Cell tower leases exposed

Negotiating cell tower leases is difficult when neither you nor your attorney speak telecommunications legalese. How can you be sure that the cell tower lease rate you are negotiating is fair market value? Although your lawyer may have helped you close real estate deals, handled litigation or other complex transactions in the past, and may even be a good friend, in 99% of all cell tower deals, they probably don’t worry too much. by leasing cell towers, or how to deal with carriers.

Imagine the following cell tower lease scenario. Imagine that cell phone operators and their lawyers are a pack of hungry lions. The owners and their lawyer are a young animal separated from the herd. Without the right protection, you don’t stand a chance. Wireless service providers and their attorneys will dictate their terms to you, especially if you or your attorney don’t speak telecommunications legalese. By the time you realize what is happening, it is already too late; you have agreed to the terms of your cell tower lease agreement that you are not satisfied with, your attorney has negotiated your way out of the deal, or you have moved elsewhere. Either way, you’re dead.

Here’s the scoop on cell tower lease fees cell phone carriers don’t want landlords to know. Wireless carriers pay their real estate site acquisition leasing contractors high commissions for executing cell tower leases at certain prices. The better the terms agreed in favor of the carrier, the greater the bonus paid to the lessor. Now, there is nothing wrong with this, since we live in a free market society, but if you are a property owner and an operator wants to lease you space for a tower or for a rooftop cell site, you need to make sure that is maximizing your income

Misconceptions About Cell Site Leasing:

Homeowners and property owners often turn to a cell site expert to provide them with comparative lease rates being paid by nearby cell carriers to determine what they should be getting as fair market value.

Similarly, cell phone carriers often back down during lease negotiations saying no landlord is getting what they’re asking for.

Here’s 411. Neighboring landlords with existing cell tower leases could have negotiated horrible rates and terms, and cell carriers may be literally ripping off and cheating landlords and placing cell towers wherever they can find a landlord willing to take a land. cheap rental rate, and does not reflect fair market value.

All the research and fair market value data on lease rates is completely useless if you don’t know how to play the cell tower lease negotiation game.

Think about this…

At a lease rate of $2,000 per month or $24,000 in annual rent, if you accept 2% annual rent increases instead of 3% annual increases, you will receive $132,000 LESS over the 25-year term of the cell tower lease. Now suppose you have a monopoly cell tower of 4 or 5 carriers and all your leases are at 2% instead of 3%. We are now talking about over half a million dollars in lost revenue due to the terms of the leases. OH!!

Now, here’s the minor detail that will make you laugh or cry about cell tower lease fees. The cell site acquisition subcontractor we told you about a few paragraphs ago could make a bonus of $500 to $2,500 for saving the operator the $132,000 he would have been paid if he had agreed to better terms.

Are you negotiating cell tower lease rates on an equal footing with cellular carriers?