March 14, 2018, Realtor Land Institute Post
Mineral rights are so complex that most of the time, people would instead hire a lawyer to deal with them. The bad news is, there is a lot of truth in that statement. Mineral rights can be tied up in tricky deeds going back generations. The good news? We’ve collected the most commonly asked questions about mineral rights to help you get a better understanding of one of the most complex issues in the land industry.
George Clift was recently interviewed for a question & answer article in the January 18, 2018 issue of the Farm Journal LandOwner Newsletter. See the article here.
There are other articles about the New Tax Bill and Farmland Values you may also find interesting. Click here to read the entire newsletter.
This Pipeline Easement Negotiation Checklist from the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension office may come in handy as more and more oil & gas pipelines are being built. Texas Pipeline Easement Negotiation Checklist.
Agricultural Survey…Quarterly Survey of Agricultural Credit Conditions in the Eleventh Federal Reserve District. The Eleventh Federal Reserve District consists of Texas, northern Louisiana, and southern New Mexico.
The survey shows, dryland and ranchland values both increasing while irrigated land values dropped. See the entire report here.
Land Owners and Hunters Can’t Be Far Apart on Lease Prices (LandThink.com)
Last month, the LANDTHINK Pulse posed the following question to our audience: In your opinion, what is a fair price to pay for leasing good hunting land? See the RESULTS
George Clift is in Kansas City, MO attending the National Association of Farm Broadcasters 2017 and helping out in the Realtors Land Institute booth with Chuck Wingert.
The saying goes, “Good fences make good neighbors.” Unfortunately, as many rural landowners know, fence issues also can create extremely strained relationships among neighbors.
If a cow gets onto a roadway and is hit by a motorist, can the livestock owner be liable? What should you do if there are stray livestock on your property? If a boundary fence falls into disrepair, who is responsible for footing the bill to do the needed repairs? What can you do about frustrating tree limbs from the neighbor’s tree that are hanging over your property? These are just a few of the issues that commonly plague landowners, and their lawyers, when it comes to fence law. READ ARTICLE
Tiffany Dowell Lashmet is an agricultural law specialist with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension and co-author of “Five Strands: A Landowner’s Guide to Fence Law in Texas.”
September 5, 2017 – Amarillo, Texas
The Land Report magazine recently announced their 2017 America’s Best Land Brokerage Firms in their Summer 2017 issue, and for the sixth year in a row, Clift Land Brokers made the list. According to the magazine, each year the editors of the magazine select the Country’s leading real estate firms specializing in Land.
Clift Land Brokers’ 21 agricultural land sales associates exceeded the $50M mark in land sales in 2016, primarily in the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles and New Mexico. In the same report, Clift Land Auctions was named one of the 2016 Top Auction Houses. Clift Land Auctions works closely with Clift Land Brokers to offer landowners a full range of marketing options for their farms and ranches. “In 2016, Clift Land Auctions, broke into the Online Auction scene, and it has been a great success for our auction business as well as for our clients,” said George Clift. “In October, we are blending the two auction methods together by offering online bidding and live streaming at our live auction in Kiowa County, OK.,” George added.
Tuesday morning, at 9am, Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell made the announcement that the Greater Sage Grouse will not be listed on the endangered species list. “This is truly a historic day in the history of the American West cattle business,” said Oregon Cattlemen’s Executive Director Jerome Rosa. “Through collaborative efforts by ranchers, energy companies and conservationist reducing the decline of the sage grouse habitat in 11 Western states, the need for a listing was not needed.” See entire article at AgWeb.com.
by Stephen Donnell, SR VP Lending, Plains Land Bank, Amarillo, TX
Interest rates have been about as volatile as the commodity markets in recent months. Our long term interest rates have moved up and down over three-tenths of a percent since March. Some months, it appears the Fed’s increase in short term rates is pushing long term rates higher, only to see those rates fall back the next month. Very hard to predict. We have had a number of customers recently locking in some long term money to hedge against rising interest rates. That appears to be a sound strategy, especially if you can catch a dip in rates.
As to land sales, land prices and buyer interest, it just flat depends on where you are. Areas of the Panhandle have seen some softening of land values and there are farms for sale. In other areas, the values have not backed off much, and there are very few farms listed for sale. The “crash” in land values that some feared a couple of years ago has yet to materialize, and loan demand here at Plains Land Bank is running ahead of last year.