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Who are the Best Cell Tower Lease Buyout Companies?
Who is the best cell tower lease buyout company? If we had a dollar for every time somebody asked us that… If you’re considering selling your cell site lease, it’s not always about choosing the best cellular tower lease buyout companies.
Sure, most of us have heard the commercials for J.G. Wentworth, get “cash now”, but the cell phone tower lease buyout, easement sale and lease assignment process can be a bit more involved than selling an annuity, structured settlement, mortgage note or lottery ticket. Cell phone tower lease buyout transactions or selling your cell phone tower lease rental stream can require cell tower landlords to jump over many hurdles in order to maximize the value of their cell tower sale transaction.
There are actually a few dozen cell tower buyout companies who purchase the rights to the lease agreements and rental income on properties where a cell phone tower or rooftop cellular site resides. After working with cell tower landlords and lease buyout transactions for over fifteen years and assisting hundreds of property owners with lease buyouts and assignments, we have learned a thing or two about selling your cellular tower lease and the lease buyout companies who purchase them. How do you select the best lease buyout company? Glad you asked! Contact us about cell tower lease buyout companies or call Tower Genius anytime at 1-888-313-9750, Option-2 for buyouts.
Putting the Cart Before the Horse When Shopping for Cell Tower Lease Buyout Companies?
While cell site lease buyout deals may seem straightforward, it’s often not always about selecting the right buyout company as the process can be complicated and present many obstacles for the unprepared landlord. You need to know what you have in your lease agreement before you sell it and know your exit strategy. Some cell site lease agreements contain provision and language that can impact your ability to shop the deal around or get a competitive bid or offer. And don’t expect the cell site lease buyout companies to educate you about what you are selling and what it’s worth.
Here’s some things to think about before you start sizing up cell phone tower lease buyout companies:
- Does your cellular lease contain a ROFR (Right of First Refusal)?
- Does your cell site lease have confidentiality language that limit your ability to share your lease with third parties?
- Does your cell phone tower lease require you to get the Lessee’s consent before you assign the lease?
- Do you know which subtenants (carriers) leasing space on the tower are?
- Do you have a mortgage on your property, and will your mortgage lender be cooperative when it comes time to approving an SNDA (subordination non-disturbance agreement) with the cell site lease buyer?
- Does your CPA or financial advisor understand the nuances of using proceeds from cellular tower lease buyouts to fund 1031-exchange transactions, or are they telling you it can’t be done?
- What are your chances that your attorney ends up blowing your cell phone tower lease buyout deal by asking for things that are impossible or unreasonable?
- If you inherited the cell site lease, does a buyout make sense or should you hold onto to it and collect rent for the long term?
- As a Trustee of an Estate, are the cell tower buyout firms going to provide you with a fair market buyout valuation of the telecommunications site lease before you engage them for the easement sale?
This is why we tell property owners and cell tower landlords that it’s important to get the proper guidance before you try to figure out who’s the right cell tower lease buyout company to work with, and why seeking professional guidance like we provide at Tower Genius LLC, is worth its weight in gold. Need help before you sell your cell phone tower lease? Got a cellular tower lease for sale but you don’t know what you are doing? Thinking about selling a commercial building that has a cell site on the rooftop and you are wondering what it’s worth? Get your lease buyout questions answered, call Tower Genius anytime at 1-888-313-9750 or contact us for more “offline information” about cell site buyout companies.
Which Cell Tower Lease Buyout Companies Should You Work With, and Which Companies Should You Avoid?
There are over two dozen cell tower lease buyout companies operating in the USA in one form or another. If you are a cell site landlord you probably already know who many of them are, you know, the same companies who send you emails, postcards, letters, and who call you all the time to sell them your cell site lease. Some of them are small boutique hedge funds, some are “cell site lease consultants” who also buy leases (a conflict of interest by the way) and some are fairly large real estate acquisition companies backed by billions of dollars.
Some cellular lease buyout companies are great to deal with, and some of them not so wonderful. Some telecom lease buyout companies that look like fierce competitors are actually funded by the same pool of money, so when you think you were really smart to collect multiple offers and bids, you actually are bidding against the same company. Some cell phone tower lease buyout companies have simple and straightforward transactional paperwork and in-house attorneys who are easy to work with, while others are the complete opposite. When you are a selling a cell tower rental income stream, unless you have a deep understanding and knowledge about the industry and network of buyers, you are always going to be at a disadvantage trying to sell a cell site lease on your own.
Among the leading players amongst cell tower lease buyout companies in no particular order are Landmark Dividend, Unison and Symphony Wireless. Some of the other Usual Suspects are AP Wireless and Towerpoint. Some other “lease consulting” firms like the Lyle Company, Blackdot and Md7 will also offer to buy your cell site lease if you are a Verizon, T-Mobile or AT&T cell site landlord. The Big-3 cell tower management companies, American Tower Corporation, Crown Castle International, and SBA Communications also make offers to buy cell site leases whenever they contact landlords with offers to renewal or extend their rental agreements. Additionally, many second-tier cell tower developers and tower management companies also buy cell towers and cell phone tower leases.
Who is the Best of the Cell Tower Buyout Companies Out There?
Which of these lease buyout companies truly stands out as the best? Is the lease acquisition salesperson that you are talking to from Landmark Dividend, Unison, or Symphony going to offer you top dollar right away, and how do you know the limit to which you can push the deal? And how do your chose the right company? Landmark Dividend, for instance, promotes their solid reputation for providing competitive buyout offers and reliable customer service. Unison, on the other hand, prides itself on offering innovative financial solutions tailored to the needs of property owners. Symphony touts its commitment to transparency and integrity, garnering trust among landlords seeking fair deals.
Landmark, Unison and Symphony are just examples of three lease buyout companies out there out of DOZENS who want to buy your cell phone tower lease. How do you select the best cell phone tower lease buyout company to work with when selling your cell site lease or easement? When you hire Tower Genius when selling a cell tower easement, it really doesn’t matter.
Cell Tower Lease Buyout Company 80-20 Rule
Just because 20% of cellular tower lease buyers acquire 80% of the cell phone tower leases for sale, that doesn’t mean that you will be maximizing the value of your cellular phone tower lease buyout deal. When you finally select a cell site lease buyout company to purchase your cell site or cell tower easement, you will almost always end up talking to a “VP of Acquisitions” or other lease buyout sales agent. Keep that in mind that you are working with a salesperson who is on commission. While the acquisitions agent that you are talking to usually knows that they are competing against other companies, their goal is to get you to sign an LOI (Letter of Intent) at the lowest possible selling price that you will accept without questions and without talking to other cell tower investors. They are incentivized to make their companies larger profits by purchasing your lease for less money, not more money.
If Tower Genius Does Not Buy Cell Tower Leases, Why Do So Many Cell Site Landlords Hire Us?
We are not cell tower lease buyers, yet we know the cell site buyout business better than most cell tower acquisition hedge funds, and even get hired by “Wall Street” for our insight and opinions.
It’s funny how some “cell tower lease experts” and “cell tower lease consultants” who advertise themselves as companies who can help you with negotiating cell tower leases, or provide property owners with cell tower lease rates, or help you with “cell phone tower lease buyouts” are not really operating as consultants when it comes to dealing with cell tower lease sellers. These “consultants” suddenly become acquisition companies or buyers. How can a property owner seeking assistance with selling a cell tower easement get unbiased assistance from a “consulting firm” that is also trying to purchase their cell site lease?
This is where cell tower lease sellers need to understand that many of the wireless industry’s “lease consultants” are working as cell tower brokers and they make money from you and they double-dip and earn commissions from the lease buyout companies purchasing the leases, getting paid on two sides of the transaction. There is no way that a property owner or cell phone tower landlord would ever find out that their lease buyout consultant was earning a cell tower brokers’ fee on the back-end of the transaction that was not disclosed on their closing statement.
Dealing With Cell Tower Lease Buyout Companies Simplified.
Eliminate the cell tower lease buyout learning curve if you are planning on selling your cell tower lease. The Partners of Tower Genius, Steve Kazella and Kevin Donohue have been in wireless infrastructure and cell site leasing for over 35 years and have combined cell site infrastructure industry expertise of over 50 years working in cell tower site acquisition and leasing, zoning, cell site construction project management and landlord advocacy. We’ve been working exclusively with cell tower landlords since 2008. Since we have been speaking with cell site landlords on a daily basis for the past decade and a half, we have become cell tower lease subject matter experts. Tap into our expertise and leverage our industry contacts and influence with cell tower buyers if you plan on doing a buyout anytime soon.
Avoid Buyout Consultants Who Are Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing
Many of our “competitors” have no intention of helping you sell your cell tower lease for maximum price. They want to acquire your cell tower lease before the buyout companies find out you are selling it. And many of them double-dip and get paid by you, the seller, and also get points on the back of the deal from the buyout company.
Tower Genius puts in every consulting agreement that we sign with landlords that we have no conflicts of interest. This means that we only work for you and in your best interests, and only get paid by you, and Tower Genius does not receive a penny from lease buyout companies, wireless carriers or cell tower management companies.
Working with Tower Genius LLC can mean the difference between getting a great lease buyout deal or not getting a great deal. Hiring Tower Genius can be the difference between getting the cell tower lease goldmine, or getting the “shaft” .
Let’s face it, most people don’t have the time to research the buyout industry to become a cell tower lease buyout transactional or negotiation expert when they are ready to offload their cell tower lease. At Tower Genius, we’ve had conversations with well over ten thousand cell tower landlords, we have helped over two thousand cell site landlords with their cell tower lease agreements and amendments, including hundreds who have successfully sold their cell tower leases.
Talk to Tower Genius About Your Cell Site Lease Buyout Questions Today!
Let Tower Genius review your cell site lease agreement before you sell, and make sure that you get a second opinion about your cell site lease buyout offer before you go out shopping around for cell tower lease buyout companies! Call Tower Genius now at 1-888-313-9750, select Option-2 for lease buyouts.