“Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored.” — Abraham Lincoln
CELL SITE LEASE GUIDE
How Do You Respond If You’ve Received A Cell Site Lease Proposal?
You’ve been given a cell site lease agreement or option and lease agreement proposal to place a rooftop cellular communication site on the roof of your building, by T-Mobile, AT&T, DISH or Verizon Wireless, and you realized several things:
1. You realized that you know nothing about the value of the proposed lease.
2. You also realized that nobody in your family or contacts had any wireless industry insider knowledge.
3. After speaking with your attorney, you realized that although they were great at your house closing, they don’t know anything about negotiating a wireless lease agreement.
Respond to the Site Acquisition Company
You will almost never get a direct call from Verizon Wireless, AT&T, DISH or T-Mobile. They all utilize real estate site acquisition companies to secure lease agreements with building owners and property owners. Keep in mind these people are looking for multiple candidates to submit for approval to the carriers. Respond to them, take their calls and let them know you would be interested in their proposal, but don’t start negotiating anything with them. If they ask you for a number, tell them you’ll need to see their offer. This is usually a good time to reach out to us so that we can help you determine how much leverage you have in the negotiation, and what your targeted lease rate should be.
Cell site lease rates are determined on an individual, site by site basis. It’s usually safe to assume that their initial offer is not the best, but it make good sense to have Tower Genius take a look at your site and your lease. The partners of Tower Genius, Kevin Donohue and Steve Kazella have been helping wireless landlords and property owners review and negotiate their lease agreements with the big wireless carriers for over sixteen years. You can reach us at Tower Genius by calling 1-888-313-9750.
Get the cell site lease information and assistance you need in one place.
- New rooftop DISH Wireless site rent valuation and review
- New Verizon Wireless rooftop cellular leases, equipment upgrades.
- Verizon Wireless lease rate valuations for new sites and lease renewals.
- Verizon lease buyouts.
- New AT&T site lease agreements, renewals and AT&T lease buyouts.
- T-Mobile cell site lease offers, renewals and T-Mobile lease buyouts.
Typical lease provisions used by Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile in their lease agreements:
- Use
- Option Period
- Term
- Extensions
- Rent and Rental Escalations
- Access
- Taxes
- Termination
- Holdover
- Notices
- Default
- Government Approvals
- Insurance
- Indemnification
- Interference
- Assignment and Subleasing
- Remedies
- Casualty
- Condemnation
- Hazardous Waste / Environmental
- Rights Upon Sale
- Applicable Laws
- Right of First Refusal
- Subordination and Non-Disturbance
- Confidentiality
- Removal and Restoration
- Waiver of Jury Trial
- Recording
WE OFFER CELL SITE LEASE CONSULTING ASSISTANCE TO LAND OWNERS.
Cellular site lease agreements are complex documents written by lawyers who are looking out for Verizon, T-Mobile or AT&T, not you. If you are contacted by a wireless real estate site acquisition company wanting to rent your rooftop for a new 5G communications site, they know that you are probably not an expert, and that’s the #1 reason you should talk to us. Having an expert on your side levels the playing field. There is a lot more to negotiating a cellular lease than just negotiating a higher cell site lease rate.
Remember, when somebody proposes to build a cellular site on your property:
- Don’t lose their business card or phone number. Dozens of people have called us over the years asking if I know the phone number of somebody that called them six months ago. Image a dozen people who lost the winning lottery ticker.
- DO NOT sign their term sheet even if they say it’s not legally binding. The will use it as leverage against you.
- Have them send you a lease agreement in Word format.
- Schedule with them to visit your property. The goal is to get them to invest time and money into your location.
- Ask them who the carrier or tenant will be.
- Find out what it is about your location that made them select it.
- Find out how soon they plan on installing the antennas.
- Find out the length of the lease agreement that is being proposed.
- DO NOT bring up the topic of “revenue share” – that comes later in the negotiation.
Tower Genius is the premier cellular site lease consulting company that has been helping property owners with cell site lease reviews, negotiations and lease buyouts since 2008. The two owners of Tower Genius, Kevin Donohue and Steve Kazella have over 50 years of combined cell site network development, site acquisition, zoning, construction project management, and lease consulting experience. Tower Genius has zero conflicts of interest, which is very important in this industry. If you need help with a cell site lease agreement please contact Tower Genius at 1-888-313-9750.