. A clean report means nothing was found of record in that window, not that the minerals are unsevered. Determining who owns them today is a legal conclusion for an attorney.
Common Questions
Certified abstractors search the county land records against your parcel and report the mineral conveyances, reservations, and leases found of record, with a copy of every recorded instrument attached. Order online in minutes, or tell us about the parcel and we will help you pick the search term.
Questions? Call 877-848-5337 ext. 138 or email info@afxllc.com