Testimonials
Thank you so much! I have to say you are the first consultant that I have employed in the last 30 years that actually gave me a recommendation without the "it depends" disclaimer. You believe in your research, knowledge, and negotiating skills.
Your conclusion was my first instinct since AT&T first contacted me. I believe doing your homework is never a bad idea. I am glad your conclusion is the same as mine!
Have a great evening -- Jennifer
Jennifer from Oregon- AT&T Renegotiation and Lease Buyout Assessment
READ MORE TESTIMONIALS
Cell Tower or Cell Site Lease Buyouts
CELL PHONE TOWER LEASE BUYOUTS - As the landowner, you may receive a notice from a company that is offering to place antennas on your tower or your rooftop. The notice does not say that it is from a lease buyout company looking to buy your lease. The lease buyout companies purchase the remaining cash flow under a cell tower lease. Some tower companies like Global Signal and Crown Castle have been contacting owners as well. The transaction is typically crafted as an exchange of a one-time payment for a lease assignment or a permanent easement on the landowners parcel in exchange for the rights to collect all future rent payments from the cell tower owner. Other companies just purchase an assignment of the cell tower lease and a successor lease.
Some companies have resorted to "scare tactics" whereby they suggest that technology will make the tower obsolete in the near future. They also sometimes suggest that industry consolidation might shorten the length of what we in the industry refer to "90 day" cell tower leases. This is due to the fact that most agreements are written such that the tower company or wireless carrier can terminate the cell tower lease without penalty with 90 days notice. While it is true that the cell tower leases can be terminated, it is not a common occurrence that they will be. A number of entities have solicited owners and even signed contracts attempting to purchase cell tower leases but have gone dormant due to the unavailability of cheap capital. Please see a post we placed on our blog about the Impact of the Economy on Cell Tower Leases. As of March, 2010, most of these entities are still dormant, although a few new ones have popped up.
There are, of course reasons why a landowner might want to sell the remaining portions of the lease to a company that specializes in this type of transaction.
First and foremost is the opportunity to get cash out of your asset. These companies often can give a sizable payment when your financial institution would not. The purchasing companies can reduce the risk that any one lease will be terminated over the purchase of hundreds of leases, where the landowner could not. Landowners who have attempted to borrow against cell tower leases often find that banks do not loan against them due to the 90 day termination rights common in most cell tower leases.
Secondly, depending upon the location and the company purchasing the cell tower lease rights, the offer might be one that the average landowner with a cell tower lease would be hard pressed to turn down. Determining which situation the landowner is faced with, unfortunately requires expert review.
Third, in certain situations where a landowner has exposure to termination due to the Cingular / AT&T merger or the Nextel / Sprint merger, the sale of the cell tower leases for a lump sum can eliminate the risk that those companies will terminate the cell site lease. We can help you guage that risk and determine if the sale of the lease is right for you.
If you are interested in simply getting a better offer, contact us with the details of your lease and any buyout offer you currently have and we will be happy to see if another company will beat it. There is no cost to you, however, if you choose to move forward with an offer we bring you, we would receive a finder's fee from the company that makes the offer. This fee would be paid to us separately- so the offer you receive would be what you get. Please note that unlike other "consultants", we don't ask you to pay us a fee and then also take a finder's fee from the buying company. You can either retain us to provide a consultation for a fee or let us get you other offers to consider at no cost to you. At no time will we take compensation from you and a buyout company for the same transaction- it presents a real conflict of interest.
If on the other hand, you are interested in getting assistance with whether you should sell your cell tower lease, we can assist. Steel in the Air has consulted with over 500 landowners on cell tower lease purchase offers based on in depth analysis of the landowner's parcel and the surrounding wireless environment. We can assist you with working through the wireless side of the decision and help you determine what you are really selling. We can help ascertain what the real remaining term of your cell site lease will be so that you can figure out the true "present value" of your lease. We can tell you the history of the lease purchase market as well as where we expect it to go. We can help you answer the decision of when the best time to sell is. We have compiled a database of numerous transactions and can tell you trends in this arena. Furthermore, we can determine whether or not you are passing up future revenue that you might not have known about. The standard consultation normally runs $1000-$1500.
Please contact us for a free estimate of what a review will cost. Click here to see what many of our satisfied clients have had to say.