Blogging Tulsa Real Estate: November 2009

Help!  I'm Getting Addicted to Twitter!

Years ago it was eBay.  A year ago it was Active Rain.  Now it's Twitter. 

When will I ever find time to write those thank you notes for the Open House I held ten days ago?  Probably never!  I just cannot pull away. 

I cannot help it.  The stumbling upon, serendipitous, sleuthing, finding, discovering, repeating, sharing, and connecting is somehow enjoying.

Last night while I was tweeting, someone started to follow me and I knew her!  It was my daughter-in-law's mother.  So I immediately followed her and thanked her for her follow.

Email seems slow.  Not quite as slow as snail mail.

Is there any recovery?  Is there any hope?

I can justify my tweeting now that Google is indexing Twitter.  I can say it is good for my SEO -- and it is. 

I can connect with people in my geographic area.  I can connect with people in my company.  I can connect with people in specific areas of interest.

In short, Twitter is fantastic!

I check my Klout and I check what people in my town are tweeting about.  Every day there are new exciting Twitter applications.Help!  I'm Getting Addicted to Twitter!

 If you don't believe me, follow me on Twitter at http://Twitter.com/dsolano

http://OKLandandRanches.com

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http://dsolano.homesandland.com

How Would You Improve the Title of  the Worker, Homeownership and Business Assistance Act of 2009?

Worker, Homeownership and Business Assistance Act of 2009 has a terrible ring to it.  Who's writing these titles anyway?

What ever happened to grammatical parallelism?  We should be embarrassed by this as English-speaking citizens of the world!

Am I the only one who is bothered by the sequence of nouns in the title of this long-awaited law?  If I were queen of the world, or president, my pen would have scratched this out before I signed my name to it. 

Isn't there someone on Capitol Hill with a degree in English?  I know journalism is dead, but is legislative bill-writing no longer an art form?

What ever happened to freshman composition as part of a college education?  Or perhaps the people who wrote this bill never went to class.

An entire industry has been watching this bill because of its impact on our economic security.  Couldn't they have tried a little harder to synchonize the words a bit better by making them parallel?

OK!  OK!  I admit it!  I am a snob.  I am over-educated, arrogant, nit-picking, abrasive, unfocused real estate sales associate with nothing better to do than to pick apart the work of our legislators.

What title would have been better?

Worker, Homeowner and Small Businessman's Assistance Act of 2009?  -- Too sexist.

Worker, Homeowner and Small Business Person's Assistance Act of 2009?

Laborer, Homemaker and Entrepreneur Assistance Act of 2009?

Labor, Residential Real Estate and Business Assistance Act of 2009?

I feel like I'm looking at #oneletteroffmovies on Twitter.  Give me your ideas!

http://OKLandandRanches.com

http://TulsaRealEstateWeb.com

http://NortheastOklahomaRealEstate.com

http://BixbyOklahomaRealEstate.com

http://dsolano.homesandland.com

Mineral Rights and Surface Rights in Oklahoma -- Do What Your Client Wants

If you have been following my blogs, you know I am passionate about my clients getting the mineral rights -- putting the chocolate cake back under the icing.

I showed property this week in Osage County, Rogers County, Tulsa County, Okmulgee County, Okfuskee County, and Pittsburg County to two different sets of clients.

In every case the realtors said the minerals did not come with the property, that the sellers were only selling the surface rights. 

However, when meeting and speaking with the sellers directly, in half the cases the sellers owned the minerals and were willing to convey the minerals with the property.  These sellers had minerals that were not in production.  When they sell with the "old" Oklahoma contracts used by GTAR, these sellers will be conveying the entire bundle of rights -- whether or not the realtors know what that bundle of rights contains or not.  The attorneys will be probably be using a General Warranty Deed conveying the entire chocolate cake in fee simple  or even if unbeknownst to them there is a piece or two already eaten out of the cake or not, they are planning to sell 100% of what they have, thereby conveying the property through a General Warranty Deed.

However, one seller this week refused to sell the minerals because the gas under his land was being produced and he wanted his descendants to get the little royalty checks in the future.  His land had been unitized already.  That particular property was out in the country near McAlester where a lot of gas has been being produced in the last few years.  My buyers were comfortable with not getting the minerals because they loved the house and the land.  They did not seem to really understand that just because the property is already being produced doesn't mean the D6 dozers and drilling rigs won't come onto the property in the future.  If they had bought that place they would only have been purchasing the icing on the cake because the seller wanted to sever the mineral estate from the surface estate, making the minerals personal property.

We couldn't get the deal together anyway, and so the minerals ended up being a moot point.  In the offer I put:  "Seller shall retain 100% of the minerals under this property."   To me that language using the "old" Oklahoma contract still being used by GTAR would allow the buyers to acquire the entire bundle of rights without the minerals, while still retaining air and water rights and any other rights that go along with the surface. 

There is no way I will use a "Surface Only"  contract.  Thankfully, the Greater Tulsa Association of Realtors (GTAR) has not approved the use of the new Oklahoma contracts.

Nevertheless, if I have a Single-Party Broker's agreement, I am legally bound to obey my clients and do what they want, even if I think it is not in their best interest.  You bet in such a case that I will be documenting that I inform them of the negative consequences of not getting the mineral rights.

http://OKLandandRanches.com

http://TulsaRealEstateWeb.com

http://NortheastOklahomaRealEstate.com

http://BixbyOklahomaRealEstate.com

http://dsolano.homesandland.com