What are the leasing rates for cell towers where your potential cell site is located? It is difficult to assess cell site lease rates because there is not much comparative data available to the public. What we can tell you about cell phone lease rates is that all cell phone carriers are trying to save money and are not paying as much as they used to for rooftop and tower rentals a few years ago.
Landlords and property owners are typically contacted by operators through third-party site takeover leasing companies who are paid to identify sites and obtain a signed lease on a new cell tower site. They are paid on the rental price and terms that they can negotiate. The better the terms for the carrier, the more potential the leasing consultant has for a bigger bonus. Translated, the worse the deal they shove down your throat, the more money they make. If they tell you they don’t get paid on a schedule that rewards them for giving you a lower lease rate, they are lying. Operator leasing companies also receive bonuses for delivering a lease quickly.
So if you’ve been contacted to install a cell tower on your property or antennas on your rooftop, time is running out. You need to evaluate the offer and find out if the offer you were given is fair, mediocre, or a stinky low offer. You should also determine if the wireless carrier has other options that you can go to in your neighborhood, which would be a better location. That will determine the amount of leverage you have on the trade. You need to answer them and you are almost always at a significant disadvantage. And they know it.
Of course, you can negotiate what appears to be a good deal at first glance, and still end up with a tough deal if you don’t pay close attention to telecom lease terms and confusing language. Chances are, you’re not an expert in telecommunications legal jargon, and neither is your real estate attorney. Cell tower lease rates vary from county to county within a state. In 2009, we negotiated multiple cell site leases with the same carrier in the New York City metro area, with negotiated leases ranging from $1,500 per month to $3,000 per month. The price difference had a lot to do with wireless ordinances and poor coverage in a critical area.
Here are examples of some recent cell tower lease rates we’ve seen being initially offered to landlords in various parts of the country for tower leases and rooftop leases:
• New Jersey, T-Mobile $1,500
• New Jersey, Clearwire $1,100
• New Jersey, T-Mobile $1,250
• New Jersey, Verizon Wireless, $1,650
• New York, Metro PCS $1,300
• Pennsylvania, AT&T $750
• Pennsylvania, Verizon Wireless $600
•Virginia, AT&T $500
• Los Angeles, T-Mobile $1,300
• Houston, TX Clearwire $900
• San Diego, California $1,400 T-Mobile
Cell tower leases offered to owners are heavily skewed in favor of carriers and are too onerous for some. However, in life and in the wireless leasing game there are two types of owners, the quick ones and the dead ones. Don’t get killed by carriers on your cell tower leases. They’ve hired gunmen to get them the best deal possible. You should not?
