If you have landed in a lucky part of the country, it is quite possible you might be approached by a mobile service carrier in order to lease the land from you and set up a phone tower on it. Now, when you are approached like this, you probably have one burning question on your mind. How much is your land actually worth, and are you getting a good deal here? You have to understand just how important your land is. There are quite a few things you need to know about leasing your land out for a cell tower to be set up in it.
Never Settle for the Initial Offer
A cell phone service provider is nothing more than a business. Like all businesses, their first offer is going to be insanely low, in the hopes that they will be able to make a profit. This price that is offered may seem a lot to you, but it can be up to 3 times lower than the actual market rate for a similar deal. These cell phone tower lease buyouts are made for the long term, and can last for as long as 30 years if it goes well. If you really want to make money out of it, you should probably negotiate as well as you can and get a lease rate that will actually make sense a few years from the present day.
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They Don’t Need Space
One of the demands that the rep for the phone company will make is for about 10,000 square feet of your land to set up shop in. They will probably give you some pretty convincing reasons for wanting this much land. Don’t fall for it. You do not want to give up that much of your property for the next 30 years. In reality, a cell tower will only take up about 300 square feet of land, which isn’t much at all. Always try to retain control of as much of your land as is possible, and drive a hard bargain if you want to profit at all from this deal.
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Co-tenant Rental Agreements
Over time, it is possible that another company will see the potential of a tower on your land. If they approach you and lease the land that the original leasing phone company controls, you are probably not going to see any of that action. In fact, the phone company will probably take in all of the money from this sub-lease and you won’t enjoy a profit off that. You can remedy this by future-proofing your rental agreement. Add a clause that gives you a percentage of any future income from other parties who lease out your land while the phone company controls it.
One mistake that is commonly made you never should fall for is to trust your neighbour. Just because your friend is also leasing their land out to a cell phone company doesn’t mean that they are the experts in the field. For all you know, they could be suffering under the yoke of a truly horrible deal. Consult with real experts and negotiate a deal that will help YOU make some money.
