If you’re a cell phone tower landlord collecting rent from a cell phone tower company like American Tower, Vertical Bridge, Crown Castle or SBA Communications. These companies will usually come back to the landlord or property owner when there is about 15 years remaining on the cell tower lease agreement, and when they approach you they will offer you a lease extension or renewal amendment, typically for 50 to 99 (way to long!!!) years or they will want you to do a cell site lease buyout essentially buyout you out of the lease so they own the tower and the rent (not the land) free and clear. They don’t want to have to deal with you either way, and they offer the lease buyouts with the lease extension proposals to see if they can tempt you with cash now instead of waiting a lifetime to collect the cell tower payments. This could be a good deal for you, OR NOT, provided you know how to negotiate properly and protect your interests in the cell tower negotiations. After all, you don’t want to end up with the short end of the stick when it’s time to extend or renew the cell tower lease.
To avoid getting yourself into a bad situation, there are some specific things you should consider doing. In this post, we’ll walk you through what you need to know before you begin the cell phone tower lease renewal or extension process. With this information, you’ll have a better chance of getting a fair offer that’ll generate bigger cell tower rental income returns down the road.
How To Make The Cell Tower Lease Renewal Process Work In Your Favor
First, you’ve got to understand that you have more leverage than you think when it comes time to negotiate the terms of the cell tower lease renewal. Most wireless carriers such as AT&T, US Cellular, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile and cell tower management companies like American Tower Corporation (ATC), SBA Communications (SBA) and Crown Castle International (CCI) test the waters before discussing renewal terms, as it’s wise (on their end) to gauge how the cell tower site owner is feeling about the current deal ahead of time. The often use third party vendors like the Lyle Company, Tower Alliance, Blackdot Wireless and Md7 to contact property owners and see if they will accept modified terms or a rent reduction, rent guarantee or a cell tower “lease optimization” offer.
If you appear too eager to renew the cellphone tower contract, they may try to lowball you with a bad deal. This is one of the main reasons why you need to hire the best cell tower lease consultants when it’s time to negotiate. And that of course is Tower Genius, 888-313-9750.
Whether you hire a cell tower lease consultant or not, you should always be wary of initial offers. Do not lock yourself into a lowball deal, as doing so can cause you to miss out on incredible revenue later.
When a wireless carrier or cellular tower company puts out a lease renewal offer, you can come back with a reasonable counteroffer. Often, property owners falsely assume that making a counteroffer will work against their best interests and cause them to lose a deal. But this is rarely the case. It pays to have Tower Genius review your cell site and your cell site agreement to determine the value of your specific lease renewal and see what kind of leverage you have in the renewal negotiation Here are some the the things that will determine your leverage:
- Is it a single carrier cell tower or multi carrier cell tower?
- Who are the carrier subtenants?
- Is there potential to get more tenants on the tower?
- What would it cost to relocate the tower?
- Does the tower company have any choices where they could move the tower if needed?
- Is the cell site on a rooftop where other choices for relocation exist?
- Would the zoning ordinance make it difficult to move a carrier from one building to another nearby?
- Does the city have fiberoptic cable installed near or around the cell site and has the tenant carrier on your rooftop started installing 5G nodes at street level to improve capacity and coverage?
At the end of the day when it comes to cell tower lease renewals on cell towers in suburban and rural locations, in most situations, the cell tower company needs you more than you need them. They don’t want to pay to put up a new cell tower next door if they can’t come to terms with you. If they’re willing to renegotiate and offer a better deal, it’s likely they want to ensure the extension or renewal happens, even if it means losing a few thousand dollars annually and a signing bonus on their end.
Once you and the carrier or cell tower operator agree on terms, you can accept their offer to extend or renew the cell tower lease. Alternatively, you can accept an offer from a third party in the case of a cell tower lease buyout.
Of course if you are thinking about extending your cell phone tower lease or if you need a lump sum payout immediately to cover debts, buy a property, or put your kids through college and are thinking about selling a cell tower lease easement, talk to Tower Genius, we can help, our number is 888-313-9750.
Use The Extension Or Renewal Period To Negotiate A Better Agreement
As they say, hindsight is 20/20. In this case, many cellphone tower lessors and property owners will sign lease amendment agreements they think are good at the moment, only to find out they’re not what they seemed later. Sadly, at Tower Genius we get so many calls from cellphone tower landlords who negotiated lease renewals or who took lease optimization offers and didn’t get the proper guidance. If you want to continue renting out your property but don’t want to get taken for a ride when it is time to renew the lease, get help from the best cell tower lease consultants in the business, Tower Genius.
When you hire us there is zero learning curve, when you hire Tower Genius, it’s like stepping into the wrestling ring with zero experience and having Hulk Hogan step into your shoes. As the best cell tower lease consultants, we can negotiate on your behalf and make things work for you. Contact our experts to learn more about our process and how we can help you!