Dream Home and Mineral Rights in Texas
Ever wanted to win the lottery or find your pot of gold at the end of the Rainbow? 
I did! A couple of years ago in August 2005 my husband and I found our "dream home " vacation home for now...retirement home for later, on Lake Limestone. We always had only two requirements.
•1. It had to be on the water with ½-1 acre of land
•2. It had to be in Texas, close to the family & my office Liz Carter & Team Realty, in Katy, Texas
What we found meet that and much more than we ever expected to find. A nice (after some work was done) home with around 2500 square feet, on three acres with one acre being completely on the lake, a pond, and a 
creek running behind the house. The house itself was a log cabin style with 3 bedrooms, but they are huge rooms, and you can sleep 14, which just happens to be the number of people in our family. So everyone fits comfortably if they all came at the same time, which of course is rare, but nice when we have a hurricane about to hit Houston. It has an enormous back porch and the property is loaded with giant native Post Oak trees, and wildlife galore. It is located only 2 ½ hours from Katy on Lake Limestone. Limestone country is south of Dallas about the same distance as Katy is the other direction, and about one hour east of Waco. Perfect location, house and the price was right too.
Since I hold a Real Estate Brokers license and Bill my husband is also a Realtor, we can buy or sell anywhere in the state of Texas, I knew it would be smarter to hire a Realtor to help us. We needed an area expert and, someone that was not emotional attached. It's worth the money to hire a Realtor who knows the area and gives you advice; I hired a local Realtor named Jeff I found off an ad on the Internet. After only the third time out with Jeff we found our perfect "dream home".
Of course we noticed the many drill sites going in everywhere in that area, in fact one giant rig was setting right out the kitchen window of the house we bought. It was one of the reasons the house had been on the market so long. Natural gas drill rigs are big, ugly, noisy, and all lit up at night. Jeff assured us that the wells only stay up a couple of months and are capped off, so no more eye sore or noise. That was the extent of our conversation or thoughts about the gas wells that were all over Limestone County...mineral rights were never brought up by the three "professional" Realtors. 
About six months after closing I got a call from a "Land Man" who worked for the drilling company asking me to verify I was the new owner of the property at Big Creek East in Limestone County. Of course I ask why he needed this information. His reply...Well I need to know where to mail your checks for the mineral rights you own. You could have knocked my over with a feather 
, someone was mailing me money, $675 dollars in fact and I was a mineral rights owner. I'd found my pot of gold or pot of Natural Gas in this case.
Mr. Oaks who had owned thousands of acres in this neck of the woods and developed Big Creek East and Big Creek West when they dammed the Navasota river to create a power plant for Houston Reliant Energy, which created Lake Limestone. Mr. Oaks sold off tracks of land without retaining the mineral rights, neither had the three previous owners of "my dream home". They apparently did not deem natural gas drilling profitable until a few years ago as gas prices skyrocketed, and natural gas prices with them, then they started drilling like crazy. I now get checks in the mail. The amounts keep going up and I even got an offer to buy my mineral rights for $9,000...no thanks I'll hang on to them...forever, even if I sell my "dream home", I'll be sure to retain my mineral rights in the contract.
"All Of Your Dreams Can Come True If You Have The Courage To Pursue Them."- Walt Disney
by; Liz Carter, Katy Texas 2008
. It's not that much money, but it pays the taxes, which are really low in that part of TX. Liz
well not near that much...I wish, heres a picture of my back yard I just took. The flowers are sooooooooooo pretty this yeea! Liz
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