Who owns mineral rights has become a hot issue in parts of the Southwest, particularly in the Fort Worth and Dallas areas, where a huge reservoir of natural gas was discovered in recent years.

Right now, most of the mineral-rights purchases and leases are being made in what's known as the Barnett Shale region, which underlies 5,000 square miles of north Texas, although it's quite likely that new exploration technologies will soon be uncovering mineral and gas deposits in other sections of the country.

These rights aren't necessarily chump change either. Gas companies in Barnett Shale have been paying anywhere from $12,000 per acre to $25,000 per acre. Most involve modest royalty payments as well.

Typically, a land man, mineral-leasing or gas company representative will post signs in neighborhoods and (or) notices in the paper, advertising community meetings on mineral rights. Those meetings will be open to every resident living in a set geographic boundary where gas or minerals have been discovered.

Interested parties will typically convene at a community center, church or other large meeting place to get a briefing, ask questions and to sign-up a memorandum of intent to continue the process.

Local residents will then comprise a committee and help negotiate, as a group, the rights to obtain set per-acre fees and royalties for all sellers in that group. Some gas companies may also try to cut individual deals with homeowners. Sometimes, this precipitates a bidding war.

The whole process generally takes about a year, sometimes less. In Texas and other states, one party can own the mineral rights on a property in what's known as a "mineral estate," while a separate party can own the surface property and everything on it.

While a few developers and former land owners retain those mineral rights when certain subdivisions are built, few had the foresight to do this until recently in most affected cities. Though gas and mineral companies are careful to tell homeowners they can't assume that they own these rights, they also will privately tell you that if there was no deed or contractual stipulation attached to the previous sale of your property.

But for the most part, mineral rights are "found money." They are a great investment to buy.