# Direct Buyer vs Broker vs Marketplace vs Auction: What It Actually Costs > Comparing ways to sell mineral rights: a direct buyer, a broker, an online marketplace, an auction, or leasing instead. The real fee math on each, and which situations favor which. Source: https://www.berlinroyalties.com/compare-selling-options/ Publisher: Berlin Royalties, a veteran-owned oil and gas mineral and royalty buyer in Tulsa, Oklahoma, buying for its own account since 2014. Call or text 918-984-1645. License: free to quote and cite with attribution to Berlin Royalties and a link to the source URL. Compare Your Options ## Five ways to sell, and what each one really costs. Direct buyer, broker, marketplace, auction, or lease instead of selling. They are different products with different economics, not five names for the same thing. We are one of the five, we will tell you when we are the wrong one, and we have shown the arithmetic so you can check. [Get a Number to Compare](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/free-valuation/) [Call 918-984-1645](tel:9189841645) Full disclosure before you read a word of this: Berlin Royalties is a direct buyer. We benefit if you pick option one. We have tried to write the comparison we would want if we were on your side of it, including the parts that argue against us, and every claim below is arithmetic you can check yourself. ## The five options, side by side | | Direct buyer | Broker | Marketplace | Auction | Lease instead | | **Who ends up owning it** | The buyer | A third party the broker finds | The highest bidder | The highest bidder | Nobody. You keep it || **Who pays the intermediary** | Nobody, there isn't one | You, from proceeds | Usually the buyer's side, out of deal economics | Usually the buyer's side, sometimes both | Nobody || **Typical cost** | None to the seller | Commission, commonly a percentage; one firm we found publishes 6% | Commission not usually published | Buyer's premium and/or seller's fee | None || **Competitive tension** | Only if you shop it yourself | Broker markets to a buyer list | Multiple bidders | Multiple bidders, time boxed | Depends on leasing market || **Speed** | Typically about 30 days | Weeks to months | Listing period plus closing | Fixed sale date plus closing | Fast if operators are active || **Certainty** | High once agreed | Moderate, depends on finding a buyer | Moderate, may not clear | Lower, may not meet reserve | High || **Title problems** | Buyer often cures at its cost | Usually your problem first | Usually your problem first | Usually your problem first | Operator may cure || **Works well for small interests** | Only if the buyer has no minimum | Rarely, the commission does not cover the work | Rarely | Rarely | Sometimes || **Privacy** | Private | Shown to a buyer list | Publicly listed | Publicly listed | Lease is recorded | ## The arithmetic that actually decides it Here is the comparison people skip, and it is the only one that matters. Assume an interest that a direct buyer would pay $100,000 for. - **Direct buyer at $100,000, no commission:** you receive $100,000. - **Broker at a 6 percent commission:** to beat that, the broker has to find a buyer at about $106,400. That is roughly a 6.4 percent higher gross price. - **Marketplace where the commission is paid by the buyer's closing agent:** you have no out of pocket cost, but the buyer is bidding net of whatever they are paying. If that is, say, 5 percent, the winning bid has to be about 5 percent higher for you to end up level. **So the honest question is not whether a commission exists. It is whether competitive bidding raises the gross price by more than the commission takes.** Sometimes it does, clearly. A large, clean, producing interest in a hot area with several funds wanting it is exactly the situation where an auction or a marketplace can beat a single negotiated offer by more than the fee. If that describes what you own, we will tell you so, and we would rather tell you than buy it cheaply. Sometimes it plainly does not. A small fractional interest, a non-producing tract in a quiet county, or anything with a title problem will not attract competitive bidding, and a commission on a weak process is a pure subtraction. That is the majority of what crosses our desk. ## When each one is genuinely the right answer ### A direct buyer is usually right when - The interest is small or fractional and a commission would consume too much of it. See [small mineral interests](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/small-mineral-interests/). - Title needs curative work. Buyers who cure at their own cost turn an unsellable interest into a sellable one, which matters most in [unprobated estates](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/sell-inherited-minerals-probate/). - You need certainty or a date: an estate closing, a [care admission](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/sell-minerals-for-long-term-care/), a [decree](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/divorce-mineral-rights/), a [1031 exchange window](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/1031-exchange-minerals/). - You want privacy. A listing is public; a negotiated sale is not. - You are selling only part of what you own. ### A broker is usually right when - The interest is large enough that a percentage fee buys real marketing effort. - You want someone working for you rather than across from you, and you are willing to pay for that. - You do not want to run the process yourself and you have time. ### A marketplace or auction is usually right when - The asset is clean, producing, easy to underwrite, and in an area buyers are competing for. - You value price discovery over speed and privacy. - You can wait out a listing period or a sale date. ### Leasing instead is usually right when - Operators are actively leasing your area and you are unleased. See [the DJ Basin](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/basins/dj-basin-niobrara/) and [Columbiana County, Ohio](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/ohio/columbiana-county/), where open acreage is scarce and therefore valuable. - A bonus plus a strong royalty, with a [Pugh clause](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/pugh-clause/) and real deduction protection, beats a lump sum on a risk adjusted basis. - You want to keep the upside. Our [free lease offer check](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/lease-offer-check/) reads the whole document, not just the bonus. ### And sometimes the right answer is none of them Active permitting on your section, a young well still in early decline, income a family depends on, or a [step up in basis](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/mineral-rights-capital-gains-tax/) that has not been established yet are all reasons to keep what you have. We publish [an entire page on when not to sell](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/when-not-to-sell/), and it costs us deals on purpose. ## The one comparison nobody publishes We looked at the public sites of a dozen active mineral buyers, brokers, and marketplaces. Across all of them, exactly one publishes its commission rate, and none publishes a valuation methodology with actual numbers. Several explicitly decline to give per acre ranges at all. That is not necessarily bad faith. There genuinely is no honest average price per acre, because value depends on the specific wells and the specific section. But it does mean an owner comparing options is comparing two numbers with no visibility into how either was produced. So the practical test, whichever route you pick: **make them show the arithmetic.** Which wells, what decline assumption, how many remaining locations and at what probability, what multiple and why. Any of the five can answer that in a paragraph if they actually did the work. Our [buyer directory](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/mineral-buyers/) sets out who is who, in their own words, with sources. ### Get one number, then go compare it. Send a check stub, a deed, or a county and a family name. We will value the interest, show you the reasoning, and tell you which of the five routes we would use if it were ours. If that answer is a broker or an auction rather than us, we will say so. Free, no obligation, and no mailing list. [Get a Free Valuation](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/free-valuation/) [Ask a Landman](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/ask-a-landman/) ## Related - [Broker or direct sale, the longer version](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/broker-or-direct/) - [The mineral buyer directory and how to check any company](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/mineral-buyers/) - [Ten questions to ask any mineral buyer](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/questions-to-ask/) - [How mineral and royalty interests are valued](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/mineral-rights-value/) - [How a direct sale works, step by step](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/how-it-works/) - [Got an offer letter?](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/got-an-offer/) - [When not to sell](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/when-not-to-sell/) Berlin Royalties is a direct buyer and therefore not a neutral party in this comparison. Fee structures described are drawn from what companies publish about themselves as of August 2026 and change without notice; confirm current terms with any company before relying on them. Nothing here is legal, tax, or investment advice. Last reviewed August 2026.