Advice from anyone in a market where mineral rights reserved is common

Kerry, although not an experrt in mineral rights, I do know that many areas in Texas have large pockets of natural gas underground.  People who own this land would be reducing their property value by huge amounts and some cases, not be able to sell it were the gas rights sold away.  I had clients there who were thinking about moving here and decided to stay in Texas after he began having some serious health issues.  They had land that was extremely valuable because of those gas rights and guess they decided to sit on it for awhile too.  They had already made the decision not to sell away those rights.

I would think, depending upon whether the mineral rights were signed away forever, or for a period of time would make a difference.  It would be imperative to have a copy of that agreement to determine what the time frame on the lease is and what mineral is there and how it/would be mined.  Depending upon how much value they are receiving for how long might also decrease their property accordingly, as would some types of mining.

As far as helping your clients sell without much stress, that may or may not happen.  The majority of clients I have worked with have been absolutely teriffic.  There were a few that it became clear it working with some people would be very stressful, a few of which I chose not to work with.  Sometimes you have to make that decision.  Sometimes the stress is generated by the other side of the transaction.  Stay cool and don't let it get to you.  I always have an internal diaologue that goes like this. . . "this is not brain surgery" indicating it is not that severe or life threatening.  Or, in 5 or 10 Years, will this make any difference or I try to find the humor in the situation.  That helps more than anything.  Whatever method works for you, use it.  Getting stressed is not good for you or your clients.