Unsolicited Offer
An unrequested offer to buy your minerals, typically arriving by letter with a deadline attached and a price set without reference to competing bids.
Why it matters when you sell
An unsolicited offer is genuinely useful information: it tells you someone with capital believes your interest is worth acquiring. What it does not tell you is what the interest would fetch if several buyers competed for it, because a single offer is priced to be accepted rather than to win an auction.
Example
An owner receives a letter offering $95,000 with a ten-day signing window. Running the income multiple on their own cheques puts the plausible band at $110,000 to $190,000. Taken to market with the production history and division orders assembled, the same interest draws several bids and closes materially above the original letter — which was a real offer, just an opening one.
How this varies across the states we serve
Offer volume tracks ownership records and activity, so it is uneven across the states we serve. North Dakota and Montana owners tend to receive the most letters, because Bakken ownership is heavily inherited, frequently held out of state, and straightforward to identify from public records. Texas and Oklahoma owners receive steady volume simply because those states have the deepest buyer pools. Quiet counties in Wyoming and Colorado can go years without a letter and then see several at once, usually after a nearby permit is filed.
What to have in hand
Keep every offer letter you receive, including old ones. A file of offers over time is a useful record of who is active in your area, and it costs nothing to build.
Going deeper: The Unsolicited Offer Playbook
Related terms
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