Seller refuses to give up the mineral rights??

[Ryan Taylor]

Hello! So my wife and I are buy and hold investors in Shreveport, LA. We just recently put offers in on 2 different houses within the last 2 weeks. On both offers, the sellers countered saying that they would accept the purchase price, but would not give up the mineral rights. One of these houses was a single family home on 1.3 acres. There is active drilling within a mile of the house. I am unsure if the seller was already receiving any royalties, but he would not back down on maintaining the rights, so we never came to a deal. 

The second deal was a town home on very little land near the lake. The seller again agreed to our purchase price offer, but refused to give up mineral rights, so rejected us after we said it was non-negotiable. 

It was never made clear that the mineral rights were not included in the sale until after we had made our offers and were denied when we said we wanted the all rights transferred. I have read that there can be negative effects for future resale if a property and the mineral rights become disassociated. I am not concerned about the actual monetary amount of the royalties, but losing control of a property I am trying to own does not sound like the smart move...How often have you guys seen this happen? Is it common for sellers to refuse to give up mineral rights when selling a property?

[Michael King]

Reminds me of the movie, "There Will Be Blood". Where he was talking about using a big straw to drink the oil from underneath that preacher's land.