Cell Tower Lease Buyouts: Unison, Landmark Dividend, AP Wireless, Etc

Cell Tower Lease Buyouts: Unison, Landmark Dividend, AP Wireless, Etc.

If you currently lease ground space for either a cell tower or rooftop space for similar antenna telecom equipment, more than likely you have been contacted by a private company like Unison, Landmark Dividend, AP Wireless or other similar companies looking to buy your cell tower or similar telecom lease. You are most likely asking yourself, "Why are these companies contacting me?" Let me shed some light on that for you...

Companies like these are looking to purchase the cash flow from your cell tower lease at a discount. They make money the old fashioned way, by making money off the assets of others. These companies offer deals that are usually structured based on a one-time, lump sum payment, to be paid to you the property owner. Sounds good right? Well maybe not.

So what are these companies asking for in return? These companies want two basic things:

1) they want the right to collect the rents you are currently collecting under your present cell tower lease and

2) they want a right to control it by way of a long term or perpetual easement.

Many property owners/landlords that I have spoken to have stated that they were engaged by representatives that use certain methods that to create a state of panic that will make them more likely to dispose of their lease. How do these companies do this?

1) They will suggest that future technology (mini or micro cell phone towers) will make the cell tower or rooftop equipment located on the leased area obsolete;

2) The end is near, meaning that a near term termination of your cell tower locations is eminent; or

3) These same companies seeking to buy a property owner's lease will allude to the fact that because of a certain cell phone company's consolidation, such as the pending AT&T T-Mobile merger that this will ultimately shorten the term of a property owner's lease.

The worst mistake you can make is not having the information and proper counsel when you are presented such a lease buyout deal. You could be leaving tens of thousands of dollars, if not more, on the table that you will never be able to recover. These third party buyout companies do not want you to have the same information they do, nor do they want you to be properly represented. Get information; Get representation, Get Paid.

Hugh has over fifteen (15) years of legal/telecom experience, including representing AT&T as an attorney for over ten (10) years in that company's acquisition and disposition of telecommunication sites across North America and abroad. Hugh is the founder and president of Vertical Consultants, a telecommunications consulting firm. Vertical Consultants specializes in assisting property owners in optimizing the value of any proposed or existing cell tower or rooftop lease. Vertical Consultants invites you to learn more at www.vertical-consultants.com. Hugh can be contacted at 877-456-7552.