Amanda's Blog

Residents of Bedford, Texas are encouraged to attend a Town Hall Meeting being held by the City of Bedford to discuss the increased interest in drilling, production and storage of natural gas.  The meeting will be held on January 9, 2008 @ 7PM at the Boys Ranch Activity Center.  The Boys Ranch Activity Center is located at 2801 Forest Ridge near the intersection of Harwood Road and Forest Ridge.

A New Chapter to the Bedford City Ordinances referred to as "Gas Drilling and Production" will be the topic of discussion as Residents will have the opportunity to learn more about Natural Gas Exploration, the Barnett Shale, the details of the Ordinance and the impact of exploration within the City of Bedford.   

To learn more about the Ordinance visit or click http://ci.bedford.tx.us/#gasdrilling

Well, here's a little story 'bout a man named Jed.....

Mineral Rights are a big deal!  It's an even bigger deal right now if you are a buyer or seller of North Texas real estate.  I recently took a class regarding Mineral Rights and learned that my role as it relates to mineral rights while being a Realtor is simple--STAY OUT OF IT.  Yes, this is almost verbatim of what the attorney teaching the class stated.  It's too convuluted a topic to address being a Realtor, and the legalities of it are such that should I attempt to delve into it, it could be construed as giving legal advice.  By law, I am not allowed to give legal advice.  (I'm not a lawyer, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express.)

This is what I can tell you:  When I ask buyers and sellers why they want the mineral rights, most reply that either do not know or they heard it from a friend who heard of a friend that is making money from it.  The sellers sometimes think there is a jackpot of natural gas and oil sitting under the backyard swingset and the buyers are mostly concerned that if they don't have the mineral rights that they could come home one day to find the backyard torn up and drilling taking place.  

There is a lot of guessing going on about the Barnette Shale.    In the meantime, seller's aren't giving them up and buyers insist that when they buy a house, they should own the dirt as well. 

That being said, anyone who is interested in valuable information can contact a real estate attorney, a "Landman" or visit www.bseec.org for more information on the Barnette Shale and Mineral Rights. You can google Barnette Shale for plenty of information as well.

The topic of mineral rights creates so many issues that our local MLS has opted to remove any input fields that include the subject of Mineral Rights altogether. This should make things interesting.