Marketing of Cell Tower and Rooftop Sites
Landowners who have a tower lease or a rooftop lease for a cell site are being contacted regularly by companies that allege that they can "Market" the cell tower or cell site for future use by other wireless carriers thereby increasing the revenue on the site. Many landowners we talk to are intrigued by the possibility of getting additional rent from additional cell site users.We believe that these offers are rarely good ones for the landowner. If you have been approached by a company offering to "market" your land or rooftop, more than likely they just want to purchase your lease or get a fee for listing your property on a list. And after they purchase the lease or list the property, it is possible that you never hear from them until you are contacted directly by a wireless carrier who wants to lease your property or rooftop. At this point, regardless of the fact that the marketing company had nothing to do with getting an additional tenant on your roof or tower, instead of getting 100% of the revenue for your property, you get 50%.
We strongly recommend that if anyone suggests to you that they can acquire additional leases for you- that you ask them how many leases they have found for other landowners like you. Some companies represent that they have acquired millions of dollars in future revenue for their clients. Ask them directly how many leases they have acquired on behalf of their clients and how many clients they have. Ask how many people in their organization directly market their cell sites to the carriers. How many local representatives do they have in your city whose sole responsibility it is to call on the wireless companies? How many people do they have in the entire company whose sole responsibility it is to market cell sites to the wireless carriers?
If you have a tower that is owned by another company, ask them how they are going to be more effective at marketing your location than the tower company that owns the tower who has 50-100 people whose only job it is to keep in touch with the carriers to add more tenants to the tower.
If you come across any of the myriad of websites for represent that you can pay them a listing fee for marketing your site for wireless- ask the same questions.
Steel in the Air does not market cell sites- nor would we ever even try to. We could easily convince a few hundred of the 20,000 visitors to our website every month to shell out $100 to list their property with us- but we don't. We used to do property evaluations- and had a significant amount of interest in the service. We stopped because we could not stomach taking money from landowners who would never see anything in return for our services other than a pretty map.
If you want to increase your chances of getting other tenants on your rooftop or on the tower on your property- there are some things you can do for free. First see our page on how to get a cell tower on your property. There are links to the carrier websites where you can submit your information. Secondly, be patient. This industry is based around location, location, location- if your site is in the right location, the carriers will use it. If not- they won't. No amount of marketing will convince a carrier that your site is right for them when it isn't. And lastly, please don't contact Steel in the Air. We simply can't and won't help you market your site.
posted by Steel in the Air @ 8:39 AM
2 Comments:
What timming, I was aproaced today by a company called Unis*n offering to get me other carriers on the tower and want to buy my lease out.I have had fairly large amount offered by another company and they want a 40year lease instead of my 30year I currently have.They have offered me 50% of what ever they make.He didnt say how much they have to pay the tower owner for the lease so Im not sure what I would even get? He had to back pedal a little when I told him what I have been offered but assured me they will be intouch.I did like the idea that when the cell tower becomes not usable they would remove everything from the property where the other company still retains the leased area.I currently have the property up forsale (which is a buisness)and not sure if I need to make a deal before I sell the property or if that is a big deal. The lease is not part of the sale but is offered to new land owner.
Thanks for the great blog, very very interesting and helpfull.
Thanks for your kind comments. Please note that in most cell tower leases, the owner of the tower is required to remove the tower anyway. I don't know of any situations where Unison has agreed to remove a tower if the underlying lease did not require it.
I would suggest making a deal before you sell the property. Most real estate purchasers are fairly unsophisticated about towers and won't give you the same amount that Unison or one of the other buyout companies would I would also suggest getting multiple offers- if you need help contact us.
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