Comprehensive Title Research and Attorney-Issued Opinions
Comprehensive title research — surface, mineral, and leasehold in one examination — for operators, landmen, attorneys, and royalty owners nationwide. Built to each state's title examination standards, with attorney-issued opinions coordinated through independent licensed counsel. Standard reports in 7–14 days. Flat-fee pricing. Direct work, no subcontractors.
Title research that holds up to scrutiny
A mineral title report is only as good as the work behind it. Ours is the work that prepares clients to make decisions, defend positions, and close transactions with confidence.
BIC REA's mineral title work is built around three principles: thorough research, defensible documentation, and predictable delivery. Every file we deliver tells you what we found, what we could not find, and exactly what records we examined to reach our conclusions. No shortcuts, no boilerplate, no handing your project to an unfamiliar contractor in another time zone.
Comprehensive title services
Comprehensive Title Reports
Comprehensive analysis of surface, mineral, and leasehold ownership under a single tract or designated unit. Each report establishes current ownership, traces the chain of title, identifies encumbrances, and flags exceptions or open issues that warrant attention.
- Chain of title from sovereignty (or stated starting point)
- Current mineral ownership with fractional interests
- Active leases, assignments, and encumbrances
- Open title questions with curative recommendations
- Source documentation index
Chain-of-Title Verification
Targeted research to verify or reconstruct chain of title for a specific transaction or curative purpose. Used when a full report is not required but a particular link in the chain needs to be established or challenged.
- Specific link verification with source documents
- Reconstruction of broken or unclear chains
- Conflicting-claim analysis
- Documented findings with evidentiary support
Runsheets
Chronological abstracts of every recorded instrument affecting a tract, suitable as the foundation for an attorney's drilling title opinion or as a standalone reference for transactional work.
- Every recorded instrument indexed chronologically
- Grantor / grantee / instrument type / recording data
- Reservation and exception language captured verbatim where material
- Cross-references to source images
Acquisition Due Diligence
Surface, mineral, and leasehold due diligence supporting acquisition, divestiture, financing, or unitization. Findings packaged for review by counsel, banks, or boards with risk-rated commentary on every flagged issue.
- Title status across the entire deal package
- Risk-rated issue list with curative cost estimates
- Lease status, term, and obligations
- Production allocation analysis where relevant
Curative Title Work
Identification and resolution of title defects. Common curative work includes missing heirs, scrivener errors, broken chains of title, recordation gaps, and conflicting reservations. Coordinated with counsel for any actions requiring legal authority.
- Missing heir research and locate
- Affidavit of heirship preparation support
- Corrective deed coordination
- Quiet title support documentation
Florida Mineral Rights
Florida is home to a smaller mineral title market than Texas or Oklahoma, but the issues — phosphate rights, severed estates, MRTA implications — are real and specialized. We have particular depth on Florida-specific mineral and surface-rights interaction.
- Florida MRTA (Marketable Record Title Act) analysis
- Phosphate and aggregate rights research
- Severed estate analysis under Florida law
- Florida-specific recording quirks and counties
Why operators choose BIC REA
Typical 7–14 Day Turnaround
Most single-tract reports are delivered in 7 to 14 business days from confirmed engagement. Quote includes a specific delivery date. Rush turnaround available.
Flat-Fee Pricing
Standard reports run on flat-fee pricing established at engagement. No surprise change orders. Complex chains and curative-heavy work quoted with itemized scope.
Direct Work, No Subcontractors
The person who quotes the work does the work. No file leaves BIC REA. Your project does not get assigned to a junior researcher in an outsourced shop.
Source-Documented Findings
Every conclusion in the report is tied to a specific recorded instrument with citation. If we couldn't find something, we say so — and tell you what we did to look for it.
Plain-English Risk Commentary
Issues are flagged with plain-English commentary on materiality and recommended next steps. Useful for the operator, the landman, and counsel — not just the title researcher.
A Real Phone, A Real Person
When you call us, you reach the person on your file. No phone-tree triage, no waiting for a callback from someone who has to look up your case. Direct lines, fast responses.
From request to delivered report
Initial Inquiry
You send us tract description, county, and the scope you're looking for. We respond within one business day with clarifying questions.
Scoped Engagement Letter
A written engagement letter with fee, deliverable, scope, and committed delivery date. No work begins until you accept.
Research
We pull records, build the chain, identify exceptions and open issues. You get a status update at the midpoint, not radio silence.
Delivery and Walk-Through
Final report delivered with source-documentation index. We schedule a 30-minute call to walk through the findings and answer questions.
Comprehensive title questions
A mineral title report is a documented analysis of who owns the mineral interests under a particular tract of land, how those interests have changed hands over time, and what encumbrances or exceptions affect them.
Unlike a surface title report, it focuses specifically on severed mineral estates — oil, gas, coal, hard-rock minerals — and traces ownership through deeds, probate records, and instruments of conveyance, often back to the original sovereignty patent.
Standard reports on a single tract are typically delivered in 7 to 14 business days from confirmed engagement. Complex chains, multi-tract assemblies, or curative-heavy projects are quoted on a case-by-case basis with a specific timeline included in the engagement letter.
Rush turnaround is available for an additional fee when timelines require it.
Standard reports run on flat-fee pricing with the rate set by the complexity of the chain and the depth of research required. Most single-tract reports fall between $1,500 and $5,000.
Complex multi-tract projects, drilling unit analyses, and curative-heavy work are quoted on the specific facts. We provide a written engagement letter with the fee, scope, and timeline before any work begins. No surprise charges.
No. A mineral title report is a documented analysis of records — what we found, what we couldn't find, and what conclusions can reasonably be drawn from the public record. It does not insure or guarantee title.
Title insurance is a separate product issued by a licensed title insurance company. A mineral title report is typically used by operators, landmen, and attorneys as a basis for their own decisions or as the foundation for an attorney to issue a formal title opinion.
BIC REA principals have personally conducted mineral title research across more than 30 states, including the major oil and gas producing states (Texas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, North Dakota, New Mexico, Colorado, Louisiana) and an increasing volume of work in the Southeast and Midwest.
We are based in Florida and have particular depth on Florida-specific mineral title issues — phosphate rights, severed estates, MRTA implications — that not every researcher can speak to.
Yes. We identify defects in the chain — missing heirs, broken conveyances, scrivener errors, recordation gaps — and propose specific curative steps.
We coordinate with attorneys for affidavits of heirship, quiet title actions, and corrective deeds, and document the entire curative trail in the file. Where curative work requires legal authority, we work alongside your counsel rather than replace them.
Yes. A common engagement model is BIC REA preparing the runsheets, chain documentation, and supporting research, with a licensed oil and gas attorney issuing the formal drilling title opinion based on our work.
This typically reduces overall transaction cost while keeping the legal opinion with counsel where it belongs. We coordinate directly with the attorney's office to deliver in the format their opinion practice prefers.
To prepare a quote we need: the legal description of the tract or unit, the county and state, the scope you need (full report, runsheet only, curative-only, etc.), and any specific timing constraints.
If you have a previous title document or a partial chain to start from, that can reduce scope and cost. The quote arrives within one business day for standard requests.
One examination. Every estate. Attorney-ready.
What comprehensive means in practice: what goes into every report, the formats we deliver, the state standards we build to, and how a report becomes a formal Title Opinion.
Inside Every Report
Nine components, present in every comprehensive engagement — each claim traced to a recorded instrument.
- Property identification with legal descriptions cross-checked across instruments
- Chain of title from sovereignty or a defined start — every severance of mineral from surface flagged
- Current ownership and Division of Interest: working, royalty, ORRI, and NPRI with shown derivations
- Liens, encumbrances, and clouds of record
- Leases, assignments, pooling and held-by-production status
- Probate, heirship, and succession issues — a BIC REA specialty, researched courthouse-by-courthouse
- Named defects with recommended curative steps
- Assumptions, scope, and limitations stated plainly
- Runsheets, instrument copies, and ownership flowcharts as scope requires
Formats Matched to the Transaction
The same examination discipline, scoped to the decision in front of you.
- Ownership report / abstract & runsheet — the foundation for any attorney opinion
- Drilling-support package — right-to-drill analysis with the curative punch-list
- Division-of-interest support — decimal schedules built for revenue distribution
- Acquisition & lease due diligence — snapshot or full patent-to-present
- Supplemental examinations — bring a prior opinion current for closing
Built to Your State's Standards
Roughly thirty states maintain bar-adopted title examination standards defining marketable title and the treatment of severed minerals, name variances, and heirship gaps. Our work product is structured to the governing standards from the first page — which is what lets counsel adopt it efficiently.
- Texas — Joint Editorial Board standards, marketable-title through title from the sovereign
- Oklahoma — the 1946 standards, tied by statute to production-revenue marketability
- North Dakota — dedicated Mineral Title Standards: Duhig, term interests, mineral vs. royalty
- Kansas, Colorado, Michigan, and beyond — examined to the current edition that governs your tract
Attorney-Issued Title Opinions
A research report tells you what the record says. A Title Opinion tells you what a licensed attorney concludes from it — and carries the professional weight transactions and lenders often require. When your engagement calls for one, we coordinate issuance through independent licensed counsel in the relevant state, with our report as the examined foundation.
- Title Support — you have counsel; we deliver examination-ready research built for efficient adoption
- Full Package — one engagement, BIC REA research through attorney-issued opinion, coordinated end-to-end
- Drilling, division-order, and acquisition opinions
- Opinions are prepared and issued solely by independent licensed attorneys; availability confirmed per state at engagement
Tell us what you're working on
Our intake form is six tailored questions for title projects — about 90 seconds. You'll get a written engagement letter with flat fee and committed delivery date, typically within one business day.
Six tailored questions, one written quote.
Project type, role, geography, timeline, scope, and contact — that's it. The form remembers your progress, so you can finish on your phone if you started on desktop.
Prefer the phone? +1 (310) 963-1569 · Or email [email]